Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!
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These homemade cinnamon rolls are soft, fluffy, and loaded with a sweet cinnamon-sugar swirl. Made with an enriched yeast dough, they require 15 minutes of hands-on prep, 20 to 25 minutes to bake, and a total of 3 hours of proving time.
Mastering enriched dough
The foundation of a spectacular cinnamon roll is an enriched yeast dough. Unlike regular bread dough, an enriched dough contains butter, milk, sugar, and an egg. This combination weakens the gluten strands slightly, resulting in a beautifully soft, tender, and cake-like crumb rather than a chewy texture.
The absolute golden rule when working with yeast is managing your liquid temperature. When you warm your full-fat milk, it must be lukewarm, roughly 38°c. If the milk is too cold, the yeast will stay dormant and your dough won’t rise. If it is piping hot, it will instantly kill the yeast, leaving you with flat, heavy bricks. Aim for a comfortable warm bath temperature before pouring it into your dry ingredients.
- Flour – I use strong white bread flour to provide the high levels of gluten required for this dough
- Yeast – 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.
- Sugar – caster sugar provides the right texture and flavour profile for the dough, brown sugar is used later for the filling
- Butter – I always use unsalted block butter as you don’t want want to be salting this dough as it could react with the yeast, stunting it’s rising potential
- Milk – this must be full-fat milk as the high fat content is essential to provide the rise and texture we are looking for
- Vanilla – this will provide the sharpness and sweetness throughout the dough
- Egg – I use one large egg
The ultimate gooey cinnamon filling
To achieve that iconic molten, caramelized center, the balance of the filling is critical. I use a generous combination of softened or melted unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and a full two tablespoons of ground cinnamon.
Using light brown sugar instead of white caster sugar is essential here. The natural molasses content in brown sugar melts down beautifully into the butter during the bake, creating a dark, sticky, and deeply flavourful syrup that wraps around every single layer of the dough swirl.
Perfecting the topping and glaze
A traditional cinnamon roll is simply incomplete without a sweet finish. This recipe features a classic, thick vanilla icing sugar glaze that sinks into the warm crevices of the rolls right out of the oven.
However, if you want to elevate them to standard bakery style, you can easily transform this into a decadent cream cheese frosting. Simply beat 50g to 100g of full-fat block cream cheese into the icing sugar and butter mixture for a beautifully tangy contrast to the sweet cinnamon interior.
FAQs
Yes, this is a brilliant time-saver for a fresh morning breakfast. Follow the instructions right up until you place the cut rolls into your baking dish for their second prove. Instead of leaving them at room temperature, cover the dish tightly with cling film and pop it into the fridge overnight. The cold environment slows down the yeast. In the morning, bring the rolls back out to room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes to finish puffing up before baking as normal.
This usually happens if your milk was hot enough to kill the yeast, or if the room they were left to prove in was far too cold. Ensure your proving bowl is placed in a warm, draft-free spot, such as an airing cupboard or an oven that is turned off but has a bowl of boiling water placed at the bottom.
While a very sharp serrated knife works well, the ultimate baker’s trick is to use a piece of unscented dental floss or clean sewing thread. Slide the thread underneath the rolled dough log, cross the two ends over the top, and pull them tightly in opposite directions. It slices clean through the dough effortlessly without flattening the round shape of your rolls.
Yes, you can swap the full-fat milk for unsweetened almond, soy, or oat milk at a 1:1 ratio. Keep in mind that because alternative milks have a lower fat content, the dough may turn out slightly less rich, but it will still rise and bake beautifully.
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 180ºc / 160ºc fan 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.
- I use this KitcheAid Mixer
Storage and freezing
These homemade cinnamon rolls are undoubtedly at their absolute best when eaten warm on the day of baking, but they will keep incredibly well for up to two days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature. To restore that fresh-from-the-oven texture on days two and three, simply pop an individual roll onto a plate and microwave it for 10 to 15 seconds to soften the dough and melt the cinnamon filling back down.
