Dinner Roll Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 bag frozen rolls. I used Rhodes dinner rolls
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 to 6 tablespoons hot water

Directions:

I’m not a skilled baker so there will be no fresh dough for me, but a nice alternative is frozen dough. I rely on Rhodes dough—I love the combination of sugar and yeast in their recipe.

Usually I would say use a “loaf,” but in my desire to avoid the grocery store, I seized the opportunity to use a partially used package of frozen rolls by the same brand. Now that I have done it this way, it’s the family consensus that I do this every time. I’ll take it as a happy blessing in this difficult time.

The night before (it was about 8 hours all together), I placed the dough balls into two muffin pans. In one pan there was enough to put one dough in each slot and in the other, two dough balls each. I placed them in the fridge overnight.

When I woke up, and checked on them, they hadn’t risen but were sort of ready to rise, thawed out and kind of chewy.

I sat them out to get them to room temperature and prepared the oven for a quick rise. Heat the oven to 200 and turn the oven off. Pour hot water into a brownie pan.

Melt the butter completely in a pan and then add the sugar and ground cinnamon. Stir thoroughly and cool for 1 minute.

Melt another 2 tablespoons of butter and coat the bottom of a 15×9 cake pan. Sprinkle sugar over it until you have a thin layer over the bottom. It will make the cinnamon rolls delightfully buttery.

I took each ball and rolled it out, 3 inches long, about 2 inches wide.  Scoop a teaspoon or so of the mixture, roll it up, placing it in a SIZE cake cap on, swirl side down. Don’t worry if it’s misshapen or lopsided. I promise it’s not going to matter.  Fill another ball and roll and snuggle it up to the one you just did. Continue until you have used all the dough. When you are done, your cake pan will be 2/3 or ¾ full.

Put the ready-to-rise dough in the oven that has been preheated and turned off, along with the pan full of water. Leave the door closed for 60-90 minutes. Use your oven light to check it if you can so the heat doesn’t escape.

Use this time to make your cream cheese glaze.

Bring the butter to room temperature. Add sugar and extract and stir. Then, add one tablespoon at a time of the hot water until it’s the consistency you want. The hot rolls will melt the glaze but you can always add more water to dilute it later. Set it on the stove to keep it warm.

Once the dough has expanded to the size of the cake pan, it’s time to bake. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and pop it in. 15 minutes later, (or when it’s golden brown) your rolls are done!

Glaze your rolls and serve. The insides will be a bit more gooey and the outsides drier. Perfect for anyone’s taste. Let me know what you think!