To me, holidays are always about two things: family and food. Christmas is always intertwined with one food in particular, the cinnamon bun! Somewhere along the way we wound up baking cinnamon buns and eating them with chili on Christmas Eve. Christmas day itself was always a kind of Thanksgiving redux, so more than any other food, cinnamon buns mean Christmas to me.

The Best Cinnamon Buns in the Whole Wide World
(A Scientific Fact)

• 2 packages of active dry yeast
• ½ cup warm water (105º -115º)
• 2 cups of milk, brought to a boil and then set off to cool.
• ⅓ cup sugar + ½ cup sugar (used separately)
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil or shortening
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 egg
• 5-6 cups of all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 teaspoons of cinnamon
• powdered sugar and milk for frosting

Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add a pinch of sugar and set next to a pot of boiling water to proof the yeast for 10 minutes. Combine and stir the milk , ⅓ cup sugar, oil, baking powder, salt, egg, and 2-3 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until smooth. Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make the dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto a well-floured board and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat both sides. Let the dough rise in a warm place (preferably next to a pot of boiling water) until it has doubled, which should take about an hour and a half. Dough is ready when an indentation remains after you touch it with your finger.

Grease two 13×19″ pans (you can mix and match sizes if you don’t have this). Punch down the dough and divide into two. Roll one half into a 12×10″ rectangle. Spread half of the melted butter across the dough. In a bowl, mix ½ cup sugar with the cinnamon, and sprinkle half of this mixture on top of the buttered dough. Roll up the dough, beginning at the wider side. Once rolled, pinch the roll to seal. If the roll of dough has contracted, gently stretch it back out to 12 inches. Cut into 12 1″ slices and place in the greased pan, spaced slightly apart. Repeat these steps with the second half of the dough.

If you wish to bake at a later time, you can wrap with aluminum foil and refrigerate at least 12 hours, no more than 48 hours. If you wish to bake immediately, do not wrap with foil. Let them rise again in a warm place until they have doubled again, which should take about 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350º.

Bake until cinnamon rolls are golden on top, 20-22 minutes (30-35 if they have been refrigerated).

Top with powdered sugar frosting, which you can make by combining 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk, and 1 teaspoon or more of vanilla extract, stirring until the frosting is smooth. This should make enough to frost both pans of cinnamon rolls, though I prefer to make a smaller batch of icing so that I can ice only what I’m eating. They will save better un-iced.

If you’d like to make larger rolls, you can roll the dough into 10×19″ rectangles and cut into 9 slices. Either way, the result will be delicious.