I feel like a cinnamon roll making machine lately! I have been using the same cinnamon roll recipe for a while now, but I really wanted to see if I could successfully make a few changes that would simplify the recipe and also make it more convenient. My old recipe makes A LOT of cinnamon rolls. I really just wanted one pan. Though I’m sure my family would have no problem taking care of more! Also, I wanted to see if I could make the dough the night before, and have the rolls ready to bake in the pan the next morning.
It’s just so nice to be able to pull the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge, and not have to make too much of a mess in the kitchen first thing in the morning. Great for special occasions and holiday breakfasts.
I made these rolls three different times last week trying to get them just right. I brought some to friends, and some to my mom’s group, and then well yah, I ate a bunch myself! I used to be a little ho hum about cinnamon rolls in general, but lately I’m just wanting to dive right into that pan face first!
And this is some serious cream cheese frosting my friends. We are not messing around AT ALL! It’s not too sweet, and it really thick and fluffy too. Oh my, YUM! You could easily cover the whole pan with a thin layer if you half the frosting recipe, but if you love a good thick layer of frosting, make the full recipe and see what I mean!
Can you all guess which part of the roll is my absolute favorite? Oh man, that oh-so-soft and cinnamon-y core! I always save the best for last.
So let me give you a few tips so that your cinnamon rolls with come out just right.
1. You want to make sure that all of the liquid ingredients are warm, but not too hot. Make sure you are using good yeast, like not from two years ago.
2. Use the right amount of flour. This recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of flour, and then more for rolling out the dough. You really want to go more by feel than by measurement. You want to add just enough flour to make your dough not too sticky to handle, but no more. The softer/stickier your dough is, the more tender your roll will be. But you can’t roll it out properly if it sticks to your work surface, so its a fine balance. Lift the dough up every now and then as your roll it out to make sure it’s not sticking, and add more flour to the counter as you need it.
3. If you haven’t worked with yeast dough very much, you will get better with practice. Don’t be afraid, just jump in there and try it!
Make sure you use a sharp serrated knife when you are cutting your dough, and let the knife do the work as you gently saw back and forth so that you don’t squish the dough. Don’t worry if they don’t look perfect. They’ll fill out as the rise and bake.
This is what your dough will look like in the morning after you have let it rise for an hour. The rolls will rise even more when you bake them, so don’t worry if there is quite a bit of space in the pan.
Hope these tips are helpful for you, and that you get a chance to make these and fall in love with them just as we did!
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Overnight Cinnamon Rolls With Cream Cheese Frosting
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Cinnamon Rolls you can make the night before and bake first thing in the morning! Plus the thickest, fluffiest cream cheese frosting you’ve ever had.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 packet)
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons melted butter
For the Filling
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
For the Frosting
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Pour the yeast into a large bowl. Pour warm water over the yeast and stir to dissolve.
- Pour the warm milk over the yeast. You want all your liquid ingredients to feel warm, but not hot.
- Stir in the sugar and beaten egg.
- Add 2 cups of the flour and salt, and then mix well by hand.
- Pour melted (but not too hot) butter in, and mix.
- Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour, and mix by hand until the dough is sticky, but pulls away from the sides of the bowl into one large ball.
- Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours.
- Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a well floured surface. I usually use another 1/4 cup of flour on my work surface, adding some to the top and bottom of the dough as I roll it out to prevent it from sticking to the counter.
- Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick, into the shape of a rectangle measuring 12 by 18 inches.
- Smear your softened butter all over the dough. Then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the butter, taking care to go to the edges.
- Starting with a long edge of the rectangle, roll the dough up.
- Using a sharp serrated knife or dental floss, cut the rolled up dough in half. Cut each half in half again. Then cut each quarter into equal thirds so you have 12 pieces.
- Place each piece into a greased 9 by 13 inch baking dish with the spiral side up.
- Cover the baking dish and refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning, remove the baking dish from the fridge and let it sit in a warm spot in your kitchen for one hour. I usually turn my oven on for 30 seconds, then I turn it off and let the rolls rise covered in the just warm oven. Or you may have a “bread proof” setting on your oven.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the baking dish on the center rack of your oven, and bake for 24-27 minutes. The tops will be golden brown.
For the Frosting
- Place softened butter and cream cheese into the bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk together until smooth and then add powdered sugar and whisk again on low speed. When all of the powdered sugar is mixed in, add heavy cream and whisk on medium high speed for about a minute.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cinnamon Roll
- Calories: 500
- Sugar: 29g
- Sodium: 260mg
- Fat: 27g
- Saturated Fat: 16g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8.2g
- Trans Fat: 0.8g
- Carbohydrates: 60g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 6.9g
- Cholesterol: 88mg
Jamie says
If I double the recipe does the yeast amount stay the same?
Julie says
No, you should make two separate batches exactly as written for the best results. Thanks for your question!
Laura says
Can these be left in the refrigerator longer than overnight? Was wanting to make these Christmas Eve Eve 🙂 and pull out to bake Christmas morning (so they’d be in the fridge ~36 hours). Will they still turn out?
Julie says
Hi Laura, I can see how that would be super nice to have them ready to go so early, but I would worry about how they would turn out after being in the fridge longer than overnight – just because I really haven’t had the chance to test the recipe that way. Hope this helps! Merry Christmas!
