American CuisineDessertRecipes

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Isn’t it true that cinnamon rolls are the best?!? Nothing beats a soft, fluffy cinnamon roll warm from the oven, stuffed with fragrant cinnamon sugar filling and topped with a delectable cream cheese frosting. If you’re a cinnamon roll fan like me, you’ll understand the difficulty – preparing homemade cinnamon rolls takes hours! But not any longer!! These Quick and Easy Cinnamon buns are ready in ONE HOUR and are some of the BEST cinnamon buns you’ve ever had!

Ingredients

  • Warm milk
  • Instant yeast
  • Granulated sugar
  • Melted butter
  • Egg
  • All purpose flour
  • Salt
  • Brown Sugar
  • Cinnamon
  • Powdered Sugar
  • Cream Cheese
  • Lemon Juice

Tips:

Use Warm Milk:

To obtain a fluffy, well-risen dough, the temperature of the wet ingredients when they come into contact with the yeast is critical: too cold, and the yeast will not be able to grow; too hot, and the liquid will kill the yeast. Both of these conditions will result in tough, dry dough that will only rise if it rises at all.
Use warm milk that is the temperature of a baby’s bath water (not too hot!) to help these rolls rise fast.

The Dough Should Be Sticky:

Cinnamon bun dough should be tacky to the touch, but not overly sticky. It should easily separate from the edges of the mixing bowl, and the basin should appear somewhat clean. If the dough is too sticky, continue kneading and adding flour one tablespoon at a time until the dough is tacky.
If you use too little flour, the dough will be excessively sticky, resulting in dense buns. Too much flour will make the dough tough, resulting in dry, crumbly buns.

Use Warm Water Trick:

The BEST technique to encourage your dough to rise rapidly is to warm up the mixing bowl while the dough rises. Place the bowl inside another larger bowl and pour very warm (almost HOT) water into the larger bowl (between the two bowls- just until the water reaches the same height as the dough in the first bowl) so the heat from the warm water is absorbed by the first bowl and warms up the dough inside – just make sure there is no water inside the bowl with the dough! Warm dough rises significantly faster, and using this warm water method, you can reduce the rise time from 60 to 90 minutes to just 20 minutes!

When using this approach, placing your dough in a metal bowl to rise makes the dough rise even faster since metal conducts heat from the water more than a glass or plastic bowl would. If you don’t have enough mixing bowls, you can put the dough in your kitchen sink and fill the sink with warm (nearly hot) water to just below the top of the mixing bowl. Again, make sure there is no water in the bowl with the dough!

Forget the Flour – Grease is Great:

Rather than flouring the work surface, turn the dough out onto a very lightly greased work surface. This makes the dough easier to roll out and keeps the surface of the dough moist rather than drying it out as more flour would. I spritz my counter top with a little vegetable oil to keep the dough from sticking, and it works like a charm!

While the oven heats up, rise the rolls in it

There’s no need to let the rolls rise again; simply place them in a cold oven and preheat to the desired temperature. The rolls will finish rising as the oven heats up, which will shorten the baking time!

YIELD 12 rolls

PREP 10minutes mins

RISING TIME 22minutes mins

COOK 23minutes mins

TOTAL 55minutes mins

Ingredients

FOR THE DOUGH:

  • 1 1/4 cups warm milk just above body temperature
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon instant dry yeast (active dry yeast also works)
  • 1/3 cup butter melted
  • 1 egg
  • 3 2/3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt

FOR THE FILLING:

  • 1/4 cup butter melted
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 – 1 tbsp cinnamon to taste

FOR THE FROSTING (OPTIONAL):

  • 1/3 cup full fat cream cheese at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Add the heated milk, sugar, and yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer (or a big mixing bowl). With a fork, combine everything.
  2. To the milk mixture, add the melted (and cooled) butter. Make sure the melted butter isn’t too hot or the yeast will be destroyed.
  3. Incorporate the egg into the milk mixture.
  4. Set the mixer to low speed (use the dough hook) and add the flour and salt to the bowl on top of the milk mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon if making by hand.
  5. After approximately a minute, you should notice a sticky dough forming. If necessary, scrape down the edges of the dish.
  6. Increase the mixer speed slightly and let the dough knead for about 2-3 minutes. The dough should be tacky to the touch, but not so much that it becomes a sloppy mess. It should readily pull away from the sides of the bowl and the basin should appear rather clean.
  7. If you don’t have a stand mixer, knead the dough by hand for 3 minutes on a lightly floured work surface after combining the wet and dry ingredients.
  8. Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and set it inside another big mixing basin. Pour boiling water (from the faucet or a freshly boiled kettle) between the two bowls to slowly warm the dough. This will accelerate its ascent. Use caution while using hot water because it will cook the dough that is in contact with the mixing bowl. Also, avoid getting any water into the bowl containing the dough. Allow the dough to rise for 20 minutes.
  9. While the dough is rising, butter a large cast iron pan (or a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish).
  10. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. I use 1 tbsp cinnamon, but you can use less if you prefer a more mild flavor.
  11. Place the dough on a work surface that has been lightly oiled with vegetable oil. Roll out the dough evenly with a rolling pin until you have a rectangle that is about 18 inches wide and 12 inches deep. Brush the melted butter over the dough. Evenly distribute the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture over the dough.
  12. Roll the dough up from the long side to make one long roll. Cut the large roll in half, then in half again, and each chunk into three pieces until you have 12 cinnamon rolls. Cut the rolls to a uniform thickness to ensure even baking. You don’t want some rolls to be overcooked while others are still raw in the middle.
  13. Arrange the 12 pieces in the greased pan.
  14. Place the cinnamon rolls in a cold oven and set the temperature to 375°F. As the oven preheats, the cinnamon rolls will rise a second time.
  15. Set the timer for 23 minutes in the oven. When the oven timer goes off, the cinnamon rolls should be golden brown. Allow the rolls to bake for an additional 2-3 minutes if necessary (every oven preheats differently, so check them around the 20-minute mark if your oven preheats rapidly!).

THE FROSTING:

While the cinnamon rolls are baking, in a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon juice until smooth.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the buns cool for about 15 minutes before spreading the frosting on top of the warm buns.

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