Weeknight Baking: Giant Cinnamon Rolls

What do you do on a Friday afternoon when you're not working and have nothing to do but wait for a baby?  Once again...bake!  Not sure why I decided that turning on a 375 degree oven was the best idea on an 85 degree day, but looking back, I'm certainly glad I did. 

Ever since I bought Joy the Baker's cookbook, I've been eyeing her giant cinnamon roll recipe.  My reluctance to attempt these rolls earlier was out of sheer laziness.  The recipe calls for the use of a KitchenAid mixer to help properly formulate the dough, and with mine was buried on a shelf somewhere in our basement, it seemed not worth the time and energy to dig it out and haul upstairs.  But after spending too many a summer day lounging around uncomfortably, watching more TV than I'd care to admit, perusing every blog under the sun, and still having time to spare, it seemed fitting that it was indeed time to break out the mixer and go for it!

The recipe was pretty straightforward, and easy enough to follow, albeit time consuming.  I prepped the dough before an outing to Target, so it as ready and risen once I returned which seemed to cut down on the wait time.  The filling is simply scrumptious, and I was intentionally a little heavy handed with the cinnamon, which proved to be a good decision.  Ultimately I ended up scrapping the icing - I've never been a huge fan of icing on cinnamon rolls, preferred the clincher be the ooey gooey cinnamony-ness inside the roll. 

Not to toot my own horn but these cinnamon rolls were damn good.  I must give credit to the creator herself, kudos once again on an easy-to-follow, well written cookbook.  I might just have to pull a Julie & Julia copycat and make my way through this cookbook as Joy's recipes are unanimously delicious and I've always been able to follow with great success.  Hooray!  

Bottom line: breakfast in my house has been AMAZING the past few days!!

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