Cinnamon Rolls in Durango

cinnrolls1These cinnamon rolls began their life in Amarillo, Texas and will see the end of their days in Durango, Colorado.  My family,all 13 of us, are spending the week in Durango.  My brother-in-law’s family has about 80 acres of land just outside of the city that backs up to National Forest which means that we are completely isolated in peaceful, beautiful, glorious nature…well, I still have internet access and cell phone service.  It is incredible out here and I am going to really enjoy the next 7 days of vacation.

My parents, my sister, her husband and my nephew all drove up to Amarillo on Friday evening to stay the night.  I decided to make cinnamon rolls for Saturday morning before we left for Durango.  I found this recipe for “Overnight Cinnamon Rolls” on the Food Network website, from Alton Brown.

I started the rolls on Friday night.  The dough was nice and soft after mixing it up, and so I set it aside to double in size which, according to the recipe, should have taken between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.  Not so, Alton!  I let the dough sit, covered, in my kitchen for almost 3 hours and it increased a little, but not near double.  I was ready to admit defeat and I was prepared to make a trip to Donut Stop on Saturday morning.  I decided to keep going with the rolls and see what would happen.  Maybe there was still some hope.  I rolled out the dough, brushed on some melted butter, sprinkled the cinnamon sugar filling, rolled the dough into a cylinder and cut the rolls into 11 pieces (it should have been 12, but 11 would have to do).  I placed the rolls into a 9×13 pan, covered the pan in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for the night.

In the morning, there was no change in the size of the rolls.  Ok, so now I was REALLY thinking we’d have store bought donuts for breakfast.  But I continued with the recipe, letting the rolls sit in the oven with a tray of boiling water for 30 minutes.  No rising occurred in this time either.  But I was determined to finish this recipe to the bitter end, so I baked the rolls for 30 minutes…a miracle!  They finally spread out, rose nicely, turned a golden brown, filled my house with a warm cinnamon aroma and were practically begging for some cream cheese icing.  I spread the icing on the warm rolls, and they were ready to be eaten.  We did not finish the pan, so we brought them in the car up to Durango and just finished them off.

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