Want an easy cinnamon roll recipe that will give you delicious cinnamon rolls made from scratch in an hour? From the first time I made these cinnamon rolls, I knew they would become a family staple. They are delicious and even easy enough to make on a busy school morning.
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Cinnamon Rolls Made From Scratch
I have always wanted to make cinnamon rolls but I had it in my head that they were super complicated to make. Come to find out they’re actually pretty easy to make.
With this recipe, I found that I could easily make homemade cinnamon rolls in about an hour. Now I make them all the time and they’ve become a staple in our household.
What you need:
Rolls
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbs butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- 1-1 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons cinnamon
Frosting
- 1/2-1 stick softened butter
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
What to do:
Start by heating your oven to 200 degrees.
Next, add the milk, water, sugar, and butter in a microwave safe dish and microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. I usually do this in a glass measuring cup. You don’t want the mixture to exceed 100 degrees or it could kill the yeast.
One the milk mixture is warmed add in the yeast and let it get bubbly. This will take about 5 – 10 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, yeast mixture, and egg. Be sure to combine everything so that everything is incorporated. Once it is, dump it onto a flour surface and knead for about 8 minutes and shape it into a ball. Place a towel or plastic over the ball of dough and let it rest for 5 minutes.
The dough will be sticky, add only enough flour to your hands and counter so that the dough does not stick.
Re-flour your surface and spread the dough out into a rectangle of about 12 inches by 16 inches. Don’t worry about being exact this is just an estimate. Once it is rolled out, spread some softened butter onto the dough and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar filling. Be sure to cover the entire surface.
Carefully and tightly roll the dough being sure to pinch the ends. From there cut into 12 rolls or as many as you prefer – I usually end up with 14 – 16 rolls. Place in greased baking dish.
Now SHUT OFF THE OVEN. Cover the cinnamon rolls with foil and place in the oven. You are just going to let the rolls rise at this point. Set a timer for 30 minutes.
When the time is up, remove the rolls from the oven and the foil. Set the oven to 35 degrees. When the oven is ready bake the cinnamon rolls for about 15-18 minutes or until they have turned a golden brown on top.
How to Make the Frosting
While the cinnamon rolls are baking you can make the frosting up. Just simply add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix using a hand mixer.
When the cinnamon rolls are done baking, remove them from the oven and wait about 5 -10 minutes before you frost them.
What to Know
When making these cinnamon rolls, you will find that if you only cut the log into 12 rolls, you will have ginormous cinnamon rolls. I love them like this! However, with the large family I have 12s not usually enough. Feel free to start in the middle and cut the log in half, then in half again, and again, and so on until you have your desired size. This usually gets me 14 – 16 regular sized cinnamon rolls.
You can easily make these cinnamon rolls ahead of time and store them in the fridge. I’ve made the rolls ahead of time and baked them the next day. Just make them up as you would, place them in the dish you will bake them in and cover with plastic wrap. When it’s time to bake them, just take them out and let them warm up to about room temperature before you bake them.
Because you are skipping the extra rise time, they don’t rise as nicely but still taste delicious.
To store the cinnamon rolls, if there are any leftovers, just wrap them up and place in the fridge or counter. To warm back up you can use the microwave and heat in 30 second increments until warmed to your liking.
If you would like, you can use store bought frosting – I think a cream cheese frosting would be delicious on these cinnamon rolls.
Optional Filling
I recently made these cinnamon rolls and realized I was out of brown sugar half way through making them. *face palm*
In quick thinking, I ended up using some Amish Pumpkin Butter in place of the cinnamon sugar filling.
I’ve also used pumpkin pie seasoning in place of cinnamon.
Really you could use any kind of jelly or jam in place of the cinnamon sugar filling. I would love to try some strawberry jam some time.
Want more recipes? Try making your own sourdough starter from scratch! If you want an easier route, you can purchase my dehydrated starter here! 🙂
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Cinnamon Roll Dough
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
Filling
- 1-1 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2-3 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2-1 stick softened butter
Frosting
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla
- 1-2 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees
- In a bowl combine milk, water, butter, and sugar and microwave for about 1 minutes and 30 seconds. You don't want it exceeding 100 degrees or it will kill the yeast.
- Add yeast to mixture and let sit for about 5 minutes until bubble.
- In mixing bowl, add flour, salt, egg, and yeast mixture.
- Once combined, place it on a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes. Then, place a towel or plastic over dough for 5 minutes and let rest.
- Flour your surface and roll dough out making a 12 inch by 16 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter on the dough and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar.
- Roll dough tightly and then cut to desired sized rolls.
- TURN OFF THE OVEN and place rolls inside, covered with foil, to rise for 30 minutes.
- While waiting for rolls to rise, using a hand beater, combine softened butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.
- Bake the rolls at 375 for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Let rest for 10 minutes and then frost.
