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single cinnamon roll with frosting on white plate

Rich and Creamy Cinnamon Rolls

The most incredible cinnamon rolls with a gooey center, fluffy, soft rolls, and creamy homemade cream cheese frosting
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Course Baked Goods, Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

For the Dough

  • 1 cups warm milk
  • 2 ¾ teaspoon yeast
  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoon honey (option to replace with equal portion white sugar)
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cups unsalted butter
  • ¼ cups full fat plain Greek yogurt
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling

  • 6 tablespoon butter
  • cups white sugar
  • 3 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
  • 3 ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

For the Frosting

  • 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup + 3 tablespoon white sugar blended white sugar or powdered sugar
  • 7.5 oz cream cheese
  • 2 ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 teaspoon almond extract
  • 4-6 tablespoon whole milk depending on how thick you want your frosting

Instructions
 

Make the Dough

  • In a small saucepan, heat milk on low heat for a few minutes until warm. If you dip your finger in it shouldn't be hot at all, only warm.
  • In a medium or large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, and salt.
  • Once the milk is warm, transfer it to another container so that milk doesn't to heat up. Add the yeast and let sit for at least 5 minutes for the yeast to activate. Once activated, add milk + yeast to the flour mixture. Combine with a fork and your hands. Knead dough for about 5 minutes until no longer sticky. Form into a ball and cover with a lid or clean cheese cloth/towel and let rise for about 45 minutes until double in size.

Make the Filling

  • In a medium bowl cream together room temp butter and sugar. Add molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and mix with a fork. You can put the mixture in the fridge until you're ready to use it, but make sure that it's out at room temp beforehand to make sure you can spread it easily.

Make the Frosting

  • Blend white sugar until a fine powder similar to powdered sugar (or use powdered sugar). In a medium-sized bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add the cream cheese and mix. Don't overly whip or the cream cheese could thin out more than you want. Add vanilla and almond extracts, and start with 4 tablespoon milk. Add 1 tablespoon milk to thin to a preferred consistency. I usually do 5-6 tablespoon total and no more.

Forming the Cinnamon Rolls

  • Preheat oven to 375℉ with rack in the middle of oven.
  • Once the dough has risen, transfer it to a lightly floured work surface. Pat dough ball into a slightly rectangle shape, which will help you maintain the rectangle shape as you stretch out the dough. I prefer to work out the dough using my hands to avoid loosing air, but you can use a rolling pin if you prefer.
  • Roll out dough into a rectangle approximately 12" x 17." Spread filling over dough. I like to go right to the edges but leaving about a ½" space on the long side furthest from you for when rolling the dough.
  • Starting at the long edge closest to you, roll dough into a log. Cut log in half, then each piece in half again. Cut each of those sections into equal thirds. Make sure your knife is sharp so you're not squishing the dough too much. *Option to use floss (plain, not flavored) to tie around log and pull tight to cut into sections.
  • Lightly grease a cake pan (11" x 7"). Place rolls in cake pan making 4 rows of 3. Try to space them out so they're not touching the sides of the pan or each other if possible. Cover with a cheesecloth or towel and let rise for about 10-15 minutes.

Bake

  • Bake rolls at 375℉ for 25 minutes. Remove and set on a cooling rack. Option to frost while warm, wait until about 15 minutes before frosting, or wait until rolls are completely cool. I like to wait a bit so they're still a little warm but not as fragile. There is quite a bit of frosting for this recipe. Above in the narrative I've included the portions for a smaller batch of frosting. You can use all the frosting to cover the rolls, or cover the rolls with the amount of your choosing and save the remaining frosting for people to individually add more if they want.
  • Store in your fridge.

Reheating

  • Reheat rolls at 300℉ for about 8 minutes or use microwave for just a few seconds. Rolls will be fairly firm when cold but soften up quickly once warmed.
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