BREAD:

Start by warming milk and melting butter. After that, add milk, yeast, eggs, sugar, and melted butter to create a yeast mixture in the standing mixer’s bowl.

Then weigh out flour and add it to the yeast mixture in the bowl, making sure to add the salt to the standing mixer bowl last.

Knead the dough for 18 minutes on low in your standing mixer. Set a timer because this step is very important to the success of your dough.

While the mixer is kneading, use butter or an oil like avocado or olive to lightly grease the bottom and sides of a bowl. You’ll want at least an 8 quart bowl because this dough rises high.

When the timer goes off, transfer the sticky dough to the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and let it rise for at least 30 minutes, no more than 1 hour. If you use plastic wrap, let is lie loosely on the bowl’s top. This dough will rise pretty high! Give her some room to grow.

Lightly dust a clean countertop with flour and turn out the dough onto it. Gently stretch out the dough with your hands to create a rectangle, leaving dough about 1/8 inch thick. Do the best you can. You can use a rolling pin but I found it easier to just use my clean hands.

FILLING:

Whisk together brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Now spread the sugar mixture over the dough all the way to the edges.

Start with the edge closest to you and begin rolling the sugared dough into a log. When you've almost completed the log, use the last edge to bring it up and towards you to seal the log. Then pinch the seam closed, including the two ends so all the sugar mix stays inside the log.

Using a knife or a vegetable cutter, cut your log into 10 equal pieces, about 1.5 inches thick.

Place your cinnamon rolls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Allow the cinnamon rolls to rest and rise for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven in the meantime to 350 degrees.

After rest, put the rolls in the oven for about 21 minutes or until as golden brown as you desire. I do like my more noticeably brown AKA more done, so 21 minutes did it for me and my altitude in North Carolina.

ICING:

While your rolls are baking, make your cream cheese icing. In a small sauce pot on the stove, add cream cheese, sugar, and milk to the pot. Allow it to warm low and slow for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Break up the cream cheese with a whisk (can be the same one as with the cinnamon sugar mixture) while stirring.

Just before rolls are done, use the immersion blender to finish blending up the cream cheese right in the sauce pot. Doing this makes the icing a little thicker as the milk tends to make it more watery. Blend for about 1 minute.

Turn off stovetop and remove rolls from the oven. Allow cinnamon rolls to cook for 10 minutes before adding the icing.

Serve with a cup of hot coffee and a smile. Makes 10 cinnamon rolls. ENJOY!