Easy Cinnamon Rolls From Scratch
These easy cinnamon rolls are perfect for beginners who are just starting to bake with yeast. They're very forgiving and taste better than the mall!
Ingredients
For the Cinnamon Rolls
- 1/2 cup butter, plus two tablespoons melted
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk warmed
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 4 cups flour
- 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast (or one packet)
- 3 tbsp cinnamon
For Cream Cheese Frosting*
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp butter softened
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Mix 1/2 cup of melted butter with warm milk and yeast.
- In a separate bowl, whisk salt, sugar, and flour.
- Check your wet ingredients to make sure your yeast has become slightly frothy at the top. That means your yeast is working. If your yeast has not frothed or foamed at all, you may need to try a new pack. Assuming your yeast is fine, add wet and dry ingredients together and add eggs. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and homogenous. You don't need to knead this dough; it will still rise and be nice and soft. However, if you'd like a sturdier structure to your rolls, you can knead this until the dough comes together in a smooth ball; I recommend only doing this if you have a stand mixer, as the dough is very wet.
- Place dough in a greased, sealed container and put in warm spot to rise for about two hours or until doubled in size. At this point, you can either continue making the recipe or place your sealed container in the fridge to use at a later time.
- Roll dough out into a rectangle roughly 12-14 inches wide. The dough should be somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.
- Brush the rectangle of dough with remaining 2 tbsp melted butter. Generously sprinkle cinnamon over the dough, leaving no empty patches.
- Slice the rectangle once in half vertically and then five times horizontally, so you get 12 strips each about 1.5 inches wide and 6 inches long. Roll each strip into a tight spiral.
- Lay the cinnamon roll pieces flat in a greased 9x13" baking dish, leaving space between each piece for the next rise.
- Cover the dish and let rise for another half hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- After 30 minutes, your cinnamon rolls should look puffy and be almost touching. Place in oven and bake for about 25 minutes.
- When rolls are done, let them cool almost completely to room temperature. Meanwhile, make the frosting by beating all ingredients together either in a stand mixer or with an electric beater.
- When cinnamon rolls have cooled, smother with frosting and enjoy!
Notes
*If you REALLY like to smother your roll in frosting, or maybe you just like some extra, you can double the frosting recipe. I actually feel like it's too much if I use a double batch, but my sweet toothed husband disagrees.