Make the Dough
Make the dough by first mixing together the milk, sugar, and yeast, and let sit 5 minutes until foamy. Assemble other ingredients in a large bowl or stand mixer: grated carrots, butter, egg, salt, and flour.
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Add milk/yeast mixture and mix until ball forms, then knead by hand or in a stand mixer with dough hood 5-7 minutes until elastic. This dough is sticky, you can spray your hands with cooking spray if kneading by hand or mix in stand mixer with dough hook.
Mix
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Rest
Form dough into ball and cover, let sit for 60 minutes at room temperature (approx 70-74 F) until doubled in size.
Gently deflate the dough and turn out onto floured work surface and shape into a loose rectangle/log shape, careful not to work the dough too much, it becomes less stretchy the more you knead it after the first rise.
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Shape
Roll out into a 24 inch long by 14-16 inch wide rectangle, keeping the corners as square as possible.
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Roll
Spread softened butter on top of the dough rectangle, then sprinkle brown sugar/spice mixture. Sprinkle flour on top evenly last, this helps keep the filling inside the rolls as they bake.
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Filling
Roll gently lengthwise into a long roll, careful to keep the filling inside. Leave seam side down.
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Rolling
Using string or dental floss, cut roll into 12 equal 2 inch wide slices by sliding string under roll, crossing string ends, and pulling tight to pull the string through the roll. I usually mark the roll with the string before slicing to ensure even sizes. Can also be sliced with a sharp knife.
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Slicing
Place in prepared 9×13 inch pan or 11x 18 inch baking sheet to rise and cover. Let rise 45-60 minutes, until almost doubled in size.
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Rise
Bake at 350F for 32-35 minutes if in a 9×13 inch glass pan (may need to cover with foil last 10 minutes of baking to avoid over browned tops) or bake for 25 minutes on a 11×18 inch baking sheet.
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Bake
Mix together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, and whole milk until smooth. Spread over baked cinnamon rolls and top with toasted coconut and pecans.
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Icing
MORE RECIPES
Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls
YIELD
12-15 Rolls
TYPE
Vegetarian
TIME
3.5 hours
LEVEL
Moderate