Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls + Video
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Cinnabon cinnamon rolls can be made easily at home with this copycat recipe! Soft sweet rolls with thick cinnamon-sugar filling and ooey-gooey cream cheese frosting that you’ll remember long after the Cinnabons are gone!
Although there is probably a Cinnabon in every mall and airport across the country, I wasn’t introduced to the heavenly bakery until I moved to Arizona.
I guess I always thought, “So what? It’s a cinnamon roll”.
Boy, did I underestimate how delicious they are!!
It wasn’t long after that day at the mall when Chad and I fell in love. Was it the cinnamon roll? Who knows, but it sure didn’t hurt!
Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
A soft, sweet yeast-risen roll with thick brown sugar and cinnamon filling, and the most scrumptious cream cheese frosting you will ever eat.
We are so excited to have recreated a Cinnabon cinnamon roll recipe to share with you!!
If you enjoy the flavors of sweet cinnamon and sugar, we also have recipes for Cinnabon Cinnamon Stix, cinnamon sugar donuts, French toast, and homemade cinnamon swirl bread, too!
A fabulously soft, sweetened bread made with egg and buttermilk is the base for Cinnabons classic treat, and its also the base for ours.
We make our filling with butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and a little cornstarch to thicken up the filling (so it doesn’t all ooze out, thanks to a great tip from a recipe message board).
The Cinnabon cinnamon roll icing is, of course, the star of the show! A vanilla cream cheese frosting with a hint of lemon to really make it stand out.
It’s enough to make your thoughts linger long after you have devoured your first cinnamon roll.
Kitchen Tools You Will Need for Cinnamon Rolls
How to Make Cinnabon Cinnabon Rolls Without a Stand Mixer
No stand mixer? No worries! You can mix the dough by hand if you do not have a stand mixer.
- Add water, yeast, and sugar to a large bowl. Once the yeast blooms stir in the buttermilk, eggs, and butter.
- Mix with a spoon and add the salt and flour. Stir until you can no longer stir with a spoon.
- Turn dough out onto the floured countertop and knead for 3-5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky.
- Proceed with remaining instructions as shown in the Cinnabon cinnamon rolls recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Make Ahead Instructions
The easiest way to prep this recipe is to do most of the work the day before you want to serve the rolls.
Then all you have to do is pop them in the fridge and bake them fresh the next morning. They are our absolute favorite.
OVERNIGHT PREPARATION:
- Prepare the cinnamon roll dough and cinnamon sugar filling and assemble according to the Cinnabon cinnamon rolls recipe below.
- Place the unbaked cinnamon rolls into the baking pans and place them in the refrigerator. The dough will slowly rise overnight.
- The next morning, remove the pans of Cinnabons from the refrigerator and bake.
NOTE: They may need a few extra minutes in the oven to account for the cold dough, so be sure they are cooked thoroughly before you pull them out. - Prepare the cream cheese icing and apply the frosting according to the copycat instructions.
After much back and forth with the family, we have finally decided on what to have for Christmas breakfast, and it’s going to be these outrageous sweet cinnamon rolls.
They really are the best holiday brunch treat!
If you want the ooey-gooey goodness of Cinnabon rolls, but you don’t want to go out for them, make them with this Cinnabon copycat recipe!!
Enjoy!
With love, from our simple kitchen to yours.
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Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls + Video
Ingredients
Rolls
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup water warm, 110-120°F
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Filling
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, softened
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 stick, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Pour water and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (see cooks note if you do not have a stand mixer), sprinkle yeast over top, and stir. Allow yeast to bloom for 5-10 minutes. Once it is nice and foamy, it is ready. *It should look like the ‘head’ of a beer poured too quickly and smell yeasty.
- In the meantime: melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
- Once the yeast mixture is aromatic and looks like the head of a beer, add buttermilk, eggs, and butter to the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on low and add 4 cups of flour, one cup at a time. Add salt. Once the flour is mixed in, add remaining flour slowly until dough becomes a ball. Mine takes 5 ½ cups total. Knead dough on medium-high for 5 minutes. Add more flour a tablespoon at a time as needed, if bread is too sticky to come together. The dough should be tacky when you pull it out of the mixer, not sticky.
