Cinnamon Rolls!

You faithful readers know that I am a big fan of Pioneer Woman. With the holidays right around the corner, I really wanted to make some cinnamon rolls to serve my family for special occasion breakfasts. Once I saw PW's recipe with heaps of butter, loads of cinnamon, and maple flavored icing, I knew I'd stumbled upon something great.

I emailed some girlfriends to see who would join me in my culinary expedition, and, thankfully, everyone was game! I joked it was like a Food Network Challenge: seven adults, ten kids, 320 cinnamon rolls--can they pull it off? Well, with our fabulous, gifted and beautiful baking team ( Susan, Kelly, Mel, Bridgette, Sarah & Rebecca), I can say we did! At only two and a half hours and 41 tins of rolls later, I think we were all pretty proud.

The yeasty dough requires a few hours of preparation and rising, so Suz and I whipped them up the night before. Here are a few batches all rolled out and ready for filling:

To the top of the rolled dough we added melted butter, sugar and cinnamon, then rolled it up from the far long side, squeezing that buttery goodness out in the process (don't Susan and Kelly have wonderfully slender and delicate hands and fingers? Gorgeous!):

Even our big boys got involved, helping out in whatever way they could.

The Big Ts were expert rollers:

Sam was an expert mess-maker. (To each his own, right?) I think he is also a closet connoisseur of raw scraps and congealed butter/sugar/cinnamon goodness.

Here are our pans, rising and waiting for their turn in the oven:

And, finally, the maple-glazed, oven-baked, sweet-smelling, great-tasting (so I'm told; no sugar for me!) cinnamon rolls!

Thanks, ladies! I think we should definitely make this an annual event!