I surprised myself by making these maple glazed cinnamon rolls Sunday morning. It is highly unusual for me to serve my family any kind of hot breakfast before we head to church. As much as I would love to be that kind of mom who makes homemade waffles and has everyone’s church clothes ironed to a crisp and layed out the night before, I’m so not her.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone made their beds, got dressed, ate a hot healthy breakfast, combed their hair, brushed their teeth, and then hopped in the car and waited for their lovely mother to put the finishing touches on her outfit and then join them? In reality, its more like we are all scrambling around until the last minute, and then when we finally land in our parking spot at church, I unbuckle Little Boy #3 and discover he has a stubborn Greek yogurt mustache and the buttons on his shirt are not matched up to their button hole properly. But as each boy gets a little older and a little more independent, I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And we always get there just in time, so I really can’t complain too much.
What’s nice about these cinnamon rolls is that most of the work is done the night before. It just takes one big bowl and a wooden spoon to mix up the dough, and then it is refrigerated overnight.
In the morning, the dough is rolled out, smeared with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
Then the dough is rolled up tightly and cut into one inch pieces. Let the rolls rise for about an hour. This is your chance to go take a quick shower and get yourself ready.
Bake them up nice and fluffy, and whip up my favorite maple glaze. I love, love, love this glaze. The combination of real maple syrup, butter, sugar, and cream… I could eat it by itself like a bowl of ice cream.
I love how a pan of warm cinnamon rolls can make a typical Sunday morning rush feel a little bit more special. Only problem is my boys are hoping for these every week. Probably not going to happen!
This recipe makes 24 cinnamon rolls, which I baked in one 9×13 baking dish and one 8×8 baking dish. Perfect for making one dish for your family, and sharing the other with another. Except we forgot to share ours, and ate them all ourselves. But we really intended to share. Next time we’ll share– promise.
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Maple Glazed Cinnamon Rolls
- Prep Time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 24 minutes
- Yield: 24 rolls 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Make this dough the night before and wake up to hot, fresh cinnamon rolls covered in sticky, sweet maple glaze.
Ingredients
For the Rolls
- 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 2 cups warm milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 cups flour, divided, plus more for rolling out dough
- 3/4 cups melted butter
For the Filling
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons cinnamon (I used 1 tablespoon)
For the Glaze
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
For the Rolls
- In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.
- Add milk, sugar, egg, salt, and 3 cups of the flour, stirring by hand with a wooden spoon with each each addition.
- Add in the melted but slightly cooled butter and stir, then gradually add in the remaining 3 cups of flour. The dough should start to pull away cleanly from the sides of the bowl, but still be soft and a bit sticky. Sprinkle a little more flour onto the dough and stir again if the dough is too sticky to get out of the bowl easily.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Then place the wrapped dough in a gallon sized Zip-lock bag. Do not squeeze all the air out of the bag.
- Place the dough into the refrigerator overnight.
- Remove the dough from the bag and plastic wrap, and punch it down.
- On a well floured surface, roll out the dough into a large rectangle to about 1/4 inch thickness. Check to see if the dough is sticking to your work surface as your roll and add more flour as needed.
- Spread the softened butter over the surface of the dough and then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. It’s not necessary to measure out the cinnamon, just sprinkle it on directly.
- Roll the dough tightly, starting with the long edge.
- With a sharp serrated knife, slice the dough into 24 pieces, about 1 inch thick and place into one greased 9×13 baking dish and one greased 8×8 baking dish.
- Cover each dish and place them somewhere warm. If you have a “bread proof” setting on your oven, this is a perfect place for them to rise. Otherwise, you can heat your oven to 150 degrees, then turn it off and place your dough in the oven. Allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.
- When dough has risen, remove the cover and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 22-24 minutes, or until they are just a little bit golden.
- Remove the rolls from the oven and make the glaze.
For the Glaze
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and whisk in powdered sugar until smooth and then stir in maple syrup and heavy cream.