Liz says
I am making these today, so that we have freshly-baked, warm-gooey cinnamon rolls for our Christmas breakfast. A tradition. Is there a limit to how long these can be refrigerated? I want to make them this morning and put them in fridge, but that would be a lot longer than just overnight. Thanks!
Julie says
I have never made them more than 12 hours before baking, but I don’t think a few more hours would matter too much. Hope you enjoy!!!
Sarah says
I LOVE this recipe! I’ve made these for breakfast on Christmas morning the last 2 years and they’re always a big hit, and I haven’t had any issues living at high altitude which is andolurely wonderful. The only thing I changed was doing a mix of white sugar and brown sugar, so yummy! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Sarah says
*absolutely 😳
Julie says
This makes me SO happy Sarah!
Ellen says
Just made these for the time. Perfect for this blustery winter morning. I used brown sugar for the filling and threw in about 1/3 cup of raisins. Super delicious. Since I only had 4 oz of cream cheese I made half recipe of frosting which was more than enough. The flavor of the cheese was strong
Chantelle Kern says
Can these be made with gluten-free flour?
Julie says
I’ve never tried them with gluten-free flour so I’m not sure. Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it!
Trina says
This was such an easy recipe! Thank you!!!! They were amazing also. 😁
Tanya says
I’ll be honest. I am always a bit skeptical about pulling recipes off Pinterest. After failing at quite a few other cinnamon roll recipes I dug deep into your reviews, past the “these look good’, before committing. I am glad I committed. They are a winner. Thank you!
Tanya
Julie says
Thanks so much for the good feedback Tanya!
pat says
I bake my rolls, cool, slice apart and freeze in ziplock bags. Place frozen roll on plate and microwave 38-40seconds. Every roll is oven fresh.
Darcie says
These were so good! Just finished baking them and they’re already gone. Next time I might change up the frosting. I really enjoyed the tangyness of the cream cheese, but my kids and husband prefer a more traditional frosting. Thanks for the great recipe!!
Julie says
You are so welcome! Glad you liked them.
Patti says
I assume you would whole milk for this recipe but can you confirm? Thank you! Cannot wait to try!
Julie says
Good question, Patti! I do use whole milk in all my baking.
Jill Kerby says
These cinnamon buns look wonderful. Where I live (Dublin, Ireland) most recipes are now expressed in grammes, though many people -and professional cooks – still use ounces & pounds with 16 ounces to the pound. A cup is measured as 8 ounces or half a pound. A half cup is therefore four ounces.
Are these ounce/cup measurements correct for this recipe? (I’ve come across some American recipes in which a cup is measured as four ounces…
Many thanks
Julie says
I see how this would be frustrating – I think it depends on what you are measuring, correct? When I measure a cup of flour, I believe it is 4 1/2 ounces or 120 grams. Someday I would like to take on the challenge of learning to bake with a scale – I know it is much more accurate, but just now how I grew up learning to bake. Hope this is helpful for you.
Bailey says
Hi Julie! I’m looking forward to making these! I was wondering, do you think I could make these in a sheet pan like your other recipe? I’m wanting to make them smaller to make more (i’ll probably double the recipe too). What do you think? Thanks!
Julie says
Hi Bailey – great question! So the overnight cinnamon roll recipe is pretty much the sheet pan cinnamon roll recipe halved. The only part that remains constant in both recipes is the yeast, and water used to dissolve it (first two ingredients). So you can use the sheet pan cinnamon roll recipe, but just make the dough, let rise, form the rolls, and place the rolls in the sheet pan the night before. Cover and refrigerate, and then in the morning, take them out and let them rise for 45 min to an hour. Bake as directed in the sheet pan recipe. Does that make sense? Let me know if not! Also, I haven’t actually done this with the sheet pan recipe, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Sarah says
Made these last night for Christmas breakfast this morning. Ive tried several cinnamon roll recipes but this one blows them all away. The recipe is very easy, no kneading required with the dough. The only thing I changed was mixing all the filling ingredients together and spreading them on the dough, and I used brown sugar. The rolls were heavenly. So fluffy and gooey. Outstanding recipe.
Thanks!
Julie says
Thank you Sarah!
Corynne says
Made these for Christmas Day breakfast today. They were delicious! My only question is on the butter. Most of the baking I do uses unsalted butter, so that’s what I used. Do you use salted or unsalted?
Julie says
Sorry just getting to your question. I use salted butter just because that’s what I always have on hand but I’m sure a professional baker would use unsalted.
Corynne says
Thank you! It wasn’t a noticeable difference, but maybe slightly low on the salt with unsalted. I did sprinkle a little bit of kosher salt into the dough, but will use salted next time. Happy New Year and thanks for the tasty recipe!
Bobbi says
These cinnamon rolls are delicious and the Icing AMAZING!!! Thanks for sharing this great recipe.
Julie says
Thanks Bobbi! So glad you enjoyed them. Cinnamon rolls are one of my favorite things to make!
Queenie says
Instead of leaving it in the fridge overnight could I leave it out in a warm spot with a cloth overnight?
Sharon Gurney says
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I usually use margarine rather than butter for baking and wondering if anyone has tried margarine for these cinnamon rolls.
Julie says
I would recommend using butter. Hope you enjoy!
Lucy Silveira says
Just made them for breakfast. The house smells heavenly. Everyone enjoyed them. Best recipe ever and made them step by step so easy.
Julie says
So glad Lucy! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out!
Alisha says
These were really awesome. A real treat on a Sunday morning for my boys. A big thanks from us here in South Africa 🙂