The Best Homemade Cinnamon Rolls you’ve been craving are right here! This soft, fluffy cinnamon roll recipe with the perfect blend of cinnamon and sugar, is topped with the most luscious cream cheese frosting. They’re so dreamy!
When we say the BEST Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, we don’t say it lightly. This cinnamon roll recipe beats Cinnabon (gasp!) any day of the week. They’re like little pillows of perfection, with a cream cheese frosting you could eat by the spoon. We can still remember special weekend mornings, waking up to the smell of our mom’s freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Whip up a batch of these scrumptious rolls for your family this weekend!
Can You Make Cinnamon Rolls Ahead of Time?
This cinnamon roll recipe is the perfect thing to make the night or day before, freeing up plenty of time for lazy morning snuggling and relaxing. There are two times you can refrigerate the dough:
- After it is kneaded and before the first rise.
- After the dough has risen and is shaped.
Cover the shaped dough and keep in the fridge for up to a day. When you’re ready to bake, unwrap slightly and let it rise until doubled. Then bake, frost, and enjoy!
Can Homemade Cinnamon Rolls be Frozen?
Absolutely! Again, there are a couple of ways you can do this:
- Freeze them in the pan, unrisen and unbaked. When you’re ready to sink your teeth into sweet, yummy goodness, remove from the freezer and allow them to rise before baking.
- You can freeze them after they’re baked but before they’re frosted. Remove, allow to thaw and give them a nice thick coat of creamy frosting.
How to Reheat Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
It’s so easy to reheat this delicious cinnamon roll recipe. To reheat from frozen, thaw them on the counter until room temperature. You can pop the whole batch into the oven for about 20 minutes until heated all the way through. Or, you can microwave individual rolls for about 45 seconds, then stick them in the oven for a couple of minutes for fresh baked crust.
The Best Frosting for Cinnamon Rolls
Arguably, the best part of this cinnamon roll recipe is the creamy cream cheese frosting. Sweet but not too sweet, with a rich cream cheese flavor that complements the fluffy rolls to perfection. And if you frost them while they’re still warm, the luscious icing melts down into the sweet crevices. We always use our famous Cream Cheese Frosting for this recipe (see recipe card below). It is simply scrumptious!
More Recipes with Cream Cheese Frosting
While we’re on the subject, try a few of our most favorite frosting covered treats. You’re welcome.
- Pumpkin Sandwich Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Coconut Cream Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Pumpkin Roll
- Nothing Bundt Cakes White Chocolate Raspberry Copy Cat
Homemade Cinnamon With Pecans or Raisins
Why mess with perfection? Fluffy rolls and decadent frosting is perfect on its own, but if you’re like a few relatives we know, you can absolutely add nuts or raisins to this recipe. After you roll out the dough, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture and add pecans, raisins, or any other ingredient you like, then roll it up and slice.
How to Slice Cinnamon Roll Dough
Once you roll up your dough into a “tube” shape you will want to slice off each individual roll (this is actually my favorite part). Don’t do this with a knife if you can help it! It will make it so your dough un-rolls and it will most-likely be uneven. The easiest thing to do is to get about 2 feet of dental floss and place it under the rolled dough, 1 inch from the end. Bring the floss up around the dough and cross it over the top, cutting through the dough and filling. Repeat at 1-inch intervals. WAY easier than using a knife.
More Delicious Cinnamon Roll Recipes
Plus, if you love a little more to your rolls, try a few of these mouthwatering recipes:
- Lion House Cinnamon Rolls
- Peaches and Cream Cinnamon Rolls
- Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls
- Strawberry Cinnamon Twists
How to Make The BEST Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Cinnamon Filling:
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes.
- Heat milk in microwave for 2 minutes. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or heavy mixer combine milk, softened butter, salt and sugar. Mix together until butter is melted.
- Add eggs one at a time and 3 cups flour. Mix for 2 minutes. Add yeast mixture and 2 cups flour. Mix well.
- Let dough sit for 10 minutes. (If using a standing mixer...now is the time to change to a dough hook!) Continue to mix while slowly adding remaining 2 1/2 cups flour. Dough will start pulling away from the sides of the bowl, but is still quite sticky. Beat 3 more minutes.
- Coat another large bowl with 2 tablespoons oil. Take dough out of mixing bowl and place in oiled bowl, turning over once to coat each side. Place clean towel over bowl and let raise in a warm spot for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, put dough out onto floured surface. Knead by hand, adding a little flour if needed. DO NOT USE TOO MUCH FLOUR! You want dough to remain very soft!
- With rolling pin, roll dough into a rectangle shape about the size of a jelly roll pan (11x15 inch) and 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
- Melt 1/3 cup butter in microwave for 30 seconds or until just melted. Spread over dough.
- Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar over butter. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of sugars. Top with nuts if desired.
- Roll up starting with the long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut into 1 inch rolls (see notes above on how to do this) and place on greased cookie sheet or in 2 9x13 glass baking pans.
- Cover and let rise another 45 minutes.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 16-20 minutes or until lightly browned (Do NOT over-bake). Cool for 10 minutes before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing constantly, until desired consistency is reached. (you may not need ALL of the powdered sugar)
- Spread over warm cinnamon rolls.
Mikelene says
November 14, 2018 at 8:17 pmThis look great. However, Step number 5 sates that you should add the eggs one at a time but eggs are not listed in the ingredients list
Favorite Family Recipes says
November 14, 2018 at 8:46 pmOh no! Thanks for catching that! It is two eggs. I will fix it right now!
Sondra Recksiedler says
November 20, 2018 at 2:54 pmThe ingredients lists 7.5 cups of flour but instructions only use 4.5 cups of flour. How much is actually used
Favorite Family Recipes says
November 20, 2018 at 10:52 pmIn instruction #5 you add 3 cups of flour and then 2 additional cups of flour, and then in instruction #6 you add the other 2 1/2 cups of flour.
Kathy Gillman says
December 29, 2018 at 7:45 amSounds great. This sounds like it will made a lot of cinnamon rolls. Can you tell me the yeild? Also, with this much ingredients do you do step 8 twice? Can I just cut everything in half if I don’t want that many?
Favorite Family Recipes says
December 29, 2018 at 5:50 pmIt should make 24 cinnamon rolls. You can half the recipe if you don’t want that many!
Kathy Gillman says
December 31, 2018 at 7:50 pmThank you! Can’t wait to give this a try.
Faith says
February 7, 2019 at 5:04 pmHow many calories are in each cinnamon roll?
Favorite Family Recipes says
February 9, 2019 at 7:29 pmWe don’t have the nutrition information available for our recipes yet– if you plug this recipe into an online nutrition calculator you should be able to find it. Hope this helps!
Tina says
February 22, 2019 at 8:47 amIs that actually 1 1/2 pounds of powdered sugar, how many cups would that be?
Favorite Family Recipes says
February 23, 2019 at 8:22 pm1 1/2 pounds of powdered sugar is the equivalent to about 6 cups. Hope this helps!
Kayla says
February 27, 2019 at 10:26 pm1.5 cups is 24 oz. That is three cups, one cup is 8 ounces.
Favorite Family Recipes says
February 28, 2019 at 8:36 pmSorry I should have clarified.. because powdered sugar is so light 1 cup is about 4 1/2 ounces. You are correct, if we were measuring water or even regular sugar it would be 8 ounces. Hope this helps!
Linda Irby says
March 23, 2019 at 5:21 amI’m making them right now. Been baking all night. Made a 13 layer cake and thought how nice it would be for my mom, who is visiting and my son to wake up to fresh homemade cinnamon rolls!!!!
I’ve made them before and this resembles the recipe I used them. I froze half of them after I rolled, cut and put them in glass Pyrex. Then when they were frozen I put them into double freezer bags and would use the rest as needed. (****Let thaw and rise, then bake as usual. ) My son loved that!! I’ll send 6 home with my Mom, she’s raising my nephew and he’s a 17 year old eating machine he’s going to LOVE these.
I’m sure I’ll be getting more requests for them!!!
Thanks for sharing the recipe!!!
Favorite Family Recipes says
March 23, 2019 at 1:55 pmYour mom and son are very lucky to have you! When I have been baking all night the last thing I want to do it bake more– so props to you! I bet they loved waking up to hot, fresh cinnamon rolls!
Cindy Huffine says
April 5, 2019 at 8:27 amI have tried several cinnamon roll recipes and this by far is my favorite! They are so soft and delicious.
I got 36 from one recipe. Also when rolling them out I cut the dough in half. Made it easier to handle.
Erica says
April 5, 2019 at 8:48 amSo glad you like it! Thank you for sharing how many this yielded for you. 🙂
Emily says
April 8, 2019 at 2:46 pmI’ve been on a mission to find my “go to” for cinnamon rolls. So I went to Pinterest and have been trying them one by one. I think this is the winner. I love the soft dough. I used all purpose flour and will try bread flour to see if I can tell a difference. But thanks for posting. It’s a great recipe.
Erica says
April 8, 2019 at 7:37 pmHi Emily- thank you so much for your comment!!! What a huge compliment! So happy to hear you enjoyed these cinnamon rolls so much. Thank you for the 5-stars!
Amber says
May 20, 2019 at 3:51 amThe Best By far!! Kudos 🙂
Erica Walker says
May 20, 2019 at 11:51 amSo glad you liked them! Thanks Amber!