Cinnamon Sticky Rolls

My husband never used to crave sweets. Ever.
He always just ate a small ice cream cone or a bite of my cake whenever it was around. He never ate cookies, or cupcakes, or...well anything sweet.
But then I started baking. A lot.
Suddenly he formed a sweet tooth. A big one.
One sweet he requests frequently are cinnamon sticky rolls.
I LOVED my Grandma's recipe. Instead of just covering the inside of the dough with the cinnamon and sugar and roll, she covered the roll inside and out with the gooey goodness.
A cinnamon roll is a wee different, the kind with the cream cheese frosting or icing.
These are sticky and oh-so-good.
So, anywho...after about two months of asking to bake them for him I gave in. Now that Christmas is over and I don't have to  bake so many cookies...it was a nice change!
I do cheat a wee bit and use my breadmaker to make the dough. All that time spent rising just takes too long and I get too anxious and want to eat it...five minutes ago :)

Cinnamon Sticky Rolls
In a breadmaker add the following order (all at room temperature)

10 oz water
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
4 cups flour (breadmaker or all-purpose works fine)
2 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Set breadmaker to "dough" setting and let it work it's magic.
Mine takes 1 1/2 hours, so during the last 10 minutes or so of the dough rising, I prepare the cinnamon makings.

Preheat oven to 350°
Round up the following:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margerine
Cinnamon/sugar mixture
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
Chopped pecans, optional

Butter the bottom and sides of an 8X8 baking dish (or a 9X13, depending on how large you want your rolls, this recipe works fine in either)
Then sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over the butter.
If you would like pecans on your rolls, now is the time to sprinkle them over this mixture.

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Place dough on lightly floured counter and shape into an even rectangle, well as even as possibl.,

I then use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into however many pieces I need. Since I'm using a smaller baking dish for bigger rolls, I cut this into 9 strips. If I would be using a 9X13 baking dish, I would cut it in half the long way, then 9 strips...does that make sense? Otherwise they look just like breadsticks :)

At this point I then melt my butter or margarine until completely melted.

Then prepare to get MESSY. Really, really messy. But it is so worth it.

Taking one "breadstick" at a time, I pull it slightly to make it longer, and dunk it into the melted butter.

I flip it over once to make sure all the sides are well coated.

Then dunk it into the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. 

Use your fingers to make sure that the entire dough is well coated in sugary goodness.

Wrap the dough around your pointer (index?) finger to make it into a roll.

Place in pan. 

Repeat with remaining dough.

Pop them in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until browned and bubbly.

When done baking I cover the dish with aluminum foil, then place a cooling rack over the aluminum foil and flip over. This way the foil is folded up and catches all the caramel goodness from the bottom of the pan...now on top of the rolls...(makes them extra sticky).

Or invert directly onto a serving platter.

Serve while still warm, or let cool and enjoy!

Store tightly covered for a day or two.