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The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

December 7, 2020 by Susan 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links.  See my disclosure for more information.

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This simple recipe can be made even by a complete beginner but is still my go-to recipe for the very best cinnamon rolls ever. Soft and gooey, with a sweet, maple-flavored frosting they are everyone’s favorite!

 

I’m about to tell you an embarrassing secret about myself: I kind of hate it when Christmas falls on a Sunday. Awful, right? I mean, it is Jesus’ birthday, after all. As a Christian I always feel like I’m supposed to say, “What better place to celebrate!” and ring a bell, or something.

But the reason is what’s so embarrassing: It’s brunch.

Christmas brunch is quite literally my favorite meal of the entire year. And we skip it when Christmas falls on Sundays, dagnabit. 

Christmas Brunch

It’s not a fancy meal, and the only real change that’s been made in the past 20 years has been these cinnamon rolls. My sister makes the yummiest biscuits and sausage gravy, my dad spends hours segmenting oranges and grapefruit for my grandmother’s citrus fruit cocktail and cooks a whole lot of bacon. My contribution was always a cream cheese coffee cake, and some years we would have other pastries as well. 

I still make the coffee cake, it’s a must-have, but several years ago, I added these cinnamon rolls to the brunch table for my picky kids, who didn’t look forward to brunch as much as I did. Now we are all happy.

Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

I have made these gooey sweet rolls for years for my family. The recipe is one of Pioneer Woman’s (Ree is the best!), and I’ve only made a couple of changes to make them our favorites.

She cuts her rolls quite thin and bakes them in several round pans, while I prefer to cut them thicker for larger rolls and bake them in 9×13 pans.

A second change is the icing. We also don’t love coffee in our icing. And while we do love the addition of maple extract, I often didn’t have it in my cabinet. So in a ‘winging-it’ kind of moment I grabbed some Log Cabin syrup and squeezed some in.

Yum. I haven’t worried since about having maple extract on hand.

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

 

The best cinnamon rolls are easy enough for a beginner

When my son was living in Atlanta and called me to get a recipe to make a King Cake for Mardi Gras, I suggested he make my easy King Cake which uses refrigerated crescent dough. No going, he wanted to make something from scratch.

Only thing, he’d never made a yeast dough before. Ever.

This was the recipe I sent him and he used it with great success. In fact, I think he’s made it a few times, now.

One of the things that makes this recipe so simple is that you make it all in one big pot, there is no kneading. No kneading! And yes, you still get an amazing texture. 

You start by heating milk, oil, and sugar in a pot till it’s scalded…that means not quite boiling. Tiny bubbles starting to form around the edges is what you’re looking for.

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

 

The next step is patience.

You have to wait until the mixture cools enough to add the yeast without killing it. You want the temperature to be warm, not hot. If you gave yogurt-making a shot with me this summer, it’s similar to that process. 

My signal that it’s the right temperature is that I can dip my (very clean) pinky finger all the way to the bottom and hold it there for several seconds….warm not hot. You get it.

Then you add the yeast and most of the flour and stir it up. Cover it and put in a warm place to rest for about an hour or until about doubled in size (I usually stash it inside my oven that I have turned on to warm for just a minute and then turned off…make sure it is off!)

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls
The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

Now stir in the last bit of flour and some baking powder, soda and salt…don’t forget the salt, even sweet dough needs salt! Then you can either use the dough right away or cover it and stash it in the fridge for a few days (punching it down if it rises too high).

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

The best cinnamon rolls are filled with ooey gooey goodness

Either way you’ll want to divide the dough in half, it’s a huge amount! I typically make two 9×13 pans of cinnamon rolls and freeze one (I like to use foil pans from the Dollar Tree for this.) To bake from frozen, just thaw the rolls and let them rise in the pan and then bake as directed. Easy peasy!

The dough is really easy to work with, especially when it’s been chilled.

So after you’ve divided the dough in half, roll it out into a big rectangle… about 30×10. Then drizzle on your melted butter…plenty of it. And sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon. 

Sometimes I use just white sugar and cinnamon, but usually I use a mix of white and brown sugars. Caramel-ly.

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls
The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls
The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls
The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

Then comes the rolling…don’t be alarmed if there’s also some oozing at this stage. Oozing is a sign of much ooey-gooiness.

 

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

When you melt the butter for your rolls, scoop a little out and drizzle it in the bottom of your pan. After you slice your rolls (using a serrated knife works best), place them to rest on the butter drizzle in the pan.

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

12 rolls is what I typically do in a 9×13 pan. It’s easy to cut the long roll into 12, even for a non-mathy lady such as myself.

  • Cut the ends off first to even everything up.
  • Then cut your roll in half. (2 pieces)
  • Cut each half in half again (4 pieces)
  • Then into thirds (12 pieces)

Math!

 

Okay, quick aside here.

When I was cutting my rolls, my mom called. What I should have done is to stop cutting and give my sweet mother my full attention. What I did was to give both the rolls and my mother half of my attention.

This is what happened:

 

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

They were a little wonky. Some were way thicker than others, and I ended sticking some of the dough I had cut off of the ends under some of the thinner ones to lift them a bit.

Guess what, though— wonky or not, they still tasted great and my fellas did not notice a difference in the number or layout of the cinnamon rolls. Aaaand, the next time I talked to my mother, she got my full attention!

