Better than Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls (2024)

In today’s post: Learn how to make amazing homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch that taste even better than Cinnabon rolls! Our post includes step by step instructions to make sure your cinnamon rolls turn out amazing.

The Perfect Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Why is the the PERFECT cinnamon roll recipe? Well, a couple of reasons:

1. We use a dough that’s enriched with butter and egg and sugar so it turns outpillowy soft and just sweet enough – but the dough is still very easy to make and handle. No super sticky mess, I promise.
2. I’ve amped up the filling with brown sugar and LOTS of ground cinnamon, and included a simple trick that will keep the cinnamon sugar filling from dripping down to the bottom of the pan while baking!
3. The frosting is super easy to whip together, but adding cream cheese takes the flavor over the top. Cream cheese icing is the perfect finishing touch for these fluffy cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon rolls VIDEO

Here’s a quick video that shows the process for making these soft, gorgeous cinnamon rolls.

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How to Make Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Making any type of bread can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before, but don’t worry! I will walk you step by step through everything you need to know. If you don’t need these instructions, you can head straight to the end of the post for the printable recipe card. Plan on three hours start to finish to make your delicious cinnamon rolls.

Make the Dough

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The first thing you’ll do to make cinnamon rolls is mix up a simple yet delicious bread dough. I use this same dough for dinner rolls, raspberry rolls, garlic breadsticks, and more! It’s a beautiful enriched dough that results in pillowy soft rolls or breadsticks, but doesn’t require any ingredients you might not have on hand or any difficult prep (like heating milk to a certain temperature). You don’t even have to proof your yeast!

You just combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer and get things going. I even have a couple of step by step videos you can watch that will show you EXACTLY what to do in the mixing and kneading process, including all my tips for ensuring it turns out amazing.

• If you’d like to see how to mix this dough in a Bosch mixer, visit the Homemade Bread post here
• If you’d like to see how to mix this dough in a KitchenAid mixer, visit the Dinner Rolls post here

Rise + Roll Out the Dough

Once the dough is mixed and kneaded as directed, place it in a large bowl that’s been greased, cover it with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rise for 60-90 minutes until nearly doubled in size. Then you’ll start shaping the dough as cinnamon rolls.

Flour your work surface, and then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a large rectangle – about 14 x 20 inches is great. It’s ok to gently pull the dough into shape using your hands as you roll it out.

Add the BEST Cinnamon Roll Filling

This cinnamon roll filling might be slightly different than other cinnamon roll recipes you’ve tried. Older recipes tend to call for granulated sugar, but usingbrown sugar instead gives a much richer taste. If you’ve ever tried a Cinnabon cinnamon roll recipe you’ll see it uses brown sugar. It really does make a difference!

The other thing that’s different about the filling in this recipe is how you apply it to the dough. Most cinnamon roll recipes tell you to soften (or melt) butter and spread it on the dough, then to sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the butter. There are two problems with this method:

• If you’re using a healthy amount of cinnamon sugar, a lot of it will fall out as you slice the rolls and place them in a pan
• More of it will ooze down to the bottom of the pan as the rolls bake, leaving you with less filling in each roll.

So I make the filling differently: I soften the butter until it’s nearly melted, then mix the cinnamon and sugar into the butter to create a paste. Then I spread the mixture across the the dough, leaving about an inch along the top uncovered.

NOTE: this method does take a few minutes longer than the melt-and-sprinkle method (which you can use if you prefer). When you first start to spread the mixture over your dough it will clump up and be a bit hard to spread. I find it’s easiest to use an offset spatula in my right hand and the fingers of my left hand to gently spread the mixture. After three or four minutes you’ll find it’s adhering to the dough and it gets easier to spread out evenly. Just work gently so you don’t smash the dough. And don’t worry if you don’t get every single spot covered – it’ll work just fine.

Roll and Slice Cinnamon Roll Dough

Once the butter/cinnamon/sugar mix is spread across your dough, it’s time to roll it up into a log, starting from the bottom (which should be one of the long ends). Start by rolling the bottom inch or two up, working from one side to the other. Continue to roll a little at a time, working back and forth from side to side (you can see this in the video above). You want the roll to be somewhat tight so that the roll stays circular, so you can gently pull the dough toward you as you roll it up.

When you get all the way to the top, pinch the top edge gently to seal.

Now you’ll have a log that’s about 20 inches long. I like to cut off the very end of each side of the log so that all my rolls are flat on the top and bottom, but that’s personal preference.

Use a knife to mark where you will slice for 12 equal rolls. Then you can either slice the rolls apart with a very sharp knife OR you can use a piece of thread or unflavored dental floss to cut the rolls. I prefer this method because it doesn’t squish the rolls. Pick up one end of the log and slide a piece of thread under it. Then criss cross the thread over the top of the log and pull on each end of the thread the slice through the log. You can see how I do this on the video above.

Second Rise

As you slice 12 even rolls, place them in a greased 9×13 inch baking dish to rise one more time before baking.

Here’s what they look like before the second rise (plenty of space in between each roll):

And here’s what they look like after the second rise (nice and puffy, rolls are beginning to touch each other). Your second rise will take 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how warm it is in your house.

Bake

Bake your rolls in a 350 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes until they are lightly brown on top and sound hollow if you tap on them. Baking times vary quite a bit, so you may need to bake yours a little longer or a minute shorter. If you’re unsure whether they are done, you can use a fork to gently pull the two middle rolls apart to see if the dough looks cooked and flaky.

Here they are fresh out of the oven:

Frost

While the cinnamon rolls bake, mix up the cream cheese frosting. The frosting recipe makes a generous amount of frosting – yum!

If you want the frosting to melt into the rolls, wait about 10 minutes after removing the rolls from the oven to frost them, and serve immediately.

If you prefer fluffy frosting that stays on top of your rolls, allow the rolls to cool completely before frosting and serving.