Bake Easy Peasy Cinnamon Rolls

These are the cinnamon rolls that I make for Christmas morning.  I don't make them any other time during the year and if we don't have them on Christmas morning, well, I don't know what happens if I don't make them because I've never gone there.  We just have them.  Always.

This recipe is a slightly adapted version of the original recipe found in  Beat This!  -- a really fun cookbook written by Ann Hodgman.  I received the cookbook as a present from my childhood friend Lynne in the early 90s (I'm assuming it was then because the book was published in 1993).  I think there have been revised versions since then because mine doesn't look like the one pictured in the link above...  anyway,  look for it in your library or local bookstore!









Here's what you need (don't cringe when you read the ingredients list, be bold, these are really really good!  Just enjoy how incredibly easy and non-labor-intensive they are!)

• 2 tubes Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (original)
• 3/4 c light brown sugar
• 6 T butter, softened
• 2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg

Here's what you do, sometime on Christmas Eve:

Cream together the sugars, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg, mixing the ingredients together well until you have a smooth paste.

Remove the dough from the tubes.  Unroll the dough into sheets, gently separating each larger sheet into 4 rectangles.  You should have a total of 8 rectangles.

Spread each rectangle with an equal amount of the butter & sugar mixture.  Then roll up each rectangle into a log, starting with the short end.  You're almost done for tonight -- wrap each log in a piece of plastic wrap and put them all in the fridge overnight.

I haven't added all the rolls to the baking dish yet.

On Christmas morning, when you are an hour or so into the presents, take a short break and finish the cinnamon rolls.  Remove the logs from the fridge, take off the plastic wrap, and cut each log into 6 equal slices.  You'll have 48 cute little rolls!  I usually bake ours in a Pampered Chef large round stoneware baker...  the original recipe says to use a 9x13 pan but that you'll need to put some aluminum foil in part of the dish to take up some space since you want the rolls to sit nicely close together.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes but check them at 25 minutes.

I usually drizzle on confectioners sugar icing just to make them really decadent (mix confectioners sugar together with a little milk until desired consistency).  Yum-O!!