Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!
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Delicious and sweet homemade cinnamon rolls. Easy to bake, and even more delicious to eat.
Sweet bread
So I’ve tried my hand at several different breads over my time of baking more, but most of that was at cookery school. I don’t often post dough related recipes on here as I feel like there not going to have much of a reception, but I feel like I could be wrong there. Is it wrong? You tell me… but I bloody love bread.
This recipe is based quite a lot on my lemon & blueberry sweet rolls recipe, because I just love it so much. I’ve never had an issue when baking them, and I just adore the lemon and blueberry flavours.. but the classic is cinnamon really.
Cinnamon rolls
I often get a cinnamon roll when I go to my local starbucks or other coffee shop to work, and I do question why I haven’t posted a recipe for these sooner.Obviously, if you aren’t a fan of cinnamon, you’re not going to like these. However if you like cinnamon, you’re going to be a BIG fan. I am obsessed.
I adore my baked cinnamon doughnuts recipe, because its warm and cinnamon-y, and these are just as good. A bit heavier admittedly because they are an actual dough, but still so cosy and warm. I realise it is now coming into spring and then summer, but I love cinnamon year round.
Cinnamon goodness
A lot of people say cinnamon is a Christmas thing, and it is very good round that time of year, but my gosh I just adore it all the time. Cinnamon rolls are just the epitome of heaven in a bite. I make sure that my cinnamon rolls are quite thick with cinnamon goodness, but thats entirely your choice.
They are very adaptable, and can easily be made less or more cinnamon like, but that’s something you can work out easily if you make these a couple of times. You work out what is your favourite.
My trusty steed!
I will say I feel like I’m a bit of a cheat when it comes to baking anything like these, or my sticky chocolate sweet rolls, because I use my KitchenAid with a dough hook.
When I was in cookery school, I had to knead all my dough by hand, so I quickly learned the techniques because I simply had to, but now I don’t ~have~ to, I’ have become very lazy in that department. The dough hooks look a little weird when in use, but it works so well, and its so easy.
Literally bung the ingredients in, and let it do its thing. It will be a sticky mess at first, but it soon comes together. It’s sort of magical to watch all the ingredient come together to form the perfect dough.
Kneading by hand?
If you are kneading it by hand, you will probably want to try kneading it in a bowl for the first couple of minutes so that you don’t have to add in too much extra flour to stop it sticking to the work surface. However, you do you. I am lazy, we all know that, so I let my dough hook do its thing.
Topping
For the topping I just do an icing drizzle – but you can make it a cream cheese frosting by following my cream cheese frosting recipe – or even just beating in 50g or so of cream cheese to this one! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! x
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!
Ingredients
The Dough
- 600 g strong white bread flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 14 g dried active yeast
- 75 g caster sugar
- 90 g unsalted butter
- 275 ml full fat milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
The Filling
- 45 g unsalted butter (melted)
- 175 g light brown sugar
- 1-2 tbsps ground cinnamon
The Topping
- 300 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp water
Instructions
- Sift the flour into a large bowl, and add the caster sugar and yeast. Mix these together so its all evenly distributed.
- Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles bread crumbs, like you would when making scones.
- Gently heat the milk until warm - but not piping hot. If heating in a pan, you want it to just about start having steam come out of the pan.
- Add the milk, vanilla, and egg to the dry ingredients.
- Knead the dough together for 7-10 minutes. It will be sticky at first, but it will soon come together. I use my KitchenAid with the dough hook to make this easier.
- Once kneaded, it will be springy to touch, and not sticky.
- Transfer into a lightly oiled bowl, and cover the top of the bowl with cling film. Let it rise for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Whilst the bread is proving, whisk together the light brown sugar, and ground cinnamon for the filling. Leave to the side for now.
- Once the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, and roll out to a large rectangle. Mine ends up being about 50cmx30cm.
- You want it to be as even a rectangle as possible so its easier to roll up, and the dough can be thin here.
- Gently brush the surface with the 45g of melted butter, and then sprinkle over the sugar/cinnamon mix.
- Roll the dough from long side to long side, so that a ~long sausage~ is formed. Cut this evenly into 12 pieces.
- I cut the middle, and then the two halves into two more, and then each into three pieces to get my 12.
- Using a large rectangular baking dish, mine was 30cmx24cm roughly, put them in. They won't touch yet, but you want four rows of three basically.
- Cover the dish with clingfilm, and let them rise for another hour or so. By the end, they should all touch.
