This week I made my grandma’s recipe for cinnamon rolls to celebrate National Cinnamon Roll Day (which was on Sunday, October 4). I enjoy Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls a lot, but I decided to go with homemade cinnamon rolls this week to celebrate the holiday. I think this recipe is pretty simple and makes a lot of really delicious cinnamon rolls!

To the left, you can see how my cinnamon rolls turned out after I frosted them with a cream cheese frosting. If you aren’t a huge cream cheese fan, you can use whatever type of icing you like to top these delicious cinnamon rolls. 🙂

To start these cinnamon rolls, put 3 cups of flour and 1 ounce of dry yeast into a large mixing bowl. Over medium heat in a saucepan, mix together 1 and 1/2 cups of milk, 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Stir these together until the mixture is warm.

The next step is to pour the warm liquid mixture into the flour and dry yeast bowl. Then, add two eggs to the bowl as well, and beat the mixture for 30 seconds at a low speed, then 3 minutes at a high speed.

The final step to finish the dough is to stir in 3 and 1/2 cups more flour by hand to the mixture we just finished beating. When you finish stirring in the flour, place the dough in a clean bowl with a damp towel covering it. Let the dough rest until it doubles in size. This usually takes about 2 hours in my house, but if you are baking in a warmer environment it may take less time to rise.

While the dough rises, you will want to make the topping for the dough. In one bowl, blend together 2 cups of brown sugar, 4 teaspoons of cinnamon, and 4 tablespoons of melted butter. When the mixture is evenly blended, set it off to the side for use later.

When the dough has reached the desired size, take it out of the bowl. The dough should be a little bit wet, but you will still want to knead it for a few minutes so that it can be rolled out flat. When flattened, you will want to spread the topping we made earlier evenly across all of the dough, then divide the dough into slices so that it can be rolled in the pan. I like to use a pizza cutter to make nice, even slices. If you like thicker cinnamon rolls, make the slices wider; if you like thinner cinnamon rolls, make the slices skinnier. As you can see to the right, I enjoy thicker cinnamon rolls.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a baking dish of your choice to get it ready for the cinnamon rolls. While the oven is preheating, take your slices of dough and roll them up in a spiral shape to create rolls. Lay all of the rolls in the pan, touching slightly, but still leaving room for growth during the actual bake.

The cinnamon rolls will go in the oven for 13-14 minutes, or until they are golden brown. You can see in the picture above that I like mine to be a nice shade of brown on top, so I sometimes leave them in the oven for 15 minutes, but if you like a softer cinnamon roll, take them out of the oven sooner.

I enjoy cinnamon rolls on a chilly weekend morning, so I was happy to be able to make this recipe this week. With cooler weather coming our way, consider making these for yourself! They sure can warm up a chilly fall morning, and I love the way the fill my house with a delicious, cinnamon aroma. Thanks for reading!