Gaston’s Tavern Giant Cinnamon Rolls

• Mixer (one with a dough hook will make your life much much easier) and bowl
• Rubber scrapers
• Rolling pin
• 2-3 saucepans
• Microwave safe bowls
• An area big enough to roll them out
• 2 metal sheet pans with edges
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Medium sized bowl for filling
• Liquid measuring cup

The nice thing about the recipe is it uses pretty basic ingredients that you likely already have at your house. I went to Aldi and bought nearly everything just to see and it was about $20. And of course you’re not going to use a whole bag of flour or carton of eggs, so in reality it’s probably even less expensive.

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 1/2 Cups Milk
1/2 Cup Butter
6 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour Divided
2 Packets Rapid Rise Yeast .25 oz Packets (2 ¼ tsp equals one packet)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup water
2 Large Eggs
1/4 Cup Melted Butter

Filling:
2 Cups Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
1 Cup Butter Softened

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8 oz Pack Cream Cheese
1/4 Cup Butter
3 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

2 Cups powdered sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
Pinch of salt

Butterscotch Topping:
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Step by Step Instructions for Cinnamon Rolls:

First and foremost – wash your hands ya filthy animal!

Dough:

Melt the 1/2 cup of butter with the milk. (I honestly did this in the microwave in a glass bowl rather than on the stove top)

Once the butter has melted, remove from heat (or microwave lol) and allow to cool slightly.

Put 2 1/2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt to your mixing bowl and mix until combined.

Add water, eggs, and the warm butter/milk mixture. Be sure that the buttermilk is not too hot or it will kill the yeast. Mix well.

At this point if you have a dough hook, I would recommend attaching it in lieu of the paddle. The dough is very sticky and it’ll make your life a lot easier.

Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough starts to form a ball.

Knead/Mix with the hook for 5 minutes.

Grab the dough out of your bowl, sprinkle some flour in the bowl, and plop the dough back in the same bowl to rise for 10 minutes.

Filling:

Put the brown sugar, cinnamon, and softened butter (mine came from the fridge so I microwaved for about 30 seconds) into a bowl. Mix well. (I ended up using my hands just to get that spreadable consistency I was looking for, but please god wash your hands first).

 

Remove the cat from the cupboard that you forgot to close after you got the bowl out for this step. And wash your hands again, ya filthy animal.

Assembly:

This should go without saying, but sanitize or cover with parchment paper the area where you’re going to roll out your dough. Then, roll out the dough into a long rectangle. You want it to be much longer than it is wide to achieve the giant size. She doesn’t need to be a perfect rectangle, just do the best you can. 

 

Spread the filling evenly across the whole surface.

Starting at a short end and roll the dough like a jellyroll – that’s hamburger style for all my midwesterners.

Make a cut in the very center of the long roll, and then evenly(ish) divide the pieces depending on how giant you want to get.

Place the rolls, swirl down, in a greased edged sheet pan. I’m a loser who only has one pan so I tried to squeeze the others into muffin tins. You can do whatever you want with the rest of the dough – you may want to make more normal sized rolls or just make a whole load of giant ones. The muffin tin kinda worked, but they got a little crispier than I would have liked.

Melt 1/4 cup butter and drizzle over your dough. Allow your rolls to rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 Degrees F. Bake for 20 minutes. Take them out and cover loosely with foil and bake for another 10 minutes. The foil helps to make sure the inside of the roll gets cooked through without the outsides getting too brown (thanks, Great British Baking Show).

While the rolls are baking, start working on your toppings.

Cream cheese frosting:

In a saucepan, add cream cheese and 1/4 cup butter. Melt. Adding 3 Tbsp of whipping cream may help them melt more smoothly. Add the powdered sugar and stir. Once incorporated, add the vanilla and a pinch of salt and remove from heat.

Butterscotch topping:

In a saucepan, add the brown sugar, butter, and cream. Bring to a boil and maintain for 5 minutes stirring frequently. DO NOT let it get too hot. If you boil it for too long it will become toffee and get all crunchy and crystalized. Remove from heat. Add the salt and vanilla.

Once the rolls are done, drizzle the cream cheese frosting in one direction, then drizzle with butterscotch in the other direction.

 
 

Because the rolls are truly giant, you may need to check the middle and keep them in the oven a little longer. The foil helps keep them from burning on top if you need that extra bake time. Mine ended up taking closer to 35 minutes total. But also, are you really mad if they’re kinda gooey in the middle?

Enjoy!