About This Recipe

What are cinnamon rolls?

Cinnamon rolls are a type of sweet pastry that consists of a rolled sheet of yeast-leavened dough, spread with a mixture of butter, sugar, and cinnamon. The dough is rolled into a log shape, and then sliced into individual rolls before being baked. The rolls are soft, tender, and flavorful, with layers of cinnamon and sugar filling topped with a decadent cream cheese frosting.

What I love about this recipe:

These golden swirls of perfection melt in your mouth with every bite. They are sweet and buttery, giving way to a center filled with ooey-gooey exquisiteness. The cream cheese frosting tops off the entire experience, adding extra sweetness and delight to this lovely treat.

Why this recipe works

Sweet Stiff Starter

“Sweet” and “stiff” both contribute to a reduced sour taste in these cinnamon rolls. Learn more about sweet stiff starters here.

The Ingredients: Butter

Butter plays an important role in these cinnamon rolls! Not only does it add richness and flavor to the dough, but it also helps create a tender and moist texture. It is the key to the ooey-gooey, delightful center of these rolls.

The Ingredients: Flour

I chose to use a combination of bread flour and all-purpose flour in this recipe. Bread flour is important for gluten development and helps add structure to the rolls. If necessary, this recipe can be made with 100% all-purpose flour, though the resulting dough will be slightly more wet and potentially a bit more slack.

Gluten Development

Gluten is developed in this recipe by kneading the dough in a stand mixer until it is smooth and glossy. This ensures a strong loaf with minimum effort on the baker’s part. Due to the high butter content, stretch and folds are not recommended. Use a lower speed for a longer period of time if your stand mixer cannot handle the higher speeds used in this recipe.

Bulk Fermentation

Due to the addition of sugar + the high fat content, rise times can be longer all across the board. Letting the dough rise as much as possible, but not too much, contributes to the airiest of loaves. Using a proofing aid can speed things along. I favor an overnight method for this recipe, and usually push fermentation a little past double in size. This ensures fluffy rolls with little concern about timing.

technique: The filling

I chose to fill these rolls by smoothing the butter, sugar, and cinnamon separately over the rolled out dough, rather than making a paste beforehand. The reason for this may surprise you: combining the ingredients before spreading them over the dough allows the cinnamon rolls to be rolled tighter, which can actually have adverse effects. Cinnamon rolls that are rolled too tightly have no room to expand, and will actually end up bursting out the middle. If the baker is careful, they may not have this problem. Despite this, adding the ingredients separately ensures the perfect rolling of the dough, and takes away the extra step of combining the filling beforehand.

Baking Method

The temperature of 350 F bakes the rolls low and slow (though, not too slow). These rolls are barely baked to temperature, being pulled out of the oven at just 185 F. This final step ensures soft and fluffy cinnamon rolls that heed a sought-after ooey-gooey center.

Suggested Baking Timeline

8 AM (Day 1)

+Make the sweet stiff starter

8 PM (Day 1)

+Mix and knead the dough

+Begin bulk fermentation

8 AM (Day 2)

+Roll out the dough, fill, and shape

11 AM (Day 2)

+Bake the rolls

+ Make the frosting

+Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

Recipe by Caitlin VincentCourse: Breakfast, Dessert, SnackCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Intermediate

Prep time

minutes

Resting Time

hours

Baking Time

minutes

Yield

rolls

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter
40 g active starter (2 tbsp)
80 g all-purpose flour (2/3 cup)
40 g water (3 tbsp)
10 g sugar (2 tsp)
Milk Mixture
480 g milk (2 cups)
120 g white sugar (½ cup)
1 stick butter, cubed (113 g)
Main Dough
300 g bread flour (2 1/2 cups)
300 g all-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups)
10 g salt (1 ½ tsp)
All of the milk mixture
All of the sweet stiff starter
Filling
¾ cup softened butter (1 ½ sticks, 170 g)
¾ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz softened cream cheese
2 tbsp melted butter (30 g)
2 tbsp milk (35 g)
1 tsp vanilla (5 g)
1 cup powdered sugar (140 g)

Directions

Make the sweet stiff starter. Eight to twelve hours before you plan to mix the dough, mix together all of the ingredients for the sweet stiff starter and let it rest at room temperature.
Heat the milk mixture. When you’re ready to mix the dough, begin with the milk mixture. In a medium saucepan, mix the milk, sugar, and butter. Heat over medium heat until the mixture temps approximately 100 F. Stir to fully dissolve the sugar and continue melting the butter. Set aside.
Mix the dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flours and salt. Add the milk mixture and roughly mix, then add the sweet stiff starter.
Knead the dough. Transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and knead on a medium speed (4-6 on a KitchenAid) 10-15 minutes, until the dough pulls away from (and “slaps”) the sides of the bowl and forms a ball around the dough hook. I kneaded on speed 6 for eight minutes, then slowed to speed 4 for five more minutes.
Bulk Ferment. Transfer the dough to a proofing container and let the dough rise until it has at least doubled in size (you can see in the video that I went a little more than double). This will take 8-16 hours, so I love to do this as an overnight dough. Mine rose in about 11-12 hours at 70 F.
NOTE: Now is a good time to take out two more sticks of butter and 4 oz of cream cheese to soften.
After the dough has risen, butter a 9X13 baking dish with 2 tbsp softened butter.
Shape the dough. Flour your working surface. Roll out dough into a ½ inch thick rectangle. Top with the softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Roll up the dough, trying your best to keep the edges even and to avoid rolling too tightly. (A dough rolled too tightly will explode out the top, since it does not have room to expand.)
Cut the log into 12 even pieces. I find a serrated knife works just fine for this, though you can use the floss trick if you prefer. Transfer the rolls to a buttered, 9X13 inch casserole dish.
Final proof. Let the rolls rise until puffy and touching one another in the pan, 2-4 more hours.
Preheat your oven to 350 F.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 185 F.
Make the frosting. Combine all ingredients for the frosting in a food processor and process 30-60 seconds until smooth.
Spread the frosting all over the hot cinnamon rolls.
Enjoy!
How to store: I like to store these in the baking dish I made them in, covered, on the counter for three, or up to seven, days.
To reheat: Microwave 20-30 seconds per roll or reheat the baking dish in a low oven (250 F) for 15-25 minutes, until warmed through.