IT’S MOVING WEEK! I can’t believe it’s finally here. After 15 months of construction, 2 years of architectural planning, and 5-1/2 years of limbo living in our rental house, we will finally get to move into our dream house this Friday. I’m beyond excited. I’ve got those night before Christmas/ tomorrow’s my birthday/ going to a surprise party kind of jitters. Basically we’re freaking out with joy over here, okay?
Our dishes and bakeware and utensils are all packed, so we’ve been living off of carry-out and protein bars this past week. I just want to simplify everything else in life so that this move, the holidays, EVERYTHING won’t feel too big of overwhelming. Maybe a week spent eating out of greasy paper bags isn’t the best way to do it, but we’re all doing our best over here. In the meantime, I’ve started dreaming about those first few bakes in my brand spankin’ new kitchen, starting with today’s recipe for overnight cinnamon rolls. I’ve held back on this recipe for a while, because it required lots of testing to determine when and how this recipe was best prepared. Finally, with a little patience and some shopping made simple with my friends at Brandless, I landed a recipe I’m really pleased with.
Brandless is an online retailer that offer quality products at fair prices. Offering everything from gift wrap to coconut oil to dinnerware, Brandless offers hundreds of everyday essentials and better-for-you products at incredibly affordable prices. Living in a rural area often limits my access to the items I need in my home and kitchen, and with Brandless I can receive those products straight to my front door in no time. Sign me up for anything that prevents me from making one more trek to the grocery store.
To prep for the overnight cinnamon rolls, I ordered Brandless’ All-Purpose Organic Unbleached Wheat Flour, Organic Light Brown Sugar, Organic Ground Cinnamon, and Organic Cane Sugar, as well as the cute spice jars and bowl scrapers you see in the photos. With the addition of a few everyday refrigerated items, the rolls were ready for making. This is a sweet yeasted dough that is rolled out and slathered with butter, brown sugar, and heaps of cinnamon. Tight little spirals of dough are allowed to rest in a baking dish over night and are then baked in a hot oven the next morning. The result is an incredibly tender, fluffy roll loaded with flavor and a generous slathering of cream cheese icing. Yes, it’s as beyond as it sounds.
To make the overnight cinnamon rolls we start with the dough. Yeast is sprinkled to dissolve over a mixture of warm milk and water. Eggs, melted butter, and brown sugar come next before the bread flour and all-purpose flour are stirred in with some salt. The dough is kneaded for several minutes until it becomes smooth and slightly tacky. Allow the ball of dough for your overnight cinnamon rolls to rest in a covered bowl on the counter.
Once doubled in size, roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover the dough with melted butter and sprinkle on a generous amount of brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough tightly from end to end and then slice it into 1-1/2″ sections to spread out on a lightly greased pan. Cover the pan and place it in the fridge overnight.
The following morning when you’re ready to enjoy your overnight cinnamon rolls, remove the pan from the fridge and preheat the oven. I like to stick my pan right next to the hot oven while it preheats so that it can shed some of its overnight chill. If you’d like your rolls to brown a little extra in the oven you can brush them with a water or milk. Bake in the oven until the edges have just started to bronze and the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F. A thermometer really helps here because overdone rolls are usually drier and more dense rolls too. Ew.
Whip up the icing with a little cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. You can barely warm the icing for a thin, pourable glaze, or you can leave it thick to spread directly on top of the overnight cinnamon rolls. Your choice. Either way, you’re going to love them.
Give these overnight cinnamon rolls a try and be sure to check out all of the goodies on Brandless.com. I’m so pleased to have found a way to simplify shopping, especially this time of year, and I think you’ll agree if you give it a shot. Whip up a batch of these for Christmas morning and let me know what you think. Happy Wednesday and Happy Baking!
This post is sponsored by Brandless. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that my Wood & Spoon possible!
If you like these overnight cinnamon rolls you should try:
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- Author: Kate Wood
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 480
- Yield: 14
- Category: Breakfast
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup (240 gm) milk, lukewarm
- ¼ cup (60 gm) water, lukewarm
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 6 tablespoons (85 gm)unsalted butter, melted but not too hot
- 1 large egg plus 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup (50 gm) brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 gm) sugar
- 2–3/4 cups (385 gm) all-purpose flour
- 1–1/2 cups (210 gm) bread flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the filling:
- 5 tablespoons (70 gm) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, if desired
- ¾ cup (150 gm) brown sugar
For the frosting:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (55 gm) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (115 gm) powdered sugar
- 2+ tablespoons of milk
Instructions
To prepare the dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl, combine the milk and water and sprinkle the yeast over top of it. Allow the yeast to dissolve, about 5 minutes. Stir in the butter, egg, egg yolks, and brown sugar, and sugar until smooth. In a small bowl, combine the flour, bread flour, and salt. Dump about half of the dry ingredients into the yeast mixture and stir until combined. Pour in the remaining dry ingredients and knead in the bowl using the dough hook attachment until smooth and slightly tacky, about 7 minutes. If you notice your dough isn’t pulling away from the sides of the bowl or it’s too wet, add flour 2 tablespoons at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a little dough “tornado” around the dough hook. Once done kneading, place the dough into a large lightly greased bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap to double in size, about 1-1/2 – 2 hours.
