Confession Alert: I have a ridiculous love affair with freshly-baked home-made cinnamon rolls. (Don’t worry, my husband is not jealous as he feels the same way, and he doesn’t even like sweets.) I absolutely love the smell of them baking in the oven and I love eating them even more. So, without hesitation, I want to introduce you to my favorite recipe for them: Cinnamon + Brown Butter Glazed Cinnamon Rolls.
Allow me to back up, just for a moment. I DO love cinnamon rolls, but they can’t just be any cinnamon roll recipe. There are about as many recipes for cinnamon rolls as there are for chocolate chip cookies. Everyone has one and most are really great; this one is special.
The Dough
Y’all, these are my promises to you. The dough in this recipe is the easiest dough you’ll EVER make. It involves zero equipment beyond a wooden spoon to incorporate the ingredients. This means less mess and it can be made by just about anyone! The proofing and rising is an absolute cinch because it involves a bowl and only a few hours.
The rolling of the dough involves a basic rolling pin to roll out the dough into a rectangular shape. The filling is very simple with a mixture of melted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and of course cinnamon and nutmeg. All of this is SO easy and is created from pantry staples, mostly.
The Frosting
The magic is actually in the frosting.
Ohmyheavenlystars. THE FROSTING. I may even be tearing up here…
I may or may not have a flair for the dramatic, what can I say?! Although, I do tear up from crazy-good food on occasion, this frosting makes my heart skip a beat every. single. time.
It’s quite simple: I take butter and I brown it until it smells slightly caramely and nutty.
Then, I allow the browned butter to cool and mix it with 5 ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese. I’m not always a brand-specific buyer, but when I am, I do note it in my recipes. For whatever reason, I have tried other brands and they do not compete in the cream cheese arena. (Full disclosure: This is purely my opinion and I am not compensated by Philadelphia brand in any way.)
The real secret is in the cinnamon and dash of nutmeg I add to the frosting. It’s really basic and doesn’t appear like magic when I write it down, but I guarantee the cinnamon and nutmeg notes play perfectly well with the browned butter flavors! This will create a beautiful work of food art that your whole family will love! It takes your basic cream cheese frosted cinnamon rolls to an entirely different level!
These rolls will be the perfect addition to your morning brunch or any time of day, really. Brew yourself a great cup of coffee and enjoy one of these rolls, friends…you deserve it!
For more sweet brunch ideas, click HERE for some great inspiration! If you haven’t tried the Chocolate Cherry Coffee Cake, I can guarantee you that it will become a staple for your brunches! The Cherry White Chocolate Scones are a regular around here, too! You can’t go wrong…just go and bake something!
Until next time…Eat Well. Travel Often. Love Much.
XOXO
Cinnamon + Brown Butter Glazed Cinnamon Rolls
The fluffiest, dreamiest and most delicious cinnamon rolls you'll ever taste. The addition of browned butter and spices in the frosting will satisfy all of your frosting dreams! Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (100F or below)
- 1 1/2 tsp. yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 2 T. + 2 tsp. granulated sugar
- 2 T. oil
- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- Filling:
- 2 T. butter, melted
- 2 T. granulated sugar
- 2 T. well-packed brown sugar
- pinch of Kosher salt
- 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- Nutmeg, a few dashes
- Frosting:
- 4 T. butter, browned & cooled
- 5 oz. cream cheese (preferably Philadelphia)
- 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (more or less to taste)
- 2-3 T. milk, for thinning (less if you like stiffer frosting, more if you like a glaze)
Directions
- Step 1 Dough: Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and oil with the water in a large mixing bowl.
- Step 2 Add all of the flour at once and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture is uniform, is uniformly wet and doesn’t have any dry patches of flour. The dough will be fairly sticky.
- Step 3 Allow your dough to rise: Cover the bowl loosely (not airtight) with a vented lid or loosely covered plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 2’ish hours until dough rises and doubles in size. I say 2’ish because it all depends on the temperature of the room and the temperature of the water that you started out with. After the initial rise, you may use the dough or place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
- Step 4 Rolling the Dough: Dust the surface of the dough with flour and quickly shape it into a ball, stretching the surface and tucking it around the bottom. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle, about 9 x 12 inches in size. Make sure to use a little flour as you roll it out to prevent the dough from sticking.
