These are prepared the night before, then baked the next day. My relatives and friends find it impossible to avoid them. They are quite rich and moist.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 2 dozen |
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 cups dark brown sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in the butter; stir until melted. Add water and let cool until lukewarm.
- In a large bowl, combine the milk mixture, yeast, white sugar, salt, eggs and 2 cups flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
- Divide dough into two pieces. Roll each piece into a 12×9 inch rectangle. In a bowl, stir together the cinnamon and brown sugar. Spread each piece with half of the butter, half of the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough, using a little water to seal the seam.
- Cut each roll into 12 slices using a very sharp knife or dental floss. Place rolls onto two 9×13 inch greased baking pans. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
- To make frosting; combine confectioner’s sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add milk gradually until frosting reaches a spreading consistency. Spread over warm (but not hot) cinnamon rolls.
- To make these ahead of time, follow the recipe up to step 4. Arrange on baking sheets but do not let the rolls rise. Cover rolls with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The rolls will rise slowly during the night. The next morning, remove the plastic wrap, set the baking sheets on the counter, and set aside for about 20 minutes while preheating the oven. Bake as directed.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 331 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 56 g |
| Cholesterol | 42 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 181 mg |
| Sugars | 31 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
OMG hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy night. Yes folks, I’ve been cooking and baking for over 40 years but cinnamon rolls had me stumped. This is a good recipe. I halved the recipe. Here’s what I experienced. I proofed 2T yeast in 1/4 cup water. When proofed I used it, water and all. This made the mix, in addition to all other ingredients, a thick soupy mess. So I decided to add the recommended flour and 2 more T sugar. Still a mess. I added probably 5 more cups of flour and tasted it. Sweet enough. Followed all the directions but added soaked raisins. Substituted some oil for all that butter (yuck). It came out fine but it was a real white water ride.
I’m not sure what went wrong but all the filling melted out while baking. The dough was good at least but I’m a little disappointed. I will try again before swapping to a different recipe because this one does seem well loved.
A Christmas morning requirement, as per my children.
For my first experience with yeast this wasn’t bad. I did read reviews and highly recommend the bread hook for mixing in the stand mixer. My yeast took longer than the directions said to rise. Much longer but they still turned out. I made the recipe for 24 rolls . I recommend cutting the “frosting” recipe in 1/2 you will end up with way more than you need. I would really say it was more icing /graze style versus frosting.
I have to say, I was skeptical until the last 10 minutes of proofing and even then was worried I might end up with biscuits. Turned out great. Changes to the recipe: 1) Added about 3/4 cup additional flour as the dough was unmanageable otherwise. 2) For the cream cheese icing, I used 6Oz of cream cheese (x2 as much), 3x as much milk and 1.5 cups of icing sugar. I found a runny icing to be more to my liking and it was less sweet. Thanks for sharing you recipe!
First time making cinnamon rolls and I loved this recipe. For the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture the recipe calls for 2tsp of cinnamon, but I added more just until the mixture actually smelled and tasted like cinnamon. And for the frosting using half of the cream cheese was enough to cover all my cinnamon rolls.
Great! I modified it slightly. 1 extra egg, about 1/2 tsp each of ground nutmeg, allspice, cloves.
Giving this 5 stars because the issues I had with it were all user error! I thought I was making a recipe for 12. I was in fact making a recipe for 24, so they turned out huge. Not really a huge problem in my book. However, because of this, I had them split 9 in one tray and 3 in the other, and the 9 were still half-raw after 35 minutes of baking (since they were twice the size they were supposed to be). They also proofed weird, since I ran out of flour and had to run out for 20 minutes, then let them proof for an additional half an hour so they ended up humongous. Again, this is probably because they were already cut twice as big as they should have been. So, all in all, great recipe! I’m just dumb.
The family was very happy! The rolls didn’t rise in the hour after they were assembled. I took them out of the fridge in the morning and let them sit on the warm stovetop to take the chill out and they did rise beautifully in the oven.
Made a half batch cuz 24 rolls is a lot! But it was super easy for scratch made rolls and darn tasty too! Definitely gonna make it again.
We loved the flavor of the rolls. I will be making them again. My only suggestion will be to set the yeast to grow apart from the milk and butter, I had problems with the dough rising – it just took forever.
Made these as instructed. I did put in refrigerator and baked the next morning and they were great. All my family enjoyed these.
I followed some of the earlier reviews and they turned out wonderfully. Used all bread flour, let the dough proof for 2 hours before rolling, and then proofed the cut rolls in the pan for 2 hours before baking. Delicious!
I used others’ suggestions to let the yeast do its thing: I whisked it into the warm milk mixture with some of the sugar, and then let the dough set before kneading it. It was still VERY sticky, and I had to use a lot of flour to help knead it. I also let the dough rise for about a half hour. The cinnamon rolls are going to rise in the fridge overnight, we’ll see how they come out in the morning. I should have halved the recipe, I don’t need 24 cinammon rolls!
I let it rise incorrectly but this recipe was soo worth the while!
This is a very good recipe. I found that I needed nearly 8 cups of flour vs 6 to create a workable dough. With that adjustment I ended up with exactly 24 rolls. I rolled raisins in with the brown sugar/cinnamon, cuz my wife likes them in there. Dried cherries or cranberries would work as well. This will be my go-to going forward!
really yummy but I needed more flour, like a cup more flour…
I have a feeling this didn’t like it rating was a combination of the recipe and me. I found the rolls to be heavy and they didn’t rise. They also didn’t taste very good. I’ve certainly had better. I will not be using this recipe again but will try another.
Followed the recipe exactly and they were a delicious hit with our family on Christmas morning. 🙂
Yummy!
super easy to make even my 4yr old granddaughter was able to help.. and tastes great too