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Overnight Cinnamon Rolls are amazing. Â Make the night before and refrigerate. Â 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.
Deborah Luke says
Best cinnamon rolls I have ate, this recipe was not only easy but delicious. I did swap the icing out for cream cheese icing mmmm
Leigh Anne says
So glad you loved them too!! They are the best
Amy Oclander says
I am curious about your decision to start the yeast in milk and butter. I usually start yeast in warm water with a little sugar. I thought I would try it but I have no action in my bowl after 10 min. Tested another couple of tsp of yeast in warm sugar water and bam, bubbles. I am going to add that along with milk butter mixture and then add more flour and hope for the best…
Leigh Anne says
Sounds like your way works too- enjoy!
Marci says
I had never made cinnamon rolls as they seemed daunting and I have little experience with yeast. I tried this recipe for my first attempt but for some reason I couldn’t get the yeast to proof with the milk- definitely user error! So I used water with a little sugar and the yeast proofed perfectly and most importantly the rolls turned out amazing!! I’ve since made these cinnamon rolls almost 10 times !! I get rave reviews whenever I serve them. I still use water with sugar instead of the milk only because it’s what has worked and doesn’t seem to affect the taste or texture. I found the tip of turning the oven to 100 degrees and then turning it off and allowing the rolls to rise in there for a good hour extremely helpful. I have switched to a cream cheese frosting instead of the glaze. Thanks for sharing the recipe and helping a newbie like me become a cinnamon roll master!
Kelli says
I have noticed that not all brands of yeast will bloom in milk as they do in water. So perhaps it is the brand of yeast you used. The latest brand I’m using is red star and it blooms beautifully in both milk and water. I hope this helps.
Hillary says
Just made these and currently letting them rise for the 1st time and 30 minutes later they haven’t risen one bit. I did add the full 5 cups of flour because they were still sticky but now wondering if that was too much. My yeast didn’t proof the first time either when I mixed it with the butter and milk. I had to throw it out and proof it alone with water and sugar like normal. I’m really frustrated because I’ve wasted ingredients twice now.
Leigh Anne says
The problem is most likely your yeast. Did you check the expiration date? If its’ not proofing it is either expired or water is too hot and you are killing the yeast or the water is not warm enough and it’s not activating. The flour won’t effect the yeast working.
Denise says
I see you have A GF flour you say is fabulous.. can I make the rolls using that flour? I am GF and need help with this new style of baking etc 😉
Leigh Anne says
I haven’t used it in the recipe so I’m not sure how it would work but I’d give it a try!