- Towards the end of the dough rising, preheat the oven to 180C/160CFan so that when its finished rising, you can put it straight in the oven.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.
- Leave to cool, and then make the icing. Simply whisk together the icing sugar, vanilla and water until a thick icing paste is formed, and then spread over the rolls.
- Enjoy by breaking apart and eating all the gooey cinnamon goodness.
Notes
- These are best on the day of eating, but will last covered for a couple of days.
- You can easily reduce or increase the amount of cinnamon that you use in the recipe, but I typically use two tablespoons for mine. I like it really cinnamon-y.
- You could also use cinnamon in the dough, but I like the touch of the vanilla instead.
- The icing on top is optional, but I often find when you buy cinnamon rolls, there is icing on top.
- I use dried active yeast - but you can use quick yeast (same amount) or fresh yeast (use 28g). Some yeasts need activating before use so check package instructions!
ENJOY!
Find my other Bread & Cinnamon Recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
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Everyone loved the cinnamon rolls didn’t have bread flour so used plain and the were so light will be doing them again. When we can get bread flour live on an island so don’t get access to big supermarket
So glad you liked them!!
My neighbour is going through your recipes and brings me half so we can try loads while in lock down and OMG these are amazing, she,’s cooking them again next for us.
Ahh that’s amazing!
I have made cinnamon rolls a few times but this recipe was the best by far. You could tell from the dough that they were going to be good. I made them two days ago and have already had requests from my family and neighbors to bake them again! Will definitely need to double the quantities next time!
My first time making cinnamon rolls and stumbled upon your recipe – and I’m so glad I did!! They came out perfect and they’re so delicious! Huge hit with my friends. Thanks so much!!
Ahh yay! I’m so glad you liked them!
Amazing. Found the flour. The smell!!!!!! Thank you.
What can I say? As usual a fantastic recipe and they look and smell delicious, now I’m off to taste one. Thank you once again 😊
Awwh thank you so so much!!
Hi Jane!
I’ve honestly tried lots of your bakes and everyone one of them have been a winner and everyone I’ve baked for has loved them so thank you! Two questions really, can you get away with using semi skimmed milk? And also all I have in the cupboard is fast action dried yeast (think that’s the same as instant yeast) can I use that instead do you think? Thank you for all your recipes!
Hey! Ahh thank you so much! Yes you can, but generally in baking whole milk is better as lower fat products can split – same with cream cheese, cream and so on! And yes you can – double check to make sure if it needs activating before using!
These are fab! I have looked for a good cinnamon swirl recipe for ages.
Quick question – if I make the full batch I eat them all straight away! I could obviously freeze after baking, but do you think it would be possible to freeze the raw swirl (either before or after the last prove)? Thanks so much.
Hey! Yes, so you can freeze before or after baking. If you freeze before, you’ll probably need to leave them out for a while before baking so they bake properly!
Made these today, absolutely delish!
Hey. Really want to try these but dont have strong Flour just plain and self raising and I have dried yeast. Would either of these work?? Thank you.
You can try plain flour, but the texture will be different!
Hi Jane ,
Is it possible to do the last prove overnight so they can go straight into the oven the next morning ?
Thanks
Yes, but it would need to be done in the fridge!
Are theese able to be frozen? If so before or after cooking??
Made these last night to warm up for breakfast for the week.
They are amazing! So fluffy and soft, and just the right amount of cinnamon. Love the addition of vanilla in the dough!
Thanks Jane 🙂 Slowly working my way through your recipes, and all are fab so far.
Recipe is amazing but the timing in the prep is off, I thought I’d have it made in an hour or so but it needs to rest bringing the prep time to 2 hours not the 15 mins stated. I should have fully read the recipe first too.
The actual prep time to ‘prep’ the ingredients is fifteen minutes – there is no way to add in a proving time to the timings unfortunately.
Made these for the first time today. They are scrumptious and the husband loves them! I love your recipes, will definitely be making these again in the week.
Tried to post a pic but it wouldn’t let me.
Hi Jane! I love your recipes I have made so many ever since I discovered them – mainly cheesecakes, which always come out so amazing! I decided to make this recipe and it turned out really well flavour wise. However I did put them in the oven on 180C but found that the bottom was doughy and slightly uncooked when cut into them. I then put them back in the oven on 160C instead for 10 minutes and this seemed to do the job. How can I avoid this happening again? Thank you 🙂
It probably just means they weren’t finished baking yet! Just add on a little while longer baking time – all ovens are different, and yours might not be quite the temperature you think! X