 

The best cinnamon rolls have a sweet, maple-y icing

I grew up on my Grandma Lena’s caramel rolls, and while I do still love a good, sticky caramel roll…frosting is my favorite. And frosting with the added flavor of sweet maple syrup takes these over the top for me.

If you have maple extract, feel free to use that in place of the maple syrup. You would, perhaps, need to add a bit more milk to make up for the moisture.

Mix up your icing while the rolls are baking (after their short rise) and drizzle/pour about half of it on when they’re hot out of the oven so that some of the icing absorbs into the hot rolls. I always reserve some to drizzle on top as well for some contrast.

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls
The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

 

This simple recipe can be made even by a complete beginner but is still my go-to recipe for the very best cinnamon rolls ever. Soft and gooey, with a sweet, maple-flavored frosting they are everyone's favorite!

 

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

We had these as a Breakfast for Dinner night with bacon and fresh fruit, and then had the leftovers for breakfast the rest of the week.

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

 

They make a lovely gift for a friend or family member, or anyone you want to bless. And in that vein, you could definitely divide your cinnamon rolls into smaller pans and bake them that way to spread the joy.

I really love them with a cup of coffee. Well, let’s be honest. I really love them any way at all.

But I think we’ve definitely established that my favorite day to eat them is Christmas morning.

Enjoy, y’all!

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

 

This simple recipe can be made even by a complete beginner but is still my go-to recipe for the very best cinnamon rolls ever. Soft and gooey, with a sweet, maple-flavored frosting they are everyone's favorite!

 

Here’s the recipe, remember, it makes two big pans!:

The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

Print this recipe
Susan
December 7, 2020
by Susan
Category Breads Recipes
Prep Time
2 hours
Cook Time
30 minutes
Total Time
2 hours, 30 minutes
The Absolute Best Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

  • For dough:
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 packages active dry yeast
  • 9 cups flour (8 cups + 1 cup later)
  • 1 heaping tsp. baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 heaping Tablespoon salt
  • Per 9x13 pan of cinnamon rolls:
  • about 1 cup butter, melted
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • cinnamon to taste (I use about a Tablespoon...I like a lot of cinnamon)
  • ---
  • For Icing (per 9x13 pan of cinnamon rolls):
  • 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • pinch salt
  • squeeze of maple flavored syrup (or real maple syrup) - I use Log Cabin- to taste (2-3 Tbsp)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • milk to get to pourable consistency (a few Tablespoons)

Instructions

  1. Heat milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a large pot over medium heat to just under a boil.
  2. Remove from burner and let cool until warm. (Definitely still warm, but cool enough to touch comfortably).
  3. Sprinkle yeast over the top of milk mixture, then add 8 cups of flour.
  4. Stir together until well mixed.
  5. Cover and set in warm place to rise.
  6. Let rise for about an hour, or until about doubled in size.
  7. Then add remaining cup of flour on top, also baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  8. Stir to combine.
  9. Use dough immediately or refrigerate until ready to use (up to about 3 days).
  10. When ready to make cinnamon rolls, divide dough in half.
  11. Place half of dough on floured surface and roll into a large rectangle, about 30"x10".
  12. Melt butter.
  13. Before drizzling over dough, spoon a couple of Tablespoons into your pan.
  14. Drizzle butter all over surface of dough.
  15. Mix sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon and sprinkle all over the dough.
  16. Starting at the far long side, begin rolling dough toward you.
  17. When done, cut off the ends just to even things up.
  18. Then, using a serrated knife, cut dough into 12 rolls.
  19. Place rolls into pan.
  20. Cover pan with a tea towel and let rise for about 20-30 minutes.
  21. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.
  22. While rolls are baking, mix up icing.
  23. You want the icing to be pourable, but not too loose.
  24. Use a whisk to get out any lumps from the powdered sugar.
  25. When rolls are done baking, remove from oven and immediately pour 1/2-3/4 of the icing evenly over the rolls.
  26. Let cool for an hour or so before serving, and drizzle the remaining icing over the top then. (Or you can pour it all on in the first go round if you want to... do what you like!)
  27. Remember, you have another half batch of dough--- you can make rolls and freeze before baking. Thaw them overnight in the fridge, then let them rise for 20-30 minutes before baking. Or you can bake them and freeze them that way...I wouldn't ice them, though, I'd warm them and ice them after thawing.

Tags

baking,
bread,
breakfast

This recipe, like all my recipes, is shared in the Meal Plan Monday link up.  You can find the link in my sidebar – or right here!

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Filed Under: Breads, Recipes Tagged With: baking, bread, breakfast

Comments

  1. Joanne says

    December 7, 2020 at 10:37 am

    We made the Pioneer woman’s cinnamon rolls for Christmas brunch one year and just loved them! We did halve the recipe as we didn’t need that many of them. We host a Christmas brunch every other year and I’m always on the hunt for new things to make and serve.

    Reply
    • Susan says

      December 7, 2020 at 11:28 am

      Her recipes are so good! So many of the things that my family loves start with Pioneer Woman, get a few tweaks to make them fit our particular likes, and end up family favorites. I think I halved the recipe once, and then decided that it’s almost the same amount of work to freeze the second half.

      Reply

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