A Wonderful Day

I worked Monday through Wednesday and had yesterday and today off. Unfortunately, I had trouble sleeping both Monday and Tuesday night so I had some LONG days at work. Thankfully, I got a good night's sleep on Wednesday and had the day off yesterday (as well as today). I tutored in the morning for three hours. Before my tutoring student arrived I decided I would throw some ingredients into my new bread machine (recent thrift store buy) to make cinnamon roll dough. After tutoring, the dough was ready so I made the cinnamon rolls and baked three pans of them. MMmmm mmm good! I haven't had homemade cinnamon rolls in WAY too long. Growing up, we used to have them every Sunday morning for breakfast. That tradition ended when I was in high school. I'm thinking it's a good tradition to begin again. If you would like a wonderful cinnamon roll recipe, read below. They're really not hard to make and they freeze well so 1 batch can last a few weeks depending on the size of the family eating them. If you want to try the recipe but have questions, feel free to ask. These rolls are delicious!

Cinnamon Roll Dough

In small bowl mix:
¾ cup hot water
2 packages of yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
Let these ingredients stand until foamy.

In large mixing bowl: cream together (with cake beater):
½ cup sugar
½ cup margarine
½ teaspoon salt

After creaming above mix add and cream together:
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
Add yeast mixture and:
2 cups flour
Mix well. Add:
2 cups additional flour (dough hook) knead for a long time to break down gluten.

Preheat oven to warm for 5 minutes. Grease the bowl, flip. Cover with cloth. Let rise 2-3 hours until doubled.
Punch down the dough and let rise for 10 minutes. Get 2 or 3 cake pans ready.

In each pan put ¼ cube of butter and ¼ cup brown sugar. Place on top of burners on low until butter is melted. Remove.

Cut dough in half. Roll flat, butter, cinnamon, sugar (I used both white and brown to make it more caramelly), optional: raisens and chopped nuts. Roll up and gently cut into 12 pieces. (Will make 24 total when you do both halves)

Place in pans and turn oven on to 350. Place pans on stove and let double for 30 minutes.

To freeze and heat later cook 20-25 minutes until it’s barely brown on top. If you use dark pans, heat less because they brown faster. Remove and flip upside down onto tinfoil. Scrape pan drippings back onto rolls. Double wrap in foil to freeze.

To eat it immediately cook fully until brown on top. About 30 minutes.
Icing:
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
Drop of almond extract