- Lightly dust countertop with flour. Turn dough out onto the countertop. Knead a few turns, shape dough into a ball.
- Add 1 tablespoon butter to bowl and heat in microwave until melted. Place dough into bowl upside down, flip the dough over and cover loosely with plastic wrap and drape bowl with a towel. Set bowl in a warm place in your kitchen. Allow dough to rise for 60-90 minutes until nearly doubled in size.
- Meanwhile combine light brown sugar, cinnamon, and corn starch in a medium bowl. Stir with a fork until well combined. Set aside.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough a few turns, then using a rolling pin, roll out into an 18” tall x 24” wide rectangle. Spread softened butter around dough leaving the bottom 1” border uncoated.
- Sprinkle the buttered dough with brown sugar mixture, leaving the bottom 1” uncoated. Use your rolling pin to gently press sugar mixture into the dough (so it doesn’t fall out as you roll it).
- Starting at the top, tightly roll dough toward you, using the last 1” to seal roll. Cut dough roll in half and then cut those halves in half, giving you 4 pieces. Cut each of those pieces into 1/3rd. You will have 12 pieces.
- Grease (2) 9”x13” baking dishes. Place rolls in pans evenly spaced out, 2 rows of 3 rolls in each. Make sure to put the end pieces upside down. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and drape a towel over pans. Set pans in a warm place and allow rolls to rise another 60-90 minutes until rolls have doubled in size.
- Preheat oven 350°F.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Halfway through baking time rotate the pans.
- In the meantime prepare frosting; add cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer (or stand mixer) until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Set aside.
- Remove rolls from oven. Spread ¼ of frosting over each pan of rolls. Allow to cool slightly and repeat. Serve and enjoy!
Video
Donna’s Notes
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe’s nutritional value will vary depending on the ingredients used, measuring methods, and portion sizes.
Originally published November 2013, updated and republished June 2023
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Thank you for sharing this recipe. It's the best! I have never found a recipe I liked, until now. It was easy to follow. Theses are the best tasting cinnamon rolls I have made. Thank you again.
I am so happy you loved these cinnamon rolls, They are a family favorite.
Thank you for stopping by to tell us about your experience!
Great recipe! I like how they are not as dense as a cinnabon but just as tasty. My husband's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he took the first bite and said, " oh my goodness! "
The only change I made was baking them in 8×8" pans, 4 rolls to a pan. Froze two pans for future use but they may not last long.
Im going to make these but I only have salted butter not unsalted will this be alright? Will the recipe turn out alright if I use the salted butter?
It will not hurt the recipe. Just add a little less salt to your mixture.
No problem. Just add a little less salt to the mixture.
Can the recipe be halved and mixed in a bread machine?
I can't wait to make these. I promised my family for Saturday morning Breakfast. Looks so yummy!
I LOVE Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, I was so happy when I found your site a year ago. My 13 year old granddaughter has helped me make them several times. She is very helpful. I laughed when she tried her hand at rolling the dough out, we are making them as I am writing this to you. Thank you so much.Its the best recipe.
Thank you for sharing! These rolls got rave reviews from my family and friends. My family is requesting these every week. I have shared on my own blog.
is it okay if I use fast rising yeast instead of the dry active?
Cannot make these. After trying many recipes based on the picture mainly because the picture looked soooooo good, I look closer now. This picture does not match the instructions. The instructions say two 9 x 13 pans each containing '6' rolls. This picture shows more so it is definitely a picture of something else. I cannot take a chance of wasting time and ingredients on this…………..just sayin'
So sorry to hear that. I have made this recipe countless times and have used 2 pans and 1 (9×13) pan. The 9×13 made great rolls, but they did not get as big as when I made them in 2 (9×6) pans. Good luck and enjoy. I put my name on this recipe because I stand by it. Enjoy and good luck!
