She Will Go From Scratch

I've heard about people who make cinnamon rolls from scratch, but I never really understood them.  Pillsbury and Cinnabon make some mighty tasty cinnamon rolls, why mess with success?  We love to make breakfast on the weekends when we are home and I really wanted to try something new.  After searching through Pinterest, Matt kept asking about the Overnight Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls.  I took a look at the recipe and while it had a lot of steps, nothing seemed too difficult so we decided to give it a go.

Overnight Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
Degree of Difficulty: 8
Mess Factor: 9
Taste: 8

There are a LOT of steps with this process and several resting periods, so making these the night before is definitely recommended.  First you make the dough and allow it to rest for an hour.  Once the dough has rested, you will roll it out into a large rectangle and brush it with a LOT of butter.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, but we had a ton leftover, so I would stick with a 1/2 cup or 1 stick.

Once the butter is slathered on, the next step is to sprinkle a combination of sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon all over the dough.

If you are following the directions you would also add crushed pecans and raisins, but we opted to skip this because I don't really care for pecans and Matt doesn't really care for raisins.  After tasting the final product, I do think pecans would have been a good addition.  They would have added a good crunchy texture.  Once the dough is saturated in butter and sugar, roll it up starting from the widest end.

This step wasn't difficult, so much as messy.  I am fortunate enough to have cleaning people come once a month and we made this the night after they came, so it just felt like we wasted all of that clean counter!

Once the dough has been rolled up, slice it into 1 to 1 1/2 inch sections.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 inch pan and place the cinnamon rolls into the pan, swirly sides up!

Leave some space between the cinnamon rolls and leave them out for another hour to allow the rolls to rise a little more.

If you are making these same day, you can put them in the oven after the hour of rise time.  Otherwise, put a lid on your pan and place them in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, take the rolls out of the fridge and allow time for the rolls to come to room temperature.

 

Once the rolls have come to room temperature, put them in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.  While the rolls are baking, make the caramel sauce.  Pour the caramel sauce over the rolls immediately after taking the rolls from the oven.  It will seem like you have too much caramel sauce, but keep pouring.  The caramel seeps down into all of the nooks and crannies to saturate these babies in sugary goodness.

These rolls are incredibly rich.  You can literally taste butter and sugar in every bite!  I could not eat more than one, but my caramel-obsessed husband ate two!

Even though they were a LOT of work and the cinnamon rolls from a can are delicious, these are worth it.  Not something I would make anytime I get in a cinnamon roll mood, but definitely something I would try again for special occasions.  Matt's family grew up eating cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, so I would definitely contemplate breaking out this recipe to spice up that holiday tradition!

Make sure you have plenty of milk on hand to enjoy this beauty!

Is there anything you have ever wanted to try and make from scratch?  Any luck?  Was it worth it?  One day I do want to make croissants, but I have a feeling that day is FAR away!

Lori