Technically, you can eat these as an incredible breakfast. But given how sweet and decadent they are, I tend to think of these cinnamon rolls more as desserts.
The rolls come out delightfully soft and buttery, and the frosting has a bit of Greek yogurt added in to cut down on the sweetness and thickness. I made this recipe twice during the past week, and was floored by the results.
The recipe below is on the smaller size, and will yield roughly 6 cinnamon rolls. I like to make them in batches of this size, as I find 12 rolls to be a bit too much for my wife and I to eat by ourselves. But you can easily double the recipe.
If you do decide to double the recipe, be careful that you don’t overwork your stand mixer motor, or allow the dough to climb up the dough hook into the gear mechