Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch

Let me begin this post with a word of warning: if you have no intention of getting married anytime soon, do not make these. Because no matter who you make them for--even if it's just yourself--you will end up on the receiving end of a proposal. "Why can't I be married to me??" I distinctly remember thinking as I pulled these out of the oven. Why can't I indeed.

So, upon making these little guys, I learned two things:
1. Cinnamon rolls are not nearly has hard or laborious an endeavor as the folks at Pillsbury might have you believe.
2. I need a wife. (Will need to work on the whole being attracted to women thing, though.)

Okay, enough of my neuroses. On to the baking! Here's how you make 'em.

Ingredients:
1 packet yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
6 tbsp very soft butter

1 stick melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp (approximately) cinnamon (I used the saigon variety)

special equipment:
a 9 inch round cake pan
rolling pin
pastry brush

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add to flour and stir to combine. Using a dough hook on your mixer, add in the sugar, salt, milk, and eggs and mix over medium-low until the dough is no longer super sticky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, to gather mostly around the hook. This will probably take about 7 minutes or so. If it looks too tacky, add a bit of flour until it's the consistency you want. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and transfer it to a large, buttered bowl. Cover in plastic wrap and let it rise for 90 minutes in a warm place.

Okay, now's the good part!!! Punch down the dough and place on a floured work surface and slap it into a ball, sprinkling it with a tiny bit of flour as you go. Then, begin kneading in the softened butter, until it is thoroughly combined. (If you find this difficult, you can use the mixer, but I highly recommend the whole slathering your hands in slathered butter thing. It is oddly pleasurable.)

Now, put it back into the buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest overnight.

Go to bed and dream sweet cinnamon coated dreams.

Wake up!

Remove dough from the fridge and roll out into a 9x16 rectangle.

Brush GENEROUSLY with melted butter, sprinkle with 1/2 cup sugar and about 2 tbsp cinnamon.

starting with one long side, roll as you would a jelly roll toward the opposite side. Cut off the funky ends and then slice into 8 even pieces. Place in a buttered 9 inch cake pan and cover with well buttered plastic wrap. Let rise for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350.

Brush tops of cinnamon rolls with butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and bake atop a jelly roll pan for about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with glaze made from 1 cup confectioners sugar, 3 tbsp milk, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.