This recipe is awesome! I have featured it as one of 25 excellent copycat recipes today on Ducks n a Row. Hope you can stop by1
A friend of mine LOVES cinnamon rolls, and I'd really like to make a batch of these for her birthday. I've made them many times before, but I always do it in a straight run through. Is it ok to make these ahead and refrigerate before baking? If so do I need to let them come to room temperature to bake? Or is it just better to bake them ahead and tell my friend to reheat them?
These are awesome….I tried other copy cat recipes for the cinnamon buns, but yours is the best. I love that you don't use margarine like the other ones too. The icing is awesome.
Thanks for a recipe that my family absolutely loves.
Thank you so much for this recipe!!!! 🙂 I've just made my first Cinnabon rolls according to your directions. The rolls were delicious :))) But could you advise me what should I do to make sugar less noticeable? After baking the sugar was not melted and I felt big crystals in my mouth :/
I made these for a retirement party last spring and my coworkers all but licked the pans clean. Needless to say, they loved them! However, now they ask me to make them ALL the time. I finally gave in and are making them as I'm typing this. Can't wait to taste these yummy buns again!
FYI: I used a bread machine on the dough setting, allowing the yeast to bloom first. Then, adding all wet ingredients followed by the dry, I set it and walked away. The dough turned out great!
Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
I just made these tonight and I am in love! I will never use another cinnamon roll recipe nor will I buy them again! I did not have any trouble with mine being heavy. They were so pillowy soft. I had to have two because one was not enough. I absolutely cannot wait for breakfast tomorrow! So good they make you want to close your eyes with every bite!
I made these cinnamon rolls and they came out absolutely delicious. These are better than cinnabun, as a matter of fact it blows theirs away. I had one on hand to taste side by side. The one thing you must do if you can is grind your own cinnamon. The difference when using fresh ground is dramatic. Prepackaged ground cinnamon is mostly garbage.
Awesome recipe. Today is my second attempt. First were great. I hope I do better. Practice, practice, practice. Instructions were easy to follow. My wife couldn't believe what a great job I did.
Made these tonight….AMAZING. Seriously. So perfect. The only thing I changed up is I used more milk than water, so 3/4 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup water. I also use my own frosting recipe. Best homemade cinnamon roll I've ever had. Ever. And my neighborhood and I have been addicted to The Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls- again with my own frosting- and I'll still make them and love them, because they offer a different bread consistency, but they take longer to make and even when you halve the recipe you have rolls coming out your ears. This recipe here gives you a different experience. The dough is so airy and just, perfect!! Thank you for sharing this divine recipe!!
I make these all the time, I found a trick with cutting them, I use floss. Slide a long strand of floss under rolled dough, bring it up around criss cross then pull, cuts a perfect piece.
Mine are in the fridge, to be baked in the morning. I have a few friends coming over to work on my house, so I wanted a treat. But I messed up and used bread flour. Old habits die hard! I bet they are still great and chewy and wonderful. Can hardly wait till morning.
I would like to try these, but I'm confused. If I want to make them and put them in fridge until next morning, at what point do I do this? And the next morning when I take them out, what do I do? And if you want to freeze dough, at what point, etc. same questions. Thanks.
Looks absolutely delicious!
So excited to try the cinnamon roll recipe!!! Thank you so much for sharing. On an aside, since you are capable of breaking down a recipe in its copy cat form, wondering if you can help me crack the code to another baked good. I am trying to figure out how to make a donut that I had in Shipshewana, Indiana at the Rise-N-Roll bakery called a cinnamon caramel donut. The dough literally melts on your tongue like cotton candy when you bite into it. Any idea what kind of dough they might be using or how to achieve that affect with a donut? Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks 🙂
ME: https://www.facebook.com/srallen5150
Donut Shop: https://risenroll.com/product/cinnamon-caramel-donuts/
Hey, I want to convert the measurement into metric measurement; is this US measurement system?
I use this recipe each week to give to friends. Everyone loves them. Was my first time using yeast so I was surprised at the great result. You spurred me to purchase a Kitchen-Aid Professional and I am on cloud nine. Thank you
We are so happy you enjoy it! What a great purchase!!!