Description
This recipe yields a pan of buttery soft, gooey cinnamon sweet, and extra fluffy homemade cinnamon rolls topped with tangy cream cheese icing. You can make the cinnamon rolls within a few hours or get started the night before using the overnight preparation option. This recipe is also in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup (240ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 2/3 cup (133g) granulated sugar, divided
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons (14g) active dry or instant yeast (2 standard packets)*
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
- 4 and 1/2 cups (563g) all-purpose flour or bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons oil or butter for the bowl (or use nonstick spray)
Filling
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (133g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 ounces (113g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) heavy cream or milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, 2 Tablespoons of sugar, and the yeast together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or paddle attachment. Cover and allow mixture to sit for 5–10 minutes or until foamy on the surface. *If you do not own a mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl and in the next step, mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/silicone spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula is a better choice.*
- Add the remaining sugar and the butter and beat on medium speed until the butter is slightly broken up. Add about 1 cup (125g) of the flour, the eggs, and salt and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the remaining flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. Dough will be soft. If it seems too sticky and clings to the sides of the bowl instead of forming a rough mass around the dough hook or spoon, add more flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and continue to mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl but is still moist and tacky. If it feels dry and crumbly, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer (and switch to the dough hook if you used the paddle) and beat on low speed for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should feel smooth, supple, and elastic. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or butter (or use nonstick spray). Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in size. (I always let it rise on the counter and it takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking dish (glass or metal) or line it with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough: Punch down the dough to release the air. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 12×18-inch rectangle. Make sure the dough is smooth and evenly thick. If the dough keeps shrinking as you roll it out, stop what you’re doing, cover it lightly, and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten. When you return to the dough, it should stretch out much easier.
- For the filling: Spread the softened butter all over the dough. The softer the butter is, the easier it is to spread in this step. (Microwave it for a few seconds to soften if needed.) In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle evenly over the butter. Tightly roll up the dough to form an 18-inch-long log. If some filling spills out, sprinkle it on top of the roll. With an extra-sharp knife, cut into 12 even rolls, about 1.5 inches thick. Arrange in the prepared baking pan.
- 2nd Rise: Cover the pan and allow the rolls to rise until puffy, about 1 hour. (Or use the overnight option in the Notes below.)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake for about 25–28 minutes or until they are lightly browned on top, rotating the pan halfway through. If the tops are browning too quickly, loosely tent a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the pan. Remove pan from the oven and place pan on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes while you make the icing.
- Make the icing: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, cream/milk, and vanilla. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for 1 minute. Spread the icing over the warm rolls and serve immediately.
- Cover leftover frosted or unfrosted rolls tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions – Overnight: To prepare the night before serving, prepare the rolls through step 7. Cover the rolls and refrigerate for 8–12 hours. (16 hours max. 8–12 hours is best, but 16 hours is OK if absolutely needed. Do not exceed 16 hours.) The next morning, remove from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise for 1–2 hours at room temperature before continuing with step 9.
- Make Ahead Instructions – Freezing: You can freeze cinnamon rolls for up to 3 months, and I recommend a few different methods for freezing cinnamon rolls. The first method is to freeze them after shaping, before they’ve had their 2nd rise (step 7). Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then let rise for 1.5–2 hours at room temperature before baking. The second method is to par-bake the risen rolls for 10 minutes, let cool completely, then cover and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking. Finish baking for 15–20 minutes. You can also freeze fully baked cinnamon rolls. See How to Freeze Cinnamon Rolls for more details about all of these methods.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Large Glass Mixing Bowl with Silicone Spatula or Wooden Spoon | Rolling Pin | 9×13-inch Glass Baking Pan or Metal Baking Pan | Cooling Rack
- Milk: I recommend using whole milk for the best, richest-tasting dough. You could also use buttermilk. Reduced-fat, low-fat, or nondairy milk works in a pinch. Do not use nonfat milk.
- Yeast: You can use active dry or instant yeast in this recipe. Follow all of the same instructions. If using active dry yeast, the rise times are usually slightly longer. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Other Icing Options: Instead of cream cheese icing, you can top the warm rolls with vanilla icing, the brown sugar icing from these pumpkin donuts, maple icing from maple cinnamon rolls, or even the caramel icing from apple cinnamon rolls.
- Gluten Free: We have not tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, so we are unsure of the results.