Sophia’s Classic, Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Is there anything better than waking up to a warm, gooey cinnamon roll? I think not. A cinnamon roll is truly an unbeatable treat. Sure, there are other scrumptious things to eat in the morning but once you bite into a cinnamon roll, you realize there is nothing better.

The ultimate way to enjoy this sweet treat is to make it from scratch. Yes, I know it sounds intimidating but in the end, it is so worth it. This recipe may seem a bit harder than the rest of my previous recipes but I think you are ready for this sweet challenge!

This was my first time making these rolls and needless to say, I would do it again in a heartbeat. The recipe I used was absolutely fantastic and I will gladly share it with you.

I got my recipe from tasty and it was easy to follow and made an amazing final product. I altered parts of it to my liking so it is my own unique rendition.

Sophia’s Classic, Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

Dough

• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups whole milk, warm to the touch
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
• 5 cups flour, divided
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt

Filling

• ¾ cup butter softened
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Frosting

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons milk/heavy cream
• 2 cups powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Generously grease 2 cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together warm milk and melted unsalted butter.
3. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the warm mixture and let sit for 2 minutes.
4. Add 4 cups of the all-purpose flour and ½ cup granulated white sugar to the milk mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
6. After 1 hour, the dough should have nearly doubled in size.
7. Remove the towel and add an additional ¾ cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Stir well, then turn out onto a well-floured surface.
8. Knead the dough lightly, adding additional flour as necessary, until the dough just loses its stickiness and does not stick to the surface.
9. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about ½-inch (1 cm) thick. Fix corners to make sure they are sharp and even.
10. In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, butter, and ground cinnamon. The mixture should resemble a thick paste.
11. Spread the brown sugar and butter mixture on top of the dough evenly.
12. Roll up the dough, forming a log, and pinch the seam closed. Place seam-side down. Trim off any unevenness on either end.
13. Cut the log into 12 pieces, about 1½ inches (8cm) thick each.
14. Place 5 –7 cinnamon rolls in each cake pan, one in the center, six around the sides, or four around the sides. Since this is an overnight recipe, you will cover the cinnamon rolls with plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator overnight.
15. The next morning, preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C).
16. To prepare the frosting. In a medium-size mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, butter, whole milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar, until smooth.
17. Remove plastic wrap. Bake the cinnamon rolls in a preheated oven for 25–30 minutes, until golden brown.
18. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve with frosting.
19. Enjoy!

The images below will show you how I make the cinnamon rolls. I hope that you use this recipe and try this at home so you can impress your family and friends!

These are the brands of the ingredients I use but feel free to use any brand you like.

These are the measured ingredients. The ingredients in this picture are all-purpose flour, granulated white sugar, active dry yeast, milk, melted unsalted butter, softened unsalted butter, baking powder, ground cinnamon, light brown sugar, and kosher salt.

Pour milk into a large bowl.

Pour your melted unsalted butter into the milk in the bowl.

Sprinkle your active dry yeast packet over your milk and butter mixture.

Mix. Let the mixture sit for 2 minutes. Do not touch the mixture during those two minutes.

Once the mixture has rested for two minutes, add your all-purpose flour and granulated white sugar.

Mix until all of the flour and sugar has been incorporated into the dough. It should look similar to this photo.

Cover the dough with a towel or plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to rise for 1 hour. I put mine in my pantry because it has minimal light but any dark place in your kitchen or home will work well.

After 1 hour of resting, your dough may rise a lot or only a little bit. Mine did not rise a lot but it is still useable. If your dough rises a lot, that is also great. DO NOT STRESS! Even though you may think you are doing it wrong, I promise everything will be just fine in the end.

Add the rest of your all-purpose flour (1 cup).

Add baking powder.

Add kosher salt.

Mix ingredients in the bowl and pour the dough out onto a floured, clean surface. Use your hands to knead the dough until it is combined.

Once your dough is combined, STOP kneading and wasting your energy. I have a trick for you. Place your dough into the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough attachment. Start your stand mixer on medium speed and let it run for exactly 2 minutes. You do NOT want to over-knead because your dough could become dry and gross. No one wants dry and gross cinnamon rolls! Mixing the dough for 2 minutes on medium speed is equivalent to kneading by hand for 10 minutes.

Place your kneaded dough out onto a clean, floured surface.

Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough into an even rectangle. It should look similar to the photo above.

For the filling, place your softened unsalted butter in a medium-sized bowl. It is important to use softened butter because you will be mixing the filling by hand.

Add your light brown sugar.

Add your ground cinnamon.

Mix the filling until all of the ingredients are fully combined.

Spread the filling evenly over the dough. Leave room around the edges so when you roll the dough into a log, the filling will not seep out.

Roll the dough into a log. Roll the log together from the longest sides inwards.

Cut the log into 1-inch thick rolls. Place the rolls into a prepared circular baking pan. Make sure your baking pan is coated in a non-stick cooking spray so once the rolls bake, they do not stick to the pan. This picture only shows one of my pans with the rolls. I ended up cutting 12 rolls from the log so my other pan has the rest of the rolls.

Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The following morning, uncover your rolls and preheat your oven to 350°F.

Place your rolls into a preheated oven for 25–30 minutes. I cooked mine for 30 minutes but yours could cook a lot faster or slower depending on how big you cut your rolls. Don’t forget to smell the heavenly aroma they produce as they bake!

While the rolls are baking in the oven, you can make your frosting. For the frosting, put all of the measured ingredients into a medium-sized bowl. The measurements for the frosting are at the top of this recipe. Mix all of the ingredients together with a hand or stand mixer.

Once the frosting is fully combined and mixed together, it should look something like this. YUM!

The rolls should look similar to this photo once they are done. Don’t even get me started on the smell! OMG, it’s indescribable!

Done! Serve warm with frosting.

YES PLEASE!

I promise that this will be your new favorite breakfast treat! This recipe is amazing and as long as you follow these steps, you can make these melt in your mouth cinnamon rolls from scratch anytime. Don’t forget the most important ingredient, love. I hope you will try this recipe and comment below how it turns out for you.