Amazing Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Why make Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch?

These Cinnamon Rolls are Easy AND Amazing!

I love cinnamon rolls for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! We tend to enjoy them when we make weekend chili. I know a lot of people do cornbread or corn muffins with their chili, and that’s fine, but in grade school, we always got cinnamon rolls with our chili, so that’s what we do at my house. I’ve tried several recipes for cinnamon rolls from scratch because they are just SO much better than whatever you buy in a can or premade at the grocery store. I decided to develop my own recipe from the best things I found from other recipes.

Baking from scratch is fun AND educational!

First, working with yeast has been a long journey for me and a LOT of research! For instance, I discovered that if your dissolving yeast in water or milk, you have to be careful with the temperature of the liquid. Too hot and you’ll kill the yeast. Too cool and the yeast won’t activate. What happens then is that your dough refuses to rise. Lame. Flat cinnamon rolls are NOT a fun situation people!!

The next thing I learned when researching why my bread always ended up dense and heavy, was that you shouldn’t add the salt directly into the yeast mixture. This, too, can kill the yeast! Or at least damage it enough that it won’t do its job correctly. After reading that, I started waiting to add the salt toward the end, after adding much of the flour. This has improved my results on so many baked goods!

Another thing I learned about working with yeast is the kneading time. I LOVE my KitchenAid mixer and the dough hook for kneading the dough! So, the kneading is to allow protein molecules to do their thing and other such sciency stuff. But when you are using the dough hook, rather than your hands, to knead the dough you are apparently supposed to add to the kneading time. Huh. I never would have thought of that in a million years but hey that’s cool! So, when the recipe calls for 5 minutes of kneading by hand, I increase the time with the dough hook up to double. Oh my has this improved my bread results!

Fun with Flour!

So, several recipes for cinnamon rolls include using bread flour, which is not the cheapest option for sure. Therefore, I rarely use ALL bread flour in any recipe, but instead mix it with either all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour (also, not the least expensive option). According to the Food Network the bread flour “produces baked goods with more structure and chew than all-purpose flour. All-purpose flour produces tender baked goods (as opposed to chewy ones) and is ideal for cakes, muffins, biscuits, piecrust, etc.” Again, super sciency but also good information to have!

Deliciousness!

Now for the recipe that I developed for cinnamon rolls. I’m not gonna lie, after I added all the flour and the salt, the dough seemed to struggle to come together into a ball, but I was patient and it happened (really didn’t take that long but I felt a little panicky for a minute). It turned out perfectly if I do say so, and the rolls were delicious. I also use more cream cheese in my frosting than most of the recipes I found. I really like cream cheese though, so feel free to cut it back to half if you’re not the fan that I am of that creamy deliciousness!

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family does!

Tools you might need:

**Hey! Just a heads up — this post might contain affiliate links, where I can get a little extra cash if you buy something through my links–no extra cost to you, promise!

Ingredients

For the Dough:

1 cup warm milk (I use half and half) (110°F/43°C)
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (but don’t dump it in hot out the microwave! Let it come down in temp a bit.)
1 large egg (room temperature)
1 cup bread flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Prepare the Dough:

In the stand mixer bowl, whisk the yeast, sugar, and warmed milk. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes until it becomes frothy.

Add in the melted butter, sugar, and egg.

Gradually add the flour and salt, mixing until a soft dough forms. (It might seem dry at first, but it’ll come together.)

Knead the dough on a floured surface until it becomes smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, or knead in the stand mixer with the dough hook for closer to 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until it doubles in size. If you have a bread proof option on your oven, this works so well!

Prepare the Filling:

In a separate mixing bowl, combine brown sugar and ground cinnamon to make the filling.

Assemble the Cinnamon Rolls:

Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a large rectangle. (Don’t stress about a perfect rectangle. No one is judging the rectangle!)

Spread the softened butter on the rectangle and sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the butter/dough. Don’t be afraid to press the mixture into the dough to keep as much from spilling out as you can.

Roll up the dough tightly, starting from the long side. You may need to pinch the ends so you don’t lose your filling.

Cut the rolled dough into 12 equal pieces. (I’m really bad at cutting equal pieces so sometimes I have more than 12 and sometimes I have less. I don’t stress about it and you shouldn’t either.)

Place the cinnamon rolls into the prepared pan. (I generally use a 9×13 cake pan. I have no idea how people make it work in a pie plate or whatever.)

Cover the rolls with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 45-60 minutes. (I used the oven on Bread Proof again for this part until it was time to preheat the oven, but the countertop works fine, as well.)

Bake the Cinnamon Rolls:

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking dish with parchment paper or grease it, whichever you prefer.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown and cooked through. (If the tops are getting brown too fast, you can do the loose foil drape over the top.)

Prepare the Cream Cheese Frosting:

While the rolls are baking, let’s make the cream cheese frosting. In a mixing bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy.

Finish the Cinnamon Rolls:

Once the cinnamon rolls are out of the oven and slightly cooled, spread the cream cheese frosting over the warm rolls.

**To make ahead of time, follow the directions up to placing the cut rolls in the baking dish, cover the rolls, and place them in the frig overnight. Bring them to room temperature before baking. Generally, 30-60 minutes on the counter will do it.