The Best Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls are made with a tender dough, cinnamon sugar mixture and a perfect maple cream cheese icing. Perfect for the holidays or any special occasion, these are the best homemade cinnamon rolls. You're going to love them!
Ingredients
Cinnamon Roll Dough
- 2 cups milk warmed (2% or whole milk works best)
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 5 ½ - 6 ½ cups bread flour see recipe notes
Cinnamon Roll Filling
- ½ cup unsalted butter very soft or melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon all purpose flour
Cinnamon Roll Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream or half and half can also substitute milk in a pinch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon maple extract
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
Cinnamon Roll Dough
- Warm the milk in the microwave (about 1 1/2 minutes full power) or on the stove. To the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, add the warmed milk and melted butter. Feel the mixture with your finger (make sure you feel in the center of the milk/butter mixture) and make sure it is not too hot. You want the temperature to feel like a baby's bathwater. If it is too hot, let it cool a bit before proceeding.
- Add the sugar and instant yeast to the milk/butter mixture. Stir. Look for the yeasty smell that tells you the yeast is activating (should happen within 10-20 seconds) and then proceed with the recipe.
- Add the eggs, salt and a cup of flour. Turn on the dough hook on in your stand mixer and continue adding the flour a cup at a time until you have added 5 cups of flour. Knead for 1 minute until all the flour is fully incorporated. Check the dough by rolling it into a ball in your fingers to see if you need more flour. If the dough is too sticky to roll into a ball, continue adding flour 1/4 cup at a time, kneading for 1 minute after each addition. This process will make sure you don't over-flour the dough. Once you can pinch off a piece of dough and roll it into a ball with just a little sticky residue on your fingers, you can stop adding flour. Knead for a total of 5-7 minutes.
- Lightly oil (or spray with cooking spray) a large container and dump the dough in the container. Cover lightly with a kitchen towel and set in a warm place to rise. I like to turn my oven into a "proofing box" with the oven light turned on. This is a nice warm spot for my dough to rise and speeds ups the process a bit. Make sure the oven is NOT turned on during this process.
Cinnamon Filling
- While the dough rises, make the cinnamon filling. To a small bowl, add the softened or melted butter. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour. Mix together until fully combined and set aside.
Cinnamon Roll Frosting
- Whip together the butter and cream cheese until fully mixed and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, maple extract and salt. Whip together using a mixer until light and fluffy. Set aside.
Assemble the Cinnamon Rolls
- Prepare a half sheet pan and line with parchment paper.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, move it from the bowl to a clean space on the counter. The dough will be soft and not overly sticky. Pat the dough out into an approximate 18 by 12 rectangle. Spread the cinnamon filling all over the dough with your fingers, making sure to cover up to the edges of the cinnamon roll.
- Starting with the dough closest to you, roll up the cinnamon roll and pinch together the seam. Flip the cinnamon roll over, seam side down. Cut the long log of cinnamon roll dough into 12 equal pieces. Place the cinnamon rolls on the parchment paper, 4 rows of 3. Alternatively you can cut the dough into 24 pieces for regular-sized cinnamon rolls (see recipe notes).
- Cover the rolls and let rise for about an hour until doubled in size, touching and proofed. The amount of time this takes will depend on how cold your kitchen is.
Bake and Enjoy
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Once the rolls have puffed up and almost doubled in size, they are ready for the oven. If you want an extra gooey cinnamon roll, warm up some heavy cream and drizzle it over the top of the cinnamon roll before sticking in the oven. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 10 minutes. Then rotate the pan and bake for another 8-10 minutes until just starting to brown.
- Check the middle of one of the cinnamon rolls by using a butter knife to pry up a bit of the roll and make sure it is baked to your liking (the center will tell you if it needs more time or is perfectly baked). Let the rolls cool for 5 minutes before covering with frosting.
- Freeze any extra frosted cinnamon rolls in a ziplock bag. To re-heat, place on a plate and warm in the microwave for 30 seconds (time will vary depending on microwave) and enjoy!
Notes
This recipe makes 12 very large cinnamon rolls. You can easily make 24 smaller cinnamon rolls that are more of a regular size if you want to feed more people. To do that, cut the dough in half and make two logs of rolled dough. Cut each log into 12. Place the dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet, 6 rows of 4.
Bread Flour: This recipe used to call for all-purpose flour. I now use bread flour almost all the time for these cinnamon rolls. They have a little more structure, are more chewy and tender. Use a 12.5% protein content good quality bread flour. You can also substitute all-purpose flour if desired.
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