It’s December 26th, and there’s a good chance you’ve exceeded your maximum caloric intake for the day/week/month/year already. BUT, don’t we get to feast until the New Year and then start our diets?!
This is the best cinnamon roll recipe EVER, and I have made quite a few, including my grandmother’s (delicious) and Pioneer Woman’s (also yummy). There are a couple of reasons I like this one so much. First, the dough gets mixed in a bread machine. While I make lots of bread from scratch, sometimes it’s nice to be able to dump the ingredients in the bread machine and do something else while it does the work. Yes, you can mix the dough by hand if you don’t have a bread machine. Second, you can make the rolls the day before, cover the pan and let them rise in the fridge overnight. Then bake and frost the next morning (I also make the frosting the day before) and enjoy. Third, they are slap-your-momma good. Seriously! Why not try them for your New Years’ Day breakfast? That way, if your head aches from too much champagne, all the work is already done for you.
I claim no credit for this recipe. I found it on my favorite recipe site, AllRecipes.com, where it has 4,916 reviews and a five-star rating. That means there are over 314 million people in the US alone who don’t know about this recipe! And what about the rest of the world?! Out of the goodness of my heart, here it is:
Clone of a Cinnabon by Marsha Fernandez (click to go to original recipe)
Ingredients
:
Dough:
- 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup margarine, melted
- 4 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2-1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
Filling:
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2-1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon (you can use the fancy kind if you want, but it’s great with the plain old grocery store brand)
- chopped pecans, if desired (because they make my husband happy)
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
Frosting:
- 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
- After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. (Christy’s note: add chopped pecans if you’d like. My kids prefer not to have nuts, so I do half and half). Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). (Christy’s note: This is where I cover them and put them in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I take them out and let them come to room temperature and rise for up to two hours, and then I bake them).
- Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. (Christy’s note: I make the frosting the day before, too, and store it in the fridge. Pull it out when you take the rolls out to rise the next morning). Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.
I bake these a little longer than 15 minutes, sometimes up to 18-20 minutes. I try to find the balance between letting the tops get too brown and having the uncooked doughy center (I hate that!). These are SO delicious, and I usually serve them with fresh strawberries or pineapple. You can thank me later!
Thanks for stopping by!
Now I must buy a bread machine! Do you mind sharing which one you have (or any tips on what to look for) as I have no experience with one? Thank you!
Hi, Steph–Well, you don’t really have to buy a bread machine for this recipe; it just makes it a little easier. You can mix everything by hand or with a stand mixer. If you want a bread machine, you can probably find one for CHEAP at a thrift store. I always see tons of them there! Mine is a Panasonic, and it’s a really nice one, but it’s SO noisy. I’d get a different one if I could do it over again. I hope that helps!
~Christy
I make this recipe every Christmas Eve. I keep it in the fridge until the morning bring it out of the fridge and get it to room temp before throwing it in the oven. I have also found that taking the oven temp down to 375 and adding 10 minutes of cooking works best for me. At 400 my rolls almost would burn on top and I would still have some “doughy” parts in the middle. I did try to get out of making these this year but was met with a stern NO from both of my kids who are now adults. This is a really great recipe and easy to do if your not a bread maker.
Julie–GREAT idea on lowering the temperature and increasing the cooking time. I wrote that on my recipe to try next time. Thanks so much!