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These homemade cinnamon rolls are so soft & gooey and baked to a golden brown perfection before being smothered in cream cheese icing. I’ve included instructions for making them overnight or freezing.
For more sweet breakfast recipes, try my Orange Rolls and Air Fryer French Toast Sticks!
Big, fluffy cinnamon rolls are so delicious and make a perfectly indulgent treat. Enjoy them for breakfast with your coffee, or splurge on them for dessert. Packed with a sweet, buttery cinnamon sugar filling and iced with a smooth cream cheese frosting, this cinnamon roll recipe is absolute perfection!
recipe walk-through
Main Ingredients
- Bread Flour – For a soft and chewy texture.
- Active Dry Yeast – You can use instant or quick-rise yeast to help the cinnamon rolls rise quicker if you want.
- Milk – I recommend using whole milk but any milk will work, like nonfat or almond milk.
- Butter – Use real butter, not margarine or a spread.
- Granulated Sugar – To sweeten the dough.
- Salt – For flavor balance, but salt also helps to control the yeast.
- Eggs – For texture and consistency of the dough.
- Vegetable Oil
- Light Brown Sugar – For sweetening the filling.
- Cinnamon – Naturally.
- Icing – Cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, powdered sugar.
How to Make Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
See the recipe card below for full, detailed instructions
Prepare the dough either using a stand mixer or hand mixer. Add vegetable oil to the bottom of a large bowl and roll the dough around to coat it. Cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rise for about an hour, until it’s doubled. This could take more or less time, depending on the humidity and temperature of your kitchen.
Have a well-floured counter prepared to turn the dough out on. Using your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a 20″ by 12″ rectangle.
Smear softened butter all from edge to edge on the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar all over the butter. Spread the cinnamon and sugar so it’s evenly distributed and gently press it down so it sticks to the butter.
Roll the dough tightly from the 20-inch side. Pinch the end of the dough into the dough that’s rolled up.
Divide the dough in into 8 or 12 even pieces. I just make a mark on the top of the rolled dough. Using a sharp knife or unflavored floss, cut the dough on the marks depending on how thick you want the cinnamon rolls to be. I did 8 of them.
Place into a greased 11×7-inch baking dish if you’re making 8 cinnamon rolls or a 9×13-inch pan if you’re making 12 cinnamon rolls. You can also line with parchment paper for easy removal. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake until the tops are golden brown.
I like to ice the cinnamon rolls while they’re warm. While they are baking, beat the softened cream cheese and butter in a bowl. Once it’s creamy and smooth, beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Frost the rolls once they have cooled slightly but are still warm.
Storage Tips
Storage and Make Ahead
Overnight/Make Ahead – Follow the directions up to rolling and slicing and placing in a parchment paper lined pan. Cover tightly with plastic wrap then refrigerate overnight. When you’re ready to bake them, take the pan out of the fridge and bring the rolls to room temperature, letting them rise for 45 minutes to an hour. Then bake as directed.
How to Store – Let the cinnamon rolls cool to room temperature, then wrap tightly and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat in the oven or microwave.
How to Freeze Cinnamon Rolls
To freeze before baking: Once the dough been rolled with the filling and sliced, place the rolls in a pan and cover tightly with plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to 6 weeks. When you’re ready to bake, thaw the dough in the fridge, ideally overnight. Set the pan in a warm spot for 30 minutes to an hour for the second rise. Bake as directed.
To freeze after baking: Let the rolls cool to room temperature before freezing. You can either freeze the entire pan, wrapped tightly in an airtight container, or wrap and freeze individual rolls. When you’re ready to eat them, let them defrosot at room temperature, then warm them in the oven at 350°F for 10-15 minutes or heat them individually in the microwave for 20-30 seconds after defrosting. It’s best to freeze them before adding the icing and frost them when you’re ready to eat.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t overheat the milk. Your milk should be heated between 105℉ and 115℉. Any hotter and it could kill the yeast, meaning the cinnamon rolls won’t rise properly. It’s best to use a kitchen thermometer to make sure you have the right temperature.