- Step 5 Brush the dough with melted butter. In a small bowl, mix together the filling and evenly spread it over the butter-topped dough. You may use your hands to spread it out if you need to.
- Step 6 Tightly roll up the dough, starting at the long end. Cut the dough into 8-12 pieces depending on the size of the rolls you’d like. Cutting the log into 8 pieces will yield large rolls, 12 pieces will yield smaller baked rolls.
- Step 7 Place the buns, cut side up in a buttered baking dish (around a 9 x 13 pan). Leave 1-2 inches in between them. They will rise and fill in the gaps.
- Step 8 Cover the rolls loosely with buttered plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for 90 minutes. Alternatively, you may place them in the refrigerator overnight for a long slow rise if you intend to bake them off in the morning.
- Step 9 Bake the rolls: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the rack in the center. Bake the rolls for 25-30 minutes (12 room temperature rolls) and 35-40 minutes (8 room temperature rolls). If you are baking the rolls directly from the refrigerator, you’ll need to add just a few minutes to the baking time because the rolls will be cold when they go into the oven. Please note: To avoid over-browning, you will need to check on them halfway through the baking time. If they are browning quickly, tent them with aluminum foil.
- Step 10 While the rolls are baking, brown the butter and allow to cool and re-solidify a bit. When the butter is cooled, mix the remaining frosting ingredients together until the mixture is uniform and no lumps appear. Set aside.
- Step 11 Pull out the rolls when they are slightly browned and sound hollow when tapped.
- Step 12 Allow to cool for about 10 minutes and then frost with the most delicious frosting EVER.
- Step 13 Enjoy!
You had me at cinnamon roll! I love eating them but have never had success making them. I’m going to try your recipe because it looks easy and delicious!
The cinnamon rolls look yum. Thanks for sharing the recipe
Making me hungry!!
Always love to try a new cinnamon roll recipe. I never thought of adding nutmeg and never thought of adding cinnamon to the frosting. It sure adds a pretty look.
These look amazing. And I can smell them as I was reading your post. Will be anxious to try. Love the cream cheese in the frosting. Thanks!
mmm…these look so yummy and gooey.
These cinnamon rolls look delicious!
These look fabulous! We cannot wait to give them a try, thanks for sharing!!
This looks so delicious. Great demonstration of how to make it!
They look and sound delicious! Can’t wait to give these a try!
These look good! I just made cinnamon rolls yesterday.
WOW! My mouth was watering as I read this post. I cannot imagine how good these smell and taste!!!
These look amazing! I’m so excited to give these a try! Thank you!!
Those look SO good! I’ve never made homemade cinnamon rolls, because I’ve always been intimidated by the recipes. I need to just give it a try!
Oh my goodness, these look so amazing! I would love to make them any time, but especially in the fall!!
I absolutely love cinnamon rolls! They are a bit of a tradition around here… Christmas morning, New Year’s morning, Easter morning, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, any morning!
This looks delicious and doable for my family! Thanks for sharing this amazing dessert recipe
These look amazing. Cinnamon rolls are the best!
These look amazing! This sounds like something I need to do with my kids while we are home right now. My 8 and 9-year-olds have been baking something every few days, and this is definitely a recipe they would be excited to make together.
Yum! Great recipe! Definitely trying this!
Ummm YES PLEASE!!!!
They look delicious! I have never made homemade cinnamon rolls, I will have to try this!
Oh my these look amazing! I love brown butter.
I am not much of a baker but these sound easy to make. Yum!
I can’t wait to try this! Looks delicious.
These look heavenly, adding to my recipe collection!
These look delicious!
I love making homemade cinnamon rolls! That brown butter frosting sounds amazing!
I want to know more about the pastry brush for the butter – I have never seen one like that!
These look amazing! I love the waxed floss trick. I’m planning to try out your recipe this weekend.
Wow, just cinnamon wow!
Those look yummy!
I want to try these so badly. Every store I have gone to has run out of yeast…wish I could find it somewhere!
I LOVE cinnamon rolls! I really should do this with my kids during this time! Pinning it. 🙂
A friend of mines mom made these when we were in school. They were always such a treat!