Mastering the Art of Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Last year, I read the book Julie and Julia. I never saw the movie, I always wanted to...but I guess I never got around to it. I figured that reading that book would invigorate my love for cooking and that I would become a world-famous chef in no time! haha- and then I woke up. I have found that while I am still learning the art of cooking, I really do prefer baking instead.

Ryan and I usually buy good ol' pre-made cinnamon rolls in the freezer aisle at our local grocery store. And when I feel really special I get the Cinn a Bon ones that have the extra creamy cream cheese frosting...mmmmm...ok- back to the subject. I figured this time that I would try my best to make home made cinnamon rolls instead!

Here's my process: (and here's a link to the recipe)

Step 1: Make the dough

Now, note to self: if you are just making cinnamon rolls for you and the hubs- you only need to make one batch- not 2, because when you make 2- you end up with 4 dozen cinnamon rolls- enough to feed an army.

Step 2: Make sure the dough sits covered as long as the recipe says, and make sure to use an industrial strength mixer- our hand mixer wasn't strong enough to mix it all completely- so I had to use pure brawn to get it to this consistency.

Step 3: This is what we call the oozing station. When you get ready to roll out the dough, I highly suggest an oozing station. Do you see that brown/yellowish liquid towards the top of the picture? When Ryan helped me roll these out, we loaded the dough with cinnamon and butter, so we made sure the runoff had a place to go.

Because of the amount of bowls, spoons, mixing utensils we used- this is what the kitchen looked like half way through the process. YIKES!

Step 4: Ok, so I didn't give you an exact play by play of the cinnamon roll creation, but you get the point. Here they are ready to go in their greased up pans for baking.

mmmm- don't they look delish?
Don't worry- they were.

Small sidenote:
I must also admit that I probably read the Julie and Julia book because Amy Adams was on the cover- she's my favorite. When I saw her in Enchanted- I about lost it. I want to be her-she's just so delightful in every way. Or maybe I want to be Giselle? I would look good as a red head! :)