If you want to freeze your bakes, you can freeze the fully baked rolls (ideally un-iced) for up to three months by wrapping them tightly in cling film and foil; simply thaw them at room temperature and warm them in the oven for 5 minutes before glazing. Alternatively, you can freeze the raw dough rolls directly in their baking dish after cutting them; when you are ready to bake, let them defrost and complete their second rise overnight in the fridge before putting them straight into a hot oven the following morning.
Related recipes
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.
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.
hey, I was wondering if I wanted my cinnamon rolls fluffier what do I do, should I add baking powder?
thank you.
Probably not – the fluffiness is usually down to how much they have proved or the actual baking!
Hi Malak, I did add a tiny bit of baking powder to the flour, as in a bit on the end of a teaspoon for halve the amount of ingredients and the results were good. It seems to help the yeast. I put all my ingredients into the bread maker and turn out after first prove. Then follow the recipe. Hope that helps.
Hi Jane, your recipes are absolutely amaaazing! After making the dough and leaving it to prove at room temp for 2 hours, I wanted to leave it in the fridge over night so would I roll out into shape before I put it in the fridge or shall I roll out after refrigerating?
After I’ve taken it out the fridge I will then leave at room to again for an hour or so? Please help xx
Hey! I would shape and fill them and add them to the dish, and prove in the fridge over night – and then just bake straight away!
Hi I have just made these and they are lovely. I am just curious compared to my previous recipe you use double the amount of yeast is there a reason why? I used 7g(1 sachet) before and yours calls for two?
I’ve always used 14g of dried yeast and find it works perfectly!
Thank you for your reply! They were amazing so I will stick with it! I just wondered if there was a reason! And just to be sure it’s 14g of either instant yeast or normal dried?
Yes so its 14g for any type of dried, or 28g if using fresh!!
I have made these a few times and are amazing! Would I be able to make these with gluten free bread flour?
Hey! I have never personally used gluten free bread flour but I don’t see why not!
Can I make these with Almond milk?
Yes that should be fine! x
Can they over prove in the fridge? I plan to put them in the fridge for the second prove around midday tomorrow and bake the next morning, is this too long in the fridge?
They can prove in the fridge, but that is quite a long time – ideally, you would start it later in the day but it should be okay!
I only have medium eggs, will they be OK?
Yeah, one medium should be fine!!
Hi Jane
I love cinnamon swirl buns so can’t wait to try your recipe out – I usually buy them from Tesco but yours look as good so I think I will try and make my own – just one question before I do as I’ll be using fresh yeast is it just a case of substituting the fresh yeast for the dried in the recipe ( I have already seen your advice of adding double amount for fresh) would I add the fresh yeast to the warm milk and then add it to the dry ingredients in that order? Does anything else need to change in the recipe by using fresh yeast? Thank you
Hey! Yes so I would add the fresh yeast to the milk, and just follow the rest of the recipe as it is! xx
Hi Jane, can you make this with normal flour as I don’t have the flour stated in the recipe. Thanks xx
It depends what you mean by ‘normal’ – plain flour can be used, but the texture is a lot more cakey compared to classically bready. I wouldn’t use self raising.
So delighted to find this delicious cinnamon bun recipe! Thank you. Without doubt the best I’ve made – & no need to tediously exercise my slow maths skills to convert the recipe from US cups to the more familiar metric quantities.
Hi Jane, the recipe looks great! Just wondering, could I leave the dough to prove for longer than 2 hours or is there a chance it could rise too much an ruin it? Thanks!
So you definitely don’t want it to over prove. The timing is an estimate anyway – for example, in the heatwave this week in the UK, the dough proves MUCH quicker than the two hours, whereas in the winter it could take quite a bit longer. The best thing is to do a prove in the fridge, but that would have to be over night as it really slows down the process!
Would it be possible to omit the egg for vegans and just use maybe cornflour instead?
I’m unsure of why you’d want to use cornflour instead of eggs to make it vegan? I’ve never seen this before! Personally I would substitute the whole milk for a good vegan milk such as unsweetened almond milk and then use an oil such as vegetable oil, maybe 50ml? x