The Best Cinnamon Roll Recipe – Just like Cinnabon!
Have you ever had the cinnamon roll from Cinnabon and wish you could re-create that fluffy cinnamon roll with the gooey centres and delicious cream cheese frosting at home? Well, now you can 🙂 This is by far the BEST cinnamon roll recipe I’ve tried to date. It taste just as good as Cinnabon! Once you make these, you may not need to buy them ever again.
As an aside, we’re really excited to share that we were recently featured on Feedspot’s Top 100 Asian Food Blogs! We’re listed alongside some really well recognized Asian food bloggers, most of whom we follow as well. But that is not why you’re here, so let’s go on and talk about how to make the best cinnamon rolls!
How to Make Cinnamon Rolls
There are 3 main components to this recipe:
- The Dough
- Cinnamon-Sugar Filling
- Cream Cheese Frosting
Let’s go through the steps involved to prepare each component to make cinnamon roll.
The Dough
- Activate the Yeast – Add your dry active yeast in warm milk (110F) with a 1 teaspoon of sugar. Wait 5 minutes until it starts to foam and get frothy to indicate the yeast is alive and activated.
- Knead the dough – In a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, knead the dough on low speed for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and tacky to the touch. Pause the stand mixer to readjust the dough occasionally to ensure it is evenly kneaded. You may also need the dough by hand. Stop kneading when the dough achieves similar texture mentioned above.
- Let the dough proof – Shape your dough into a round ball, tucking all the seams underneath the dough ball and place in a large bowl that is well greased. Cover with plastic wrap or damp towel and place it somewhere warm for 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.
Prepare the Cinnamon-Sugar Filling
4. Cream together softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon – In a large bowl, whisk together the above ingredients until you form a thick, spreadable paste. Set aside.
Assemble Cinnamon Rolls
5. Punch down dough & allow to rest– After your dough has doubled in size, remove the dough onto a well floured surface and press down on the dough to release the excess gas and form a rectangle shape. Allow it to rest for 10 mins before rolling the dough.
6. Roll dough to 16″ x 21″ sheet – Using a rolling pin, roll the rectangular dough until it is roughly 16 x 21 inches. Then, spread on the cinnamon-sugar filling above evenly all over the dough, leaving 1/4 inch from the top so that it helps the dough stick together when rolled.
7. Roll the dough tightly into a log – Starting from the long side closest to you, roll the dough tightly up to the top.
8. Divide into 12 even pieces – Using a bench scraper or a serrated knife, divide the dough into 12 even pieces. You will likely have to trim off the ends of the log to ensure you have even pieces. These end pieces won’t count towards your 12 cinnamon rolls.
9. Second Rise – Place your 12 cinnamon rolls in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap or damp towel and allow to rise for another 30 minutes or until almost doubled in size.
10. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes – Once your dough has almost doubled in size, bake the rolls for 350 F for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Lightly frost the cinnamon rolls with the cream cheese frosting once they come out of the oven so they are lightly glazed. Once they are fully cooled, you can add more frosting if you wish.
Tips to Make the Best Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Use Bread Flour
As we mentioned in our other bread recipes, it is important to use bread flour instead of all purpose flour as it will yield a much better texture.
Make Sure Your Yeast is Still Active
This may be a given but it’s important to activate your dry active yeast in warm milk before you start making bread to ensure it is still active (i.e. alive). Dry active yeast only has a shelf life of 2 – 4 months in the pantry before it loses efficacy. If you store our yeast in the fridge or freezer, this can prolong its shelf life significantly.
Cream Together Cinnamon-Sugar Filling Mixture
Many cinnamon roll recipes call for you to brush the softened butter onto the dough and then sprinkling on the cinnamon sugar mixture afterwards to make the cinnamon-sugar filling mixture. While you can do it this way, I found that I get better results when I cream the cinnamon-sugar mixture with the butter to form a paste. Since the butter is well incorporated with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, it creates a more saucy filling as it melts in the oven.
Lightly Frost Them the Moment They Come Out of the Oven
Typically, we wouldn’t recommend you frost anything when it comes out fresh from the oven as it would cause the frosting to melt due to the residual heat from the baked goods. In this case, we would recommend you frost it right away as it forms a ‘protective glaze’ on the cinnamon rolls to really help preserve the moisture of the bread. It also acts as a light cream cheese frosting glaze for those who aren’t fond of lots of cream cheese frosting on their cinnamon rolls. If you really love your cream cheese frosting, you can easily add more once the cinnamon rolls have fully cooled.
