04/19/2017

Impress Your Friends Cinnamon Rolls

cinnamon rolls

cinnamon rolls

cinnamon rolls recipe

cinnamon rolls recipe

cinnamon rolls recipe

cinnamon roll recipe

My two favorite types of foods are sweets and breakfast. So it’s no wonder that one of my favorite things to make are cinnamon rolls.

Real deal cinnamon rolls can be kind of an intimidating feat because everyone says they just take so much time. To be perfectly honest, they take time, but not a lot of energy. Cinnamon rolls, much like me, are actually pretty lazy and just need a lot of time to lay around until you put them in the oven.

These overnight cinnamon rolls are really easy to make and you’ll impress all of your family and friends if you make these for them.

Dough Ingredients

2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast (1 packet)

2 tbsp warm water

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp melted butter

1 1/2 cups flour (additional from above)

First, pour the yeast into a large bowl, then pour the warm water over the yeast and stir to dissolve it.

Then pour the warm milk over the yeast.

All of your warm ingredients should be slightly warm, definitely not hot.

Stir in the sugar and beaten egg.

Add 2 cups of flour and salt, then mix well.

Pour in the melted butter (warm, not hot) and mix.

Add the other 1 1/2 cups flour and mix until the dough is sticky, but pulls away from the sides of the bowl into a large ball.

Then you are going to cover the bowl and let it sit for 1 1/2 hours to let it rise.

Frosting

While you are waiting, you can go ahead and mix up your frosting. I like to do it the night before along with the rolls. It’s easier to do it while you’re busy making a mess anyway. I also think serving your cold frosting on fresh cinnamon rolls is one of the best things ever.

cinnamon rolls recipe

Frosting Ingredients

4 tbsp butter, softened — I just let mine sit out on the counter while I’m doing the other steps, because I actually don’t like my butter all that soft for this frosting.

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

Mix the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. Whisk together until smooth, then add powdered sugar and whisk again on low speed. Once all of the powdered sugar is mixed in, add the heavy cream and whisk on medium speed for a minute or so.

Just to let you know, this is the best cream cheese frosting you will ever eat.

Go ahead and get your filling mixture together before getting into the next stuff because it will probably get a little sticky.

Roll Filling

Mixture Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

2-3 tbsp cinnamon

I like to mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl because it just makes it easier to sprinkle on your dough later.

Once your hour and a half is up, turn the dough out of the bowl onto a well floured surface. You will also have to add more flour on top of the dough and bottom because it can be kind of sticky.

Roll the dough out out to about 1/4 inch thick and into a rectangle roughly 12×18 inches.

Then you will smear your dough with softened butter. I just do this with my hands, I’m not really sure what the proper protocol is for this kind of thing. Usually I’d let it buy me dinner first, but just do what you feel comfortable doing.

Sprinkle your cinnamon sugar mixture over the dough.

Start with the long edge and roll your dough up. Then, using a serrated knife, cute the dough in half. Cut each half in half again. Cute each quarter into thirds, so that you have 12 rolls.

Place each roll into a greased 9×13 baking dish.

Cover the baking dish and refrigerate overnight.

Bake

In the morning, remove the baking dish from the fridge and let it sit in a warm spot in your kitchen for one hour. What I do is turn my oven on for a few moments, then turn it off and stick the dish in the oven to sit. The rolls will rise covered.

When your hour is up, preheat your oven to 350. Don’t forget to take the rolls out first and uncover them, that wouldn’t end well.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, depending on how well done you like them. The tops should be golden brown.

You can see that they rise quite a bit and bake much bigger than the small rolls with which you started.

Go ahead and give these guys a good frosting once they’ve cooled a little. And try not to eat all the frosting yourself.

cinnamon rolls recipe

cinnamon rolls recipe

The part that takes the longest on these rolls is the waiting. For the actual work put into these, I would say it takes about 30-45 minutes. I’m a big fan of make ahead food, especially something as delicious as cinnamon rolls.

If you’re looking for something to impress everyone in your family for the holidays, just make these and tell everyone they were very hard to make and took forever and you should get to pick first, specifically from the middle of the pan. You. Are. Welcome.

Don’t forget! If you make these or any of my recipes, share them and tag me on social media or use #astudyinchic! I’d love to know what your favorites are and if you have any of your own tips/tweaks to my recipes!

xo – Tracy

ADD A COMMENT

Tracy
Maegan showed me your blog and thought we should try these cinnamon rolls this weekend! These are the best rolls ever and we LOVED the icing!!!!!! Will definitely be making these again!! Thanks! Also going to follow your blog….fun stuff!