Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls- Amazingly Good!

My mother-in-law has been known far and wide for her famous cinnamon rolls and after 30+ years of making the same, wonderful recipe... she found this one, and she hasn't looked back once. They are amazing, really and truly. Everyone that I've ever made them for has universally pronounced them the best cinnamon rolls ever... and I agree!

The Recipe

Place in bread machine in this order:

In pyrex cup measure:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 butter (in a pinch crisco works... but butter is always better)

Microwave these for 1 1/2 minutes and then pour in the breadmachine.

Then add:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 T. instant vanilla pudding
• 4 T. instant butterscotch pudding
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups bread flour
• 2 1/4 T. yeast

Set your bread machine on it's dough setting, and let it do it's magic. I find with my machine I usually need to take a spatula and scrape down the sides several times during the first few minutes that it's mixing, or some of the ingredients don't incorporate fully.

After the dough cycle has completed... remove dough to a floured surface and roll out into a large rectangle.

Warm oven for rising... I set mine to 200 degrees and then turn it off after it heats up.

Melt 1 cube of butter (I never said these were good for you) and spread evenly over the rolled out dough.

Mix about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar with 2 to 4 tablespoons of cinnamon depending on how cinnamon-ey you like your rolls. Then sprinkle evenly over the buttered dough. starting at one of the long ends, roll up your dough.

Cut into about 2 inch slices and place in your greased pan. I have found that these cinnamon rolls do better in a bundt pan or in muffin tins as the dough doesn't fully cook on the inside rolls in a 9x13 pan.

Cover and allow rolls to rise until doubled in the warm oven.

Remove rolls from oven and then preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 15 to 25 minutes. This dough is really sweet, so it browns really quickly... I've found I need to cover the rolls for most of the baking time with some tinfoil... remove it for the last few minutes... like 3 or 4 minutes, to allow the rolls to turn golden brown.

Frost with cream cheese frosting.

I make mine by softening one box of cream cheese and beating in my mixer until smooth. Then I add 1 cup of sifted powdered sugar and about 2 to 4 T of milk or until it gets to a nice spreading consistency... or more if you want to drizzle it. I also add about 1/2 tsp. almond extract. In my humble opinion a cinnamon roll just isn't a cinnamon roll without cream cheese frosting :)

ENJOY and BE BLESSED!

Love, Jocelyn