Make ahead cinnamon rolls
If you want to have fresh cinnamon rolls in the morning, you can actually make these cinnamon rolls ahead of time the night before. After you shaped your cinnamon rolls and place them in a baking pan, cover them with a damp towel or plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. This will slow down the second stage of proofing.
When you’re ready to bake, take them out of the fridge and if they still haven’t increased by 1.5x in size, place them somewhere warm (i.e. inside the oven with the light on) and let them warm up for about 30 minutes or until they’ve 1.5x in size. Then, preheat the oven to 350F and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Storing & Freezing Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon Rolls freeze extremely well and they’re a great option for those who cannot finish all 12 cinnamon rolls in one sitting. If you wish to save your cinnamon rolls for a later date, you could either:
- Refrigerate them in an air tight container for up to 3 days.
- Wrap them in plastic wrap and store in a freezer safe ziplock bag and freeze them up to 3 months.
When you’re ready to eat them again, just pop it in the microwave and heat until warm. Similarly, if you have extra frosting, just place it in a freezer safe ziplock bag, press it flat so that it disperses evenly in the ziplock and stores easily flat in the freezer. It also thaws a lot faster this way.
Did you enjoy this recipe?
If you did, please leave us a comment below and tag us on Instagram @cookingwithteamj so we can see! If you liked this recipe, you may also enjoy these other bread recipes as well:
The Best Cinnamon Roll Recipe – Just like Cinnabon!
Ingredients
Cinnamon Rolls
- 1 cup warm milk (110F)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup margarine, melted
- 4 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
Filling
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
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Instructions
- 1. Activate the yeast by adding 2 1/2 tsp of dry active yeast into 1 cup of warm milk. Add in 1 tsp of the white sugar from the 1/2 cup of sugar to the milk mixture. Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast mixture is foamy.
- 2. Meanwhile, add bread flour, salt, remaining white sugar into stand mixer bowl with a dough hook attachment and stir to combine.
- 3. Once yeast mixture from step 1 is ready, add into the mixing bowl and stir on low speed. Then, add in your eggs (one at a time). Readjust the dough occasionally as the dough is kneading to ensure all the dry ingredients are well incorporated. Once it looks like most of the dry ingredients are incorporated, add in your melted margarine. Continue mixing the dough on low-medium speed until the dough pulls away the side of the bowl and the dough looks fairly smooth on the surface (approximately 10 minutes).
- 4. Remove dough from the mixing bowl and test for elasticity. If the dough is no longer sticky to the touch and you can stretch the dough easily without tearing, it’s ready. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a large greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap. Allow to proof somewhere warm for approximately 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- 5. After dough has doubled in size, turn the dough onto a well floured surface and press down on the dough shaping it into a rectangle. Cover the dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
- 6. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and unsalted butter until it forms a thick paste. It should have a spreadable consistency.
- 7. After your dough has rested, take a rolling pin and roll the dough out into a large rectangle (16 x 21 inches). Spread the filling evenly over the dough using an offset spatula, leaving about 1/4 inch from the top so that the dough can adhere easily when rolled.
- 8. Roll the dough from the bottom (long side) to the top, tucking in the seams as tightly as possible when you roll. Cut the dough into 12 even pieces. You may end up trimming off the end pieces to ensure the rolls come out even.
- 9. Place rolls in a 9×13 inch baking pan lined with parchment paper, leaving a bit of space in between so they can expand. Cover with damp towel or plastic wrap and allow to proof again for another 30 minutes or until 1.5x in size.
- 10. While the dough is going through second proof, preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare the cream cheese frosting by creaming all ingredients together in stand mixer with paddle attachment starting on low speed, then increasing to medium high speed until the frosting is nice and smooth.
- 11. After the rolls have doubled in size, remove damp towel/plastic wrap and bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. We recommend using half the cream cheese frosting to frost the cinnamon rolls while they’re still hot so they have a bit of a protective glaze to keep the rolls moist. Once they’re fully cooled, you can add more cream cheese frosting if you like.
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