Saturday Morning Cinnamon Rolls

I love to make breakfast on Saturday mornings. Today I decided to make a recipe that I had clipped out of the newspaper a couple years ago but had lost track of and never made. The recipe below is the original, but I made some changes, so pay attention when reading the review!
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Sarah's Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:

3/4 c butter

2 tsp salt

3/4 c sugar

1 c mashed potatoes

1 c hot potato water

1 c hot water

2 packages yeast
1/2 c warm water
2 eggs
7-8 c flour
1/2 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 1/2 T cinnamon

Frosting:
3 c powdered sugar
6 T butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
6 T milk

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl and stir until butter melts. In a separate bowl, combine yeast with warm water and allow time to activate. Add yeast to potato water mixture and stir. Add flour, one cup at a time, until a soft dough forms.

1 cup flour



3 cups flour



5 cups flour

   

8 cups flour

  

Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 7 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease all sides. Cover and let rise until double, about 1 hour.



Place dough in bowl

Let rise until double

Then punch it!

Roll dough into a long rectangle. Spread softened butter over top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough the long way and cut into about 24 equal pieces.



Yes, it was huge!



Roll it up and cut

Place rolls into two 9x13 pans. Cover and let rise until double, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 until golden, about 25-30 minutes. Let rolls cool for 10 minutes. Combine frosting ingredients and spread over rolls.






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My Review

• Preparation: 2.5
• Let me make a disclaimer here, I enjoyed all the prep work! But, for the sake of a standard, this recipe takes a lot of time and work. I got a workout stirring the dough!
• Taste: 4.75
• These were delicious! So warm, gooey, and sweet! I couldn't give it a five though. I think they could have had more cinnamon flavor, and I think there's a better recipe out there. I have 3 more cinnamon roll recipes I need to try, so be on the lookout!
• Cost: 5
• This is hard to estimate, but considering I had everything on hand except the potatoes and butter, I think it was pretty cheap.
• Clean-up: 3
• Lots of dishes I must say. But I washed them while the rolls were rising in the pans, so it wasn't too bad.
• My changes
• Eggs! Did you notice that the recipe doesn't say when to add the eggs?? And I didn't realize I neglected to use the eggs until I was writing this post. They probably would have been added before the yeast was, but I can't be sure. Either way, they turned out great!
• I have a jar of yeast that I keep in the fridge, it is much cheaper that way and it lasts for 6 months. One package equals 2 1/4 tsp of yeast.
• I would definitely recommend dividing the dough in half before rolling it out, it went off the edge of my counter!
• Instead of 1 sup sugar, I used 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar for the filling. I love brown sugar and I thought it would make the taste richer.
• I didn't have two 9x13 pans, so I used one 9x9. The ends of the roll produced smaller cinnamon rolls, so they all fit. I ended up with 24 cinnamon rolls.
• After the rolls come out of the oven, the middles will be sticking up. You can leave them that way or just poke them back down like I did (see above pictures).
• I added an extra tablespoon of milk (to make 7) to the frosting, I thought it needed to be a little thinner.
• It's a big batch! So I stuck a dozen of them in the freezer to enjoy later!
• Summary
• Delicious cinnamon rolls! Be prepared for a time investment. The first stage took me an hour, then I went back to bed while the dough was rising lol. Then the next part took me about an hour too. Of course, it was the first time I had made them and snapping pictures takes extra time. Add in 90 minutes of rising and 25 minutes of baking and they took a while. But I loved it! So throw on your apron and give it a try!