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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I’ve tried a few cinnamon roll recipes now, and like other users I was worried about the amount of yeast this says to use (its double that of other recipes). Happy to say I followed the instructions to the letter and these turned out amazing! So much better with the extra yeast, super fluffy and soft. Its my go to recipe now, thanks Jane! 🙂
Hi Jane! Can I prove these in the fridge overnight? And if so, is it better to do it for the first or the second rise?
Thanks for your help!
Hi Jane, I’m going to make these this weekend and I just wondered if I would be able to add pecans to them? If so, what weight would you recommend adding?
Thank you in advance ☺️ x
Another success so thank you although I only used 100g of icing sugar as I didn’t want it as sweet.
Could I use the same dough recipe and add some mixed dried fruit to make some iced spiced buns (a bit like the M&S ones!) – do you think that would work (i.e. not adding the cinnamon sugar and just making them into 12 balls?
Hi Jane, I love your recipes! I’ve made this and though it looks good it tastes very yeasty. Do I need to add less yeast? I’m worried this will result in it not rising as much. I read that 14g is 4.5. Tbsp of dried yeast. Do you agree?
Thank you
Tes
Hiya, sorry I’m confused with the 14g is 4.5tbsp of dried yeast? It’s best to measure to 14g to make sure it’s accurate x
1 tsp is normally approx 5g so 14g is approx 1tbsp!
Tried this recipe as Jane has never failed me before and I wanted to try making these as I, myself also love cinnamon rolls. My family really loved them as did I ! No more shop bought for us
I make these all the time and everyone says they are the nicest ones they have ever tasted. I’m doing some for Christmas presents and I was wondering when I make them can I put them in the fridge overnight and then bake them in the oven the next morning thanks
Yes, you can shape them into the dish and refrigerate overnight, bring back to room temp for 45-60 minutes in the morning and bake! x
I love these! Made these today for the first time. I did the second proving stage leaving them overnight in the fridge. Took them out the fridge 2hrs before baking!
I used the full 2 tbsp of cinnamon for the filling. I may consider adding a tsp of cinammon to the dough next time or an extra tsp to the filling as I would like them to be more cinnamony!
I’ve seen recipes where people pour heavy cream over cinnamon rolls before baking to create that luxurious caramel sauce at the bottom of the rolls. But I’m worried that it might burn the caramel sauce. Do you think I should avoid doing that? Also, my oven runs hot, what temperature should I bake my cinnamon rolls at?
Just made these. Lovely and soft, although we all found they could have a bit more flavour, the dough especially. Realised there’s no salt in them at all, so next time I’ll try using salted butter or add a bit of salt.
They won’t last long though:)
Want to try these, but one question please? Is dried active yeast the same as easy bake yeast? Thank you
Hello, I was just wondering if these will freeze? would i do this before they are cooked or could I do it after they are cooked and before iced? Thank you
Made those today, I didn’t have icing sugar for the topping so just egg washed before baking. Turned out beautifully.
Hi Jane
If making half quantities, would using a small egg in in the recipe work for 6 buns?
Thanks,
Sarah
Yes that should be good!
Literally just made these & just eaten 2 as they are absolutely delicious, this is such a fantastic easy recipe & honestly they are the best homemade Cinnamon Buns I’ve ever made. Thank you Jane I will definitely be baking lots more of these xx
Hi I was just wondering if you would adjust the cooking times it you made them smaller. Thanks
Hi Jane, could I use evaporated milk instead of whole milk?