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Overnight Cinnamon Rolls are amazing. Make the night before and refrigerate. Bake in the morning and enjoy!
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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.
This year, as I have the last several years, I take advantage of the requirement of cinnamon rolls and experiment with a new recipe. I have my favorites such as these 60 Minute Cinnamon rolls which are amazing and really only take 60 minutes! I also love these Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls and the Sweet Petal Cinnamon Roll.
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!
Overnight Cinnamon Roll Recipe
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.
Nutrition Facts:
Nicole says
Good but i think i misjudged what lukewarm is & killed my yeast. Will try again & take the temperature of the milk/butter-I’m guessing 100-110 degrees based on other bread recipes I’ve made. But overall an easy recipe to have warm cinnamon rolls!!!!!!
Emily Zastrow says
I made this recipe last night and baked it this morning to surprise my husband with when he got home from his shift. So easy and worked great. I did substitute to cream cheese frosting since I had cream cheese that was near expiring. I’ll definitely be baking these overnight cinnamon rolls again!
Elizabeth Huebert says
I love this recipe! I’ve made it every Christmas for several years now. This year I’m going to use buttermilk in place of regular milk. Yay!
Leigh Anne says
Merry Christmas! Using buttermilk is a great idea
Helen says
Excellent recipe
Christina says
Can margarine be used instead of butter in this recipe for both the dough and the icing?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
You could if you like margarine. I always use butter.