I make cinnamon rolls freestyle. That means I make the dough, a cinnamon-sugar mix (just to clarify I like to use 2/3 brown sugar and 1/3 white sugar and as much or little cinnamon as you like, no cinnamon creates caramel tasting rolls/buns), and melt some butter then just start making them!
This site from King Arthur Flour has good pictures and recipes for doing them at home, I do them in bulk, you know 300 or 400 at a time!
King Arthur Blog - Cinnamon Rolls
I don't use flour to form, roll, or flatten the dough. Just a little oil or no-stick spray on my hands. Then I beat the dough down after it has risen double in size. Smash it out (flatten it) with your hands until it resembles a rectangle. Pour a little melted butter and squeegee it all around the rectangle then sprinkle your cinnamon & sugar mixture around on top of that. Yes, it will be messy but who cares? Its a cinnamon roll!!!
Roll it up and start cutting your cinnamon rolls out of it... Make sure to roll them real tight but don't worry about how much the mess on your hands is sticking to the dough. That's trivial.
If you want to be more precise (but why? The dough is going to swell and rise again so who cares if the cinnamon roll is not perfectly round?) you can use thread or floss to slide under the log of rolled-up dough then pull the strings together on top until it cuts everything between the circle of string. (kind of like choking somebody from behind with rope on a scary movie except that you carry all the way thru with pulling the string till the formed cinnamon roll pops off the end of the log!).
They make them pretty close to the way I do, using a soft white bread dough recipe. Where they use milk to spread on the dough for the cinnamon-sugar mixture I use melted butter, which makes it more caramel-y. (yeah, that's not a real word)
Use parchment paper for easier clean-up in your pan, pyrex, or glassware. Yes, it's available in your 'home' size at the grocery store along the same aisle as plastic wrap and foil.
Well here are pictures of the ones I make, hope they make you hungry and inspire you to try your own. Quit buying those ones at the grocery store and get over your fear of yeast!
This chafing dish - 2.5" steam table pan holds approximately 24 rolls, I made about 15 of these pans. None came back.
As you can see there is a good color on the cinnamon roll sides and easy cleanup with the parchment paper
Pull one out to reveal the soft bread and see the dough has cooked
Do you want to keep that thick rich creamy white look to your glaze? Add in some cream cheese to your basic powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract recipe.
Another trick is to NOT glaze them but put pecans (or nuts of your choice) in the bottom of the pan before putting cinnamon rolls in, then after baking flip them over on a plate or tray and have pecan covered sticky buns with the caramel tasting syrup running over the 'bottom' now turned top.
These are from scratch cinnamon rolls folks, please, please do not go trying to make a 'diet' or non-fat version of these or making them with wheat flour, there are CINNAMON ROLLS for crying out loud!
*(actually besides the butter that adheres to the cinnamon-sugar mixture -which is also substituted by milk sometimes- and maybe a small amount of oil in the bread dough, there is no fat just loads of sugar in the icing!)
