BETTER THAN CINNABON CINNAMON ROLLS RECIPE - (4.5/5)

Steps:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook; add the water, sugar and yeast. Swirl to combine. Allow yeast to bloom, about 5-7 minutes. This is important. Make sure your water is between 110 and 120 degrees F. In the meantime: Melt 6 TB of butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Combine buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat with a fork until eggs are mixed. The butter may start to cool and chunk up, this is normal and OK. Once the yeast mixture is bubbly and frothy, add the buttermilk mixture to bowl of stand mixer. Mix on low and add 4 cups of flour, one cup at a time. Add the salt. Once flour is mixed in, add remaining flour slowly until dough becomes a ball and completely pulls away from the walls of the mixer. Your perfect dough ball will clean the bowl. Mine takes 5 ½ cups total. Knead dough on medium-high for 5 minutes. Ol' Blue (my KA mixer) has a tough time staying locked during this step, so I have to hold it down and I typically only knead it for 2-3 minutes in the mixer and do the rest by hand, about 2 minutes by hand. Lightly dust a large cutting board with flour. Turn dough out onto the floured cutting bard and knead a few turns, shape dough into a ball. Coat the inside of a large bowl with the remaining 1 TB of room temperature butter. Place dough into bowl upside down, flip dough over and cover loosely with plastic wrap and drape bowl with a towel dampened with warm water and another towel draped over the damp towel to seal in heat. Set bowl in a warm place in your kitchen. Allow dough to rise for 60-90 minutes until nearly doubled in size. Meanwhile combine brown sugar, cinnamon and organic corn starch in a medium bowl. Stir with as fork until combined. Set aside. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough a few turns, then using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 18" tall x 24" wide rectangle. Spread softened butter around dough leaving the bottom 1" unbuttered. IMPORTANT that you do leave a 1-inch section of the dough unbuttered. Sprinkle buttered dough with brown sugar mixture, leaving the bottom 1" uncoated. Press sugar mixture into dough by gently rolling with your rolling pin. Starting at the top, tightly roll dough toward you, using the last 1" to seal roll. Cut dough roll in half and then cut those halves in half, giving you 4 pieces. Cut each of those pieces into 1/3rd. You will have 12 pieces. I use a bench knife/scraper to "Cut" the dough into sections. Grease (2) 7"x 11″ baking dishes. Place rolls in pans evenly spaced out, 2 rows of 3 rolls in each. Make sure to put the end pieces upside down. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and drape a towel over pans. Set pans in a warm place and allow rolls to rise another 60-90 minutes until rolls have doubled in size and are touching. You can use 9×13″ pans, but the rolls don't rise enough to where they touch, and they don't taste as good unless the rolls get smooshed together. This is why I use smaller 7″x11″ pans. Preheat oven 350°F. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. In the meantime prepare frosting; add cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugar, lemon juice (and zest if using), vanilla and salt. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Remove rolls from oven. Spread 1/3 of the frosting over each pan of rolls, leaving a third left to slather on each time you decide to eat one of these babies. Allow to cool slightly and enjoy. These will last up to 4 days in the fridge. But I doubt they'll last that long in your house! ;)