yeast

The breakfast of dreams. The snack of choice. The food you bake in secret so you don’t have to share. The second helping ( or third) that you hide in the laundry room to eat so the kids don’t see you. That was just an example that I made up, no I have never done it. Pinky swear.

I have fiddled with my recipe enough that I am finally ready to share it with you and I couldn’t be more excited!

I am going to start though by telling you that no, there are no typos in the ingredient list. Yes that is a lot of yeast. It’s how they are able to be finished in just over an hour from start to finish. Yes that would use quite a few of those little yeast packs they sell in the store and they aren’t exactly cheap. I want you to get a Costco or Sams club card. Whichever is closest to you. If we are going to continue our discussion on frugal cooking and grocery shopping you need to know that I shop there for a lot of our food. Yeast is one of those items that I will never buy in small packs again. EVER. Did you know you can buy yeast in 2 pound packs at Costco?! Yes, yes you can! And the best part? Are you ready for the best part? Those 2 pounds cost around the same as 4 of those little packs you get in Wal-Mart. I was blown away by this. I pour my opened package into a Tupperware container and store it in the fridge. I have yet to have the yeast lose it’s yeasty-ness either.

Ok, so as long as we agree that you need to get a club card we will continue our discussion on the scrumptiousness soon to come. This recipe is actually really easy and makes a wonderfully soft roll. If you eat too many you will also develop a soft roll but I’m not going there because these are too wonderful to pass up just because you are afraid of a couple extra pounds. Decide now that you will do some extra sit-ups and move on! Trust me! They are worth it!

(almost) 1 hour Cinnamon Rolls recipe makes 24 rolls

Mix and let set for 15 minutes:

3 1/2 C. warm water

3/4 C. sugar

1/2 C oil

6 Tbs yeast, yes that is Tablespoons.

At the end of your 15 minutes it will be nice and foamy.

Now add the following:

1 Tbs. salt

3 eggs

9 1/2 C. flour

Mix it all together and knead until mostly smooth. This is a stickier dough than usual so it won’t be perfect.

Let rest for 10 minutes.
Divide in half and roll out into rectangles.

Spread dough with melted butter. I like to use 1/4 cup on each of the rectangles and this last time I added a couple drops of vanilla to the butter before spreading it on. It turned out really good!
Once you have it smothered in butter cover it in cinnamon,

Then sugar.

Roll it up tight then cut it into 12 equal sections.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and smoosh ’em down a bit.

Let rise for 12-15 minutes.

Bake at 350 until lightly golden.

While these are baking you can mix up the icing! Yay icing!!

Icing:

1/4 C. butter

1/8 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

6 cups powdered sugar

enough milk to make it the consistency you like.

Mix all of these up to your desired consistency. I like it runny enough to pour over them instead of having to smear it on.
Now comes the second best part.