Cinnamon Rolls

• Start by bringing all the ingredients to room temperature if they were refrigerated. It's best to keep the refrigerated ingredients on the counter 30 minutes prior to baking.

prepare the dough

• In a medium pan, heat milk, oil and sugar over medium flame till just below boil. Or you can scald to 150 °F. Set aside and allow it to cool until lukewarm.
• Sprinkle the yeast and allow it to sit and froth for about 5 minutes. To this mixture, then add 4 cups of flour and stir until just combined using a wooden spoon. Cover it with a kitchen towel or cling film and allow it rise in a warm place for an hour.
• If you do not have ground cinnamon like me, then grind it yourself. In all probability it wouldn't grind very fine. If it happens with you too, then combine the already roughly ground cinnamon with powdered sugar and grind again. This time you will get fine powder.
• After an hour, add remaining ½ cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir mixture thoroughly. I used my hands to bring all the ingredients together. You can even refrigerate the dough at this point for upto 3 days.

shape the rolls

• Prepare a working counter by sprinkling generously with flour. Divide the dough into two.
• Take one dough and using your hands, shape it into roughly a rectangle. Then with a rolling pin, roll the dough thin, maintaining the rectangular shape. Ideally the longer sides should be facing you.
• Drizzle melted butter over the rolled dough. I used a spatula to evenly spread it.
• Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough from the longer side toward you as tight as possible for firmer shaped rolls. You may need to use both your hands and proceed slowly. Pinch the seams to seal it. Turn over the roll so that the seam is facing down. You will be left with a long roll. Repeat the same for remaining dough ball.
• At this stage I refrigerated the rolled doughs overnight as I wanted the sliced rolls to be more shapely.

bake the rolls

• Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C). Grease a rectangular baking dish of 11X9X4 inch.
• Slice the log in ½ inch rolls, one log will give you about 2 dozens of mini rolls. Lay the sliced rolls in the greased pan. Be careful and do not over crowd the pan. I made a mistake here and fit all the rolls (from one log) in one pan. Next time I will not do so.
• Cover the prepared pan with rolls with kitchen towel and set aside for 30 minutes in a warm place for second rise.
• Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown. Don't allow them to become over brown or they will dry up.

the vanilla frosting

• While the rolls are baking, in a medium bowl combine all the ingredients of the frosting. Whisk well till smooth. Taste and adjust as per your need. The consistency needs to be thick but still pourable. So if the frosting is too thick, add milk by tablespoon just enough to reach the desired consistency.
• As soon as the rolls are out of the oven, generously pour frosting over the warm rolls after they come. Be sure to pour around the edges and top. As they sit, the rolls will absorb flavor from the frosting and get better with time.