Diet Demolishing Cinnamon Rolls

With Pecans

Without pecans, for the kiddo ♥

So.. I have had a pretty busy few days, which is why its been a little bit since I posted anything. Now that I had a chance to actually cook something I decided I would try out some cinnamon rolls!

I had a great recipe for dough.. but I wasn't really sure what the best kind of filling would be (obviously something sweet). So I was kneading out my dough and my Dad walked in and said something along the lines of, "oh boy, your grandma used to make THE best cinnamon rolls ever", so obviously I gave her a call. She told me what she put inside of hers, and I went to work! And I need to just go ahead and say.. that I call my grandma pretty much any time I need advice on baking.. she is amazing.

Anyways.. lets get to the recipe! ☺

This makes about 20 cinnamon rolls
Ingredients for dough:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 ¾ cups all purpose flour
• 1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast

Ingredients for filling:

• 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• about 1½ Tbsp cinnamon
• about a stick and a half of room temperature butter 
• chopped pecans (optional)

Ingredients for glaze:

• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 4-6 Tbsp milk

Instructions:

1. For your dough.. Mix your milk and water into a container and microwave for about 30 seconds, so it is warm (When doing this make sure it doesn't get too hot.. you don't want it to kill your yeast). Then mix in your sugar in the same container until dissolved. At this point pour the mixture in a kitchen aid mixer (or bowl.. whateva works) and then added the yeast, and gave it a quick stir. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes or until its nice and foamy on top.
2. Once that is foamy, add your egg, butter, and salt. Mix this together for a bit so its starting to get all kinda mixed together. Now little by little add your flour. I used the dough attachment on my kitchen aid and it was super easy. This is the first time I have ever used that attachment.. yes I know.. how could I never have used it before?!?!?
3. When your dough is all clumped together you will want to knead it on a floured surface, just to make sure its mixed up really good.
4. Let it rise for about an hour.
5. Now that your dough has risen.. punch it down.. great way to relieve stress ☺. Now roll out your dough on a floured surface into a rectangle. I rolled mine out to about 1/4 inch thick. And honestly mine wasn't a perfect rectangle.. the ends were a little smaller than the rest once it was rolled it... but its all good.
6. Now.. for the filling! MUAHAHAHA!!! SUGAR!.. ok.. Once your dough is rolled out, take your room temp butter and just smear it all over the top of the dough. I discovered the best way to really spread it around was to just use my hands. And it might seem like a lot of butter.. but its ok.
7. Now mix together your brown sugar and granulated sugar. And once that is mixed you are going to want to spread it all over on top of the butter. 
8. As far as the cinnamon goes.. it is kind of hard to put a measurement on it. But I am assuming I used about 1½ Tbsp or maybe a little more. What you want to do is just use the "sprinkle" part of your cinnamon container to sprinkle cinnamon over the sugar. You obviously don't want a thick coat.. it would be grose.. I just sprinkled a little over the top. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, then just mix about 1½ Tbsp of cinnamon in with the sugar before you spread it.
9. At this point I sprinkled chopped pecans on half of it.. since I knew my son wouldn't like it with nuts.
10. Now.. roll it up! Once it is rolled up you will want to use a sharp serrated knife to cut it into about 1 inch sections. You can place them in a baking sheet or a cake pan.. but they will rise to about twice their size while cooking, so don't squeeze them too tight.
11. Let them rise for about 30 minutes.
12. Now bake them in the oven for 18-20 minutes at 350°.
13. When you take them out of the oven mix up your glaze! It will be easy to tell when you have the consistency right. And drizzle it over the tops of all your cinnamon rolls!

As you can see from the pictures I even put the little nubby ends in the pan.. I din't want to waste even a tini bit of this yumminess.

ENJOY! Thanks for reading!