- Pour the glaze over the warm rolls.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Roll
- Calories: 355
- Sugar: 22g
- Sodium: 226mg
- Fat: 17g
- Saturated Fat: 10g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.1g
- Trans Fat: 0.6g
- Carbohydrates: 47g
- Fiber: 1.2g
- Protein: 4.6g
- Cholesterol: 51mg
Aimee @ ShugarySweets says
These are gorgeous! I love maple flavored ANYTHING! Pinned.
Julie says
Thanks for pinning Aimee!
Laura Dembowski says
Cinnamon rolls are always tasty, but these sound even better with the maple glaze!
Julie says
Thanks Laura- I’m kind of new fan of maple, but now I want to put it on everything!
Sarah says
is it ok to use ready-to-use puff pastry ?
Julie says
Sarah, puff pastry would yield very different results. This dough is sweeter and more bread like. You could certainly experiment with puff pastry, but I’m not sure how long you would bake it. Hope this is helpful to you!
Zoe says
Could chocolate be used as well as cinnamon for filling?
Julie says
Zoe, I am not sure how that would turn out. If you end up trying it, let me know how you like it.
Jenna says
I just made these for my mom’s group this morning and everybody loved them including all the kids. They were all asking for more! Thanks for this great recipe!
Julie says
Yay! Glad they all liked them!
Ruth says
Your blog is beautiful! I am so excited to make these and a few other recipes I have printed from your blog. Thank you.
Julie says
Thanks Ruth! Hope you enjoy!
kentuckylady717 says
I would love to make these, they look so yummy, but don’t want to go to all this trouble with the dough…..any other ideas on how I can do that ????
Julie says
I think these are worth the trouble, I’m afraid any substitutions might make them less than exceptional! Sorry, no shortcuts here :0)
Marilyn says
Looks yummy – can they be baked and frozen and then just reheated? I’m sure they are best fresh but time is short these days and anything I can do ahead is wonderful.
Julie says
Marilyn, I can’t say for sure because I haven’t tried it, but I think the rolls would be fine frozen and then reheated. What I would do is make the glaze the morning you are serving them, and pour it on after they have been reheated. Let me know how this works if you decide to try it!
Caroline says
I wonder how they would turn out if instead of refrigerating the dough overnight, you let it rise for an hour or so, punch it down, roll it out and make the buns. THEN, refrigerate the unbaked buns overnight, and then in the morning you take them out of the fridge while the oven preheats and then bake and glaze them. I have done this with other cinnamon bun recipes and it work quite well . I’m going to try your recipe because it looks good and it makes lots of buns (I have teenagers and a cinnamon obsessed husband). This would save time in the morning and I guess there wouldn’t be an excuse not to have them every Sunday before church!
Julie says
Caroline, that would be a great time saver for the morning. Please let me know how it goes!
Caroline says
Hi Julie, I made these like I suggested in my previous comment. I had to bake them for 30 minutes because they were cold coming out of the fridge but they turned out beautifully. Great recipe!!
Julie says
Oh yay! Next time I make these I will have to try it your way. So glad to know it worked out! Thanks so much for letting me know Caroline. Hope you have a great weekend.
Caroline says
Hi again, I thought you might like to know that I made these buns for Christmas morning breakfast. To save a lot of time Christmas Eve, I made the buns a few days before and froze the unbaked buns right in the pans. Just before I went to bed Christmas Eve, I took them out of the freezer and left them on the kitchen counter overnight. Baked and frosted them in the morning. Turned out fabulous!
Caroline
Julie says
Thanks so much for letting me know that freezing them worked out just fine. I’ll definitely try that next time I make them!
sweetlittlebrownies says
Thank you so much for the maple glaze recipe! I used them on my cinnamon rolls here: http://sweetlittlebrownies.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/maple-glazed-cinnamon-rolls-for-days/
Trish B says
I have made these for family and an annual fund raiser coffee for two years and there is never a morsel left. Use a simple syrup that you like to use for your own pancakes and waffles which does not have to be an expensive, fancy syrup. People seem to like what is familiar and comforting.
Julie says
Thank you Trish.