Holiday Baking: The Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls

I love to bake but I find every excuse not to throughout the year. No time, watching what I eat, no one will eat it, are just a few of my excuses. Sound familiar? When the holidays come around I throw all of that out the window and start finding excuses to bake. 

I've had my eye on The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe for a few years and decided it would make the perfect small gift for close friends and Amelia's teachers at school. Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls, right? 

I picked up the supplies for two batches on Saturday night. {believe or not I still had to send my husband to the store the next morning for more butter and powdered sugar} 

I made the dough that night and left it covered in the fridge to roll and bake first thing in the morning. 

This part is pretty simple but time consuming because between each of the 3 steps you have to let it sit for about an hour. Sunday morning I started at 5am with Christmas lights and music to set the mood. 

First, I preheated the oven and left some butter on the stove to start the melting process and then I started rolling out the dough. 

Yum! Notice all that butter on the stove! Next, roll that dough, cut it and place in your butter lined pans. {I know you wouldn't expect any less butter from The Pioneer Woman}

You may have a little cinnamon/sugar/butter ooze but it's okay, embrace it ;)

I threw these bad boys in the oven and got started on the icing. Her recipe for maple icing calls for a 1/4 cup brewed coffee. It's kind of different but I went with it because, I mean, she clearly knows what she's doing. 

Next time I would make sure I had some lighter coffee to use instead of the dark roast that I had on hand or I might just use an 1/8 of cup of a dark roast. I liked the flavor though and couldn't really taste the coffee. 

Amelia was up at this point and jumped in to help mommy roll out the rest of the dough. 

I really dress up while baking as you can see. 

Here is one of the finished products. I was able to make 19 pans from the two batches and believe it or not I may have to do another batch because I still didn't make enough for everyone on my list! 

I'm actually looking forward to it though because it was such an easy recipe and I definitely want to make some for my parents when they come in town next week. 

For some legit instructions head on over here and let the pro show you how it's really done. What do you bake for your family and friends during the holidays? I'm adding this one as a Christmas tradition for our family.