- Once the dough has risen, dump it out onto a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it out into a large rectangle about 11”x21” in size. Pour the melted butter and spread it out over top. Combine the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar and sprinkle evenly over the buttered dough. Starting with one of the long ends, tightly roll the dough from end to end and pinch the edges together to seal. Cut the dough into 1-1/2” sections and lay them out 2” apart in a lightly greased baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning, remove the rolls from the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Keep the baking dish close to the oven while it preheats to help the rolls come to room temp. Once preheated, bake in the oven for about 22-25 minutes or until the edges are barely golden and the internal temp is 190 degrees. Remove from the oven and prepare your frosting.
To prepare the frosting:
- Cream the cream cheese and butter in large bowl at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and milk and beat to combine. Add additional milk to thin out the frosting or more powdered sugar to thicken it. You can also gently warm the frosting to pour over the rolls as a glaze. Cinnamon rolls are best enjoyed warm.
71 thoughts on “Overnight Cinnamon Rolls”
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★★★★★
Love these so much. I’ve made them every year for the last 4 or 5 years for Christmas morning. Is it possible to follow this recipe but not let them sit overnight? Like if I needed them same day??
★★★★★
Could these Cinnamon Rolls be frozen ahead of time?
Made these and the recipe is a keeper! Easy and delicious. I made a couple of tweaks:
Added ground cardamom to filling, used Truvia in place of granulated sugar, quarter cup brown sugar in filling, and vanilla extract in frosting. This was a perfect level of sweetness for my family. Thank you.
★★★★★
Hooray! I’m thrilled to hear this!
Made for the first time today and man they’re worth the wait over night! My boys all loved them and hubby can’t get enough. I’ve tried a few recipes and these are the best by far, I’ll be saving this to my quick list for easy access. Thanks!
★★★★★
Hooray! I’m thrilled to hear this!
Hi Kate! Can I use oat milk when making these?
Great question! I’ve never tried this, but I imagine it could. If you try it, lmk how it turns out!!
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If I have a regular hand-held mixer with a dough hook, will that work? I’ve never made anything with yeast, so I’m not sure how tough this would be without a stand mixer! Thanks 🙂
Hi Bevin! I haven’t tried this with a handheld mixer. I would think you could knead these the old fashioned way no problem! 🙂
Going to make these but wondering if they can sit in the fridge for 2 nights?
Ooo good question- i haven’t waited that long before. But if you try it, lmk! 🙂
Will these keep in the refrigerator for 2 days? I need to make something for Christmas breakfast at our daughters but need to make something here that I can transport and keep in her fridge 2 days.
Our Christmas morning tradition is to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Last year, I tried this recipe, and they were better than any I’ve ever made! I can’t wait to get these prepped for Christmas in a couple days!
★★★★★
Haha, just realized I already left a review for you last time! I guess I really like these…..(:
So happy to hear this!!!!
I LOVE this recipe. I made it last year to eat on Christmas morning. I’ll be making it again this year, but a half batch since we ended up with 14 buns last year. Thank you for having the measurements in grams, that makes it a lot easier to halve and quarter the recipe.
★★★★★
So happy to hear this!!!!
Oh my word these are incredible!! Possibly the best thing to ever come out of my kitchen. Super light and moist! Smells like Christmas morning here in our house 🙂 I used 00 pizza flour instead of bread flour as I didn’t have any and added a bit of cardamom and orange zest to the filling – absolutely delicious! Thank you, Kate!
★★★★★
EEEP! Thank you for this feedback!
Is it possible to use flaxseed eggs instead of regular eggs?
I’ve not actually tried this, so I can’t say. But that’s a great idea- I’d love to give it a shot! 🙂
Everybody was delighted at work when I brought those warm buns. Perfect balance. Will be my everyday buns recipe. Made them with white flour and brown sugar only since I had those available. Thank you so much. ( insert fictive bun emoji)
You are a workday hero! Thank you for sharing!!!
This is the best my dough a has ever turned out. After baking they were drier than I would have like but the flavor was great. I didn’t need the full batch of frosting but it was nice to have plenty. I made these on a Thursday, baked on Friday and then used 6 rolls on Sunday for a ‘cinnamon roll French toast bake’. Chopped the rolls up and added 6 eggs and 1.5 cups of milk. It’s baking now…. we’ll see what happens 🙂
★★★★★
I’m thrilled to hear this Rachel!! Try pulling the rolls out a few minutes early. I always bake mine until they’re golden, but they’re usually overbaked by then!
The Recipe sounds yummy. I will be trying these. Thank you!!
Hooray!! I hope you will!
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is this one standard packet of active dry yeast? (aka 7 grams?)
No, 1 pack is 2-1/4 tsp
Our Christmas tradition for the past few years has been to have homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Each year I’ve tried a different recipe, trying to find the perfect one and never being quite satisfied. Well, I think this is the perfect recipe I was looking for! It was a huge hit with the whole family. The rolls were perfectly chewy but not doughy-feeling. And the icing was the perfect sweetness. I find that cream cheese icing recipes frequently call for too much powdered sugar, but this recipe is just perfect. Thank you, Kate!