- Cut evenly. Measure out the cuts if you can, so your cinnamon rolls are all the same size and will cook evenly.
- Room temperature ingredients – All of your ingredients should be at room temperature for the best results, especially the butter and cream cheese.
More Sweet Breakfast Treats
- Overnight French Toast Casserole
- Homemade Waffles
- Cinnamon Roll Cake
- Pumpkin Fritters
- Baked Apple Cider Donut Holes
- Bacon Pancakes
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 1/4 cups Bread flour divided
- 2.25 teaspoons Active dry yeast
- 1 cup Milk
- 1/2 cup Butter room temperature
- 1/4 cup Granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2 Large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil
Filling
- 1/2 cup Butter softened
- 1 cup Light brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons Ground cinnamon
Icing
- 4 ounces Cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup Butter room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups Powdered sugar
Instructions
Cinnamon Rolls
- In a stand mixer bowl, add in 2 cups of flour and yeast. Stir to combine.
- In a medium saucepan, add in the milk, butter, sugar, and salt. Place over medium heat until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Don't let it come up to a boil. Let it cool to 110 – 115 degrees.
- Pour the milk mixture and eggs into the dry ingredients. Using the dough hook, place on 2 or the recommended setting for using the dough hook on your mixer.
- Once combined, add in 1 additional cup of bread flour and use the dough hook to bring it together. As soon as the flour is worked in and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, stop the mixer. If you’re not paying attention, the dough will pass this stage and begin sticking to the sides again. If this happens, remove the dough from the bowl and hand knead in about ¼ to ½ cup of flour that isn’t included in the recipe ingredients.
- Add the vegetable oil to the bowl with the dough and roll the dough around until it’s coated. Cover loosely with a plastic wrap and/or tea towel. Let it rise until the dough is doubled, about 1 hour. I set the bowl on the stovetop with the oven set to 245 degrees.
- Once the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a well-floured surface. Use the remaining ¼ cup of flour to dust the surface.Â
- Using your hands or a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 20″x12″ rectangle.Â
- Add bits of butter all over the dough. Using your hands or an offset spatula, spread the butter evenly on the dough. Spread all the way to the edges.
- In a small bowl, add in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on the butter. Using your hands, move the cinnamon and sugar to cover any bare spots and then push the cinnamon and sugar into the butter.
- Starting on the 20-inch side, roll the dough into a log. Pinch the dough along the log so it holds together when it’s sliced. Push in both ends of the log also.
- Mark out where you’ll want to cut the dough. I marked the log into 8 thick slices. Grab a long piece of floss and slide it underneath the log. Crisscross the floss and pull together to cut the rolls. You can also use a sharp knife, but I find that it pinches the dough.Â
- Place the rolls into a greased 7×11 pan. Cover with the tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the cinnamon rolls into the oven and bake for 30 – 40 minutes until the tops are golden brown and when you gently tug on the center rolls, it doesn’t look doughy. While the cinnamon rolls are baking, make the frosting to put on the rolls while they’re still hot.
Icing
- In a large bowl, add in the cream cheese and butter. Beat on medium with the hand mixer until creamy.
- Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until the powdered sugar is incorporated and the icing is smooth.
- Frost the tops of the hot cinnamon rolls. You can add as much or as little as you would like. If you let the cinnamon rolls cool, you can also microwave the icing for 30 seconds and pour it on to the cinnamon rolls.Â
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.
This is the same recipe my mother used to make the most fabulous cinnamon rolls when I was growing up. I have been making these delicious rolls since I was a newly wed.
I did some quick calculations and came up with a rough estimate of the number of years we used this recipe to make thousands of these cinnamon rolls and came up with a whooping 70 years.
Awesome comment Anne! Thank you so much for stopping by the channel. 70 years, Nice!
These were fanatic!This was my first for cinnamon roll!Directions
we’re easy&results delicious
Thank you Lou Ann! Awesome feedback, thanks for stopping by.
I’m wondering…. Is there anyway to make these ahead to bake at a later date?
You could bake them, let them cool, then freeze them. Thaw in the fridge overnight and heat in the oven if desired.
I simply love cinnamon rolls! These look amazing!