Cinnamon Roll Perfection

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Is there anything better than a perfect hot, fresh cinnamon roll? Soft, tender, and sweet bread spiralled with layers of richly spiced cinnamon sugar. With a silky smooth topping of sweet cream cheese icing melting and mixing in between each layer; true decadence!

I make these rolls for friends and family every year at Christmas time. They are not difficult to make but, since they are so rich and decadent, I like to save them for something special.

Typically, cinnamon rolls are served as a dessert, snack, or a sweet breakfast.

Cinnamon roll dough

Cinnamon roll dough is an enriched yeasted dough.

What is an enriched dough? This means the dough is enriched with added fat. This makes the bread part of the cinnamon roll soft and pillowy!

If you think of a French baguette, it is made with water, flour, yeast, and salt. This is not an enriched dough. There is no added fat. It is a tough, crusty, chewy bread. Which is perfect for a baguette, but not a cinnamon roll!

An enriched dough, like in this recipe, is made with milk, eggs, and butter added in. These added fats make a soft, tender, pillowy bread. Which is what you want for cinnamon rolls!

You can make cinnamon rolls without eggs, milk, or butter but the texture of the roll will not be as soft.

Cinnamon Roll Icing or Frosting

Cream Cheese Icing – Cinnamon rolls, classically, are served with a cream cheese icing. This is what my family likes.

Vanilla Bean Glaze – A simple glaze on top is just the right amount of sweetness to compliment the cinnamon swirl in these buns.

Apple sauce – This may seem like a strange one, but as a child I always ate cinnamon rolls dipped in apple sauce. Try it!

Apple pie filling – Cinnamon and apples, a match made in heaven. Warm apple pie filling with a cinnamon roll is a perfect pairing!

Plain – A simple cinnamon roll for breakfast, without icing, to have on the side of coffee or tea; what a treat!

Cinnamon Roll Filling

These cinnamon rolls are filled with a mixture of brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. I have made the filling in three different ways in the past.

Melted butter – Using melted butter and mixing the cinnamon and sugar with it is the simplest way, I have found to make it. It works out perfectly, which is why I have chosen this for the recipe. It is easy to incorporate everything by hand and spread onto the dough.

Whipped butter – You can also opt to whip the butter and cinnamon sugar together. It is a bit of an extra step but it butters onto the dough very nicely.

Separate – Spread softened butter onto the dough. Mix the cinnamon sugar together in a bowl and then sprinkle it on top of the butter layer. This method also works but I find that some of the dry mixture falls out of the rolls while you are assembling the rolls to bake.

How to make the dough

Stand mixer – This is my favourite way to make the dough. However, I often take it out and knead it by hand for a few minutes. I often find that dough sticks to the dough hook and does not knead as well as I can by hand.

In a large bowl – You do not need any fancy equipment to make amazing cinnamon rolls. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl, by hand. When the dough is formed, knead it on a counter top for about 8 minutes.

Cinnamon roll dough in the bread machine – Assemble the ingredients in the pan of your bread machine and choose the dough setting. When it is finished you will be at the step of rolling out the dough and assembling the cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon Rolls for Breakfast

If you want to have your cinnamon rolls for breakfast, make them the night before. Let them do their final rise, in the refrigerator overnight. The lower temperatures extends the time needed for the buns to rise. In the morning, they will be ready to place in the oven to bake and serve fresh and warm!

Ingredients for Classic Cinnamon Roll Perfection

Cinnamon roll dough

1 cup warm milk

½ cup sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons dry-active yeast

1 teaspoon salt

4 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, softened

Cinnamon Roll Filling

1 ½ cups brown sugar

3 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

¾ cup melted butter

Cinnamon Roll Icing

1 8oz brick of cream cheese, softened

¼ cup butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, (or a large bowl by hand) add the warm milk and a sprinkle of the sugar.
2. Sprinkle the yeast on top. It will become foamy in about 5 minutes.
3. When the yeast is ready, mix in the rest of the sugar, salt, flour, and beaten eggs.
4. Knead in the butter until you have a smooth dough, about 5 minutes (or 8 minutes by hand)
5. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
6. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and roll into a rectangle. (Mine was about 36 cm by 63 cm)
7. In a medium bowl, mix together the filling ingredients.
8. Spread the filling evenly on top of the rectangle of dough.
9. Starting at the longest side of the rectangle, roll the dough up into a log shape. Press the seam slightly to close.
10. Slice the log into 12 cinnamon rolls. (I use a sharp knife and mine never squish, but you can also wrap a piece of string around and pull tight to evenly cut through on all sides, if you are worried about that.)
11. Spread out your cinnamon rolls evenly into a greased, rectangular, casserole dish.
12. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 mins to 1 hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
13. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
14. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Icing

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until you have a smooth icing.
3. You can either spread the icing on all of the cinnamon rolls at once; or, what we do, keep the icing in a jar and each person gets to spread their own icing. That way if you do not eat the entire casserole dish of cinnamon rolls at once, you can remove one, heat it back up, and then spread on fresh icing.