Awesome Cinnamon Rolls

My friend Molly and I love cinnamon rolls. No. I don’t think you get it. We. LOVE. Cinnamon. Rolls.

One summer, we both worked in SF, our BART stop was Montgomery. Right by the BART station, there was this place that made incredible fresh cinnamon rolls. We used to go there maybe once a week in the morning before heading off to our separate internships. It was sublime – WAAAAAY better than anything like you get at Cinnabon.

Yummmmmmmmm!

But then, we were hooked. Like, once you’ve had a really good warm, gooey, sweet, cinnamon-y, delightful roll, you cannot go back to what some places pass off as cinnamon rolls, but are not.

Since that summer, we have literally gone on multiple hunting missions to find yummy cinnamon rolls. We never came back with anything like what they sold at that place by the Montgomery BART. It was so disappointing, because when you want a cinnamon roll, nothing short of a cinnamon roll will do.

Every now and then, I will IM Molly, talking about how I could really use a cinnamon roll. Then we both end up with distracting cinnamon roll cravings, 3000 miles apart. We usually accept our fate that our cravings will go unmet.

But not this time. NOT. THIS. TIME.

I was blog-surfing and checked out Sew Dang Cute Crafts, who had JUST COMPLETED A CINNAMON ROLL RECIPE TEST!!! Sew Dang had baked hundreds of the blessed things to find the best recipe. And then told us how we could skip to the cinnamon roll holy-land without doing all the leg work ourselves. Hallelujah!! I then mosied over to the winning recipe at Pioneer Woman’s blog. I sent Molly a link to the recipe, and then promised myself to make them that weekend. And then eat them. And then blog them. And I did. All was right in the world…

These rolls were AWESOME! Like, I may or may not have licked the pan to get every last morsel out of there. These were sweet, gooey, cinnamon-y, warm, dense, but still light, melt-in-your-mouth awesomeness in a pan. And, they really weren’t that difficult to make. So freaking worth it.

Two things I may change the next time I make them: 1. I will put fewer rolls in each pan. Pioneer Woman warned me about that, but I didn’t listen. That wasn’t a huge mistake though, it just meant the glaze layer didn’t cover as it should. 2. I may use a cream cheese frosting instead of the maple glaze. I liked the maple glaze, but it was a little sweet. Besides, anyone who reads my blog knows just how I feel about cream cheese frosting.

Oh, and I guess a third thing: I halved the recipe, thinking to myself, who on earth would need 7 pans of cinnamon rolls? But ladies and gentlemen, I regret halving that recipe. My thighs may be thankful, and my arteries too, but nonetheless, one of the dumbest decisions of my life. Within 30 minutes of the things coming out of the over, I had already fed a whole pan to my various grad student neighbors. Then I took the other pan with me to NYC for the weekend for the boyfriend. Boyfriend was a happy camper.

I only wish that Molly could have been there to partake in the cinnamon-roll goodness.

So Molly, this one’s for you. And next time we are in the same place, we are making ourselves some cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon roll-y love,

Rachel