★★★★★
I’m thrilled to hear this! Thank you for sharing Anna!
Just made these and they were fantastic! I was curious though, have you ever tried to make half the cinnamon rolls and freeze the rest for later? If you have any advice on that let me know!
Yes! They freeze beautifully. Reheating the frosting is kinda tricky, so if you’re able to freeze unfrosted that works best. 🙂
Hi Kate! When you freeze them, do you freeze them unbaked/raw or freeze them after you’ve baked them?
Baked!
Best cinnamon rolls I’ve had! Dough was rather sticky when I went to roll it out, but it turned out perfectly and absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
thrilled to hear this!
These. Were. Delicious. I had a craving for cinnamon rolls, and am trying to do more of my own cooking without buying pre-made stuff. This was easy to follow. I didn’t have bread flour and just substituted with all all-purpose flour – can you tell me what the difference was for your final product using bread flour versus all AP flour? Thank you!!
★★★★★
YES GIRL. I’m thrilled to hear this. Thank you for sharing. Bread flour adds extra chew to recipes, but all-purpose is an excellent substitute in this particular one. 🙂
Oohhh cream cheese AND butter in the frosting?! These are on my schedule for this weekend 😍
YES GIRL.
These look amazing! I’m not fortunate enough to own a stand mixer yet. Blah… could I hand knees these??
yes!
I made the dough on the 24th in the morning, stored in the fridge until Christmas morning and baked as directed. My family said they were the best ever. This will be a new favorite since they are so easy.
YES! This is awesome news. Thank you for sharing!!!
I made these for our Christmas breakfast, having never done homemade cinnamon rolls before. I followed the recipe exactly except I didn’t add the pumpkin pie spice to the filling. We all devoured them and I loved the idea of final proofing overnight in the fridge. Very impressed, I appreciate the recipe!
★★★★★
Hooray! I’m thrilled to hear this Kendra! Thank you for sharing!!
Really want to make these but wanted to see if I could use fresh yeast instead?
I’m unfamiliar with using fresh yeast here. if I get around to trying soon I’ll be sure to let you know!
We are going out of town so I want to make these ahead of time- can you freeze them for a few days?? Cannot wait to try these- I’ve been patiently waiting on this recipe ☺️
Ohhh, I wish I knew the answer to that question! I’m going to have to test it out soon because so many people are asking! if I hear from someone before I get to try for myself I’ll post about it. 🙂
Hi Kate! Could I try to marry these with the hazelnut cinnamon rolls and just add nuts to the filling? Also in that recipe we didn’t melt the butter for the filling it was just room temp and i slathered it on, any reason for melting it here? Hope you have an amazing holiday! Thanks for sharing all your amazing creations. <3
You could definitely marry! The melted butter just simplifies the spreading, but you can do whatever you’d prefer 🙂
Can you leave them overnight for 2 nights (36 hours)? Or do you think it would dry out too much? LOVE your recipes! Excited to try this one!
I haven’t tried this yet! I worry about them puffing too much. But I do have a friend doing this tomorrow so check back!
These look so amazing! Do you think I could also prep the cream cheese frosting the night before too?
yes! it may just need to be stirred again before using 🙂
These are perfection!! I love making cinnamon rolls overnight- it’s like making a present for your morning self. Can’t wait to try your recipe xx
you deserve all the presents, beauty!
Good luck with your move! Such an exciting time for you. The photos of these cinnamon rolls are just gorgeous. Can’t wait to try baking them. I had a good laugh reading your post this morning. As I was scrolling down, an ad for a sugar detox program popped up right below the photo of the cinnamon rolls being spread with sugar!! Not sure how this whole ad thing works, but I was wondering if you have any say in what kind of ads pop up on your blog. Just curious.
hahahaha, no I have no say. ad population typically differs based on the viewers browser history. with that being said, the ad company I use has pledged to not place any foul or inappropriate ads. Clearly they must not know I’m totally pushing the sugar here! 😉
Kate, you are saving my life in two ways with this post: 1) my family said “we want cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning” and dread filled me. I don’t buy the pre-made stuff but I’m not exactly a baker either. Out of the clear blue sky I find your post! I’m not rating the recipe because I haven’t made it, but it looks amazing and doable for a novice. I’ll check back in with the results. 2) Brandless! I’ve never heard of them but after following the link I discover a company that thinks like me: organic, green, cruelty free and affordable! I was absolutely floored when I saw the site and the fact that they donate to Feeding America when I make a purchase sealed the deal. I’m IN! THANK YOU!
hooray!! I’m so thrilled to hear this. LMK how the rolls turn out, Lee!
These look fantastic! What size baking pan are you using?
I used a quarter sheet pan but a jelly roll pan would work brilliantly also! It’s similar in size to a 9×13″. If you have nay leftover rolls just stick them in a smaller pan or tiny ramekins. 🙂
I’m super excited for you all to be moving into your new home! And I’m super excited for these yummy cinnamon rolls to be moving into my belly! Love!
ha! love you mama 🙂