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Overnight Cinnamon Rolls are amazing. Make the night before and refrigerate. Bake in the morning and enjoy!
Cinnamon rolls and the first weekend in October go together at our house. Our church holds a General Conference that is televised each April and October. We stay home from church and watch it in our jammies and eat cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls are required! At least at our house they are.
But this year I decided I didn’t want to have to get up in the morning and make cinnamon rolls. Even if it only took 60 minutes so I decided to make Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. You mix up and form the cinnamon rolls the night before, refrigerate and then wake up and let them sit for about 30-60 minutes to rise a bit and then bake. Doesn’t get much easier than that (o.k., so buying Rhodes Frozen Cinnamon Rolls would be easier but not as good!!)
The process is easy – mix up your dough and let it rise for an hour. If you need some tips on working with yeast check out this post. This dough is a denser dough than you may be use to. It will lighten up as it rises but needs to be a bit denser to hold up in the refrigerator and not overrise.
Roll out dough into a 12 x 14 rectangle (approx.) and lather it with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Roll up and slice. I like to use thread to slice my rolls. Gives a nice clean cut.
Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper and place cut slices in pan or you can just grease the pan. I got 12 nice size cinnamon rolls.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning remove from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for an hour if your house is warm. I like to turn my oven onto 150 degrees F and then turn it off and put the rolls in there to rise. You can cover them gently with a towel.
After they have risen put them in a 350 degree F oven for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown. They will rise more as they bake.
The next to the last step is to cover them in frosting. I use a mixture of butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and whipping cream. You can use regular milk if you don’t have whipping cream.
The final step is to eat one!! Or two!
Come on over to our house on Sunday for cinnamon rolls!
Check out more of my favorite cinnamon roll recipes:
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 C milk
- 1/3 C butter
- 2 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast
- 2/3 C white sugar
- 4 1/2 – 5 C flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
Filling
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 C butter
Glaze
- 3 Tbsp butter softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 2 -3 Tbsp whipping cream or milk
Instructions
- Heat the milk in a pan until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat and add butter. Stir until butter melts.
- When milk is lukewarm add yeast and allow to proof for 10 minutes.
- Put sugar, 3 cups of flour, salt and eggs into a mixer. Add in yeast mixture. Mix.
- Add in remaining flour until dough is no longer sticky. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth and soft.
- Oil a large bowl and place dough in bowl, turn to coat dough with oil. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place until double in size. About 1 hour.
- Deflate the dough and put onto a floured surface and roll out into a 12×14 rectangle.
- Spread with softened butter.
- Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over dough.
- Roll up dough into log and cut into 12 pieces.
- Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper or grease it. Place dough into pan and cover with pastic wrap and place in refrigerator over night.
- In the morning remove from refrigerator and allow to set in a warm place for an hour. I like to turn my oven to 150 degrees F and then turn off the oven and place the rolls in the oven to rise.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Mix together butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and whipping cream until a nice smooth consistency. Spread over warm rolls.
SK says
These look delicious! Could I make these all the way through until step 9, then freeze the uncooked rolls? When it’s time to bake them, would you recommend letting thaw/rise overnight in the fridge or overnight on the counter?
Thanks for your help!
Leigh Anne says
I think either the fridge or overnight on the counter would work, will just take longer in the fridge
LM says
I am just curious if you ended up freezing and thawing these. Did it work for you? Did you thaw in the fridge or on the counter?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
I have not frozen these rolls but you definitely could. I would thaw in the fridge and then allow them to rise for several hours before baking.
Nicole says
Thank you for the recipe just made these the day after Christmas here in Japan! I didn’t put in the fridge cook immediately after it rose about an hour.
At first due to dough being dense thought they wouldn’t turn out properly but they were amazing!
They didn’t rise as much when baking but they were delicious! Gave the kids a cinnamon roll right before bed they were very pleased!
Thanks for sharing
Michelle says
how long do you you let these rise in the turned off oven? An hour like you would if you left them on your counter?
Leigh Anne says
Michelle, They rise for an hour in the turned off oven. You must have just missed that party in the recipe, it is in the directions.
Jean Wright says
Made these last night/this morning and they were fantastic. With the dough being denser, my Kitchen Aid groaned a bit but still did the job. The family felt the rivaled Cinna Bon. A little effort, but the whole pan full coat maybe $2 at the moSt.
Leigh Anne says
I LOVE hearing this!!! So glad you and your family enjoyed them!!
silvia says
Would you be able to leave them in the fridge for 16-18 hours? I want to make them for breakfast but I won’t have any time in the evening, so I was thinking of making them in the afternoon.
Leigh Anne says
They should be fine – just keep them covered well.