Easy Old-Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls

Kids love these cinnamon rolls as much as grown-ups do, and around here there’s never any shortage of little hands to help bake up a batch for a weekend treat. The secret to these tasty treats is that they have a light high-rising biscuit base, so you don’t have to take the time to make a yeast bread dough. These are so simple to make, but so good when served warm out of the oven and with that lovely scent of cinnamon, we never bother with butter or icing!

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

Sift together:
    4 cups flour
    8 tsp baking powder
    1 tsp salt

Cut in:
    3/4 cup shortening

With a fork, gradually add:
    2 cups of water (or a little less)

Roll the dough out on a floured board to make a rectangle about 12 x 18 inches. This will be quite a sticky dough, but if you keep it as moist as you can (add only as much flour as you need to in order to be able to roll it out) the finished rolls will be all the better, soft and chewy.

Spread the dough with each of these, one at a time:
    1/3 cup butter, melted
    1 cup dark brown sugar
    1 Tbsp cinnamon

Roll up the dough from the long side, like a jelly roll, and press the seam closed with your fingers. You should end up with a roll that is 18 inches long. Cut this into slices 1 inch wide, and lay the slices on their side in a lightly greased pan.

The pan I use is about 9×17 inches and 2 inches deep, but it doesn’t matter if you need to squish the rools together to make them fit in a slightly different size or shape.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes, then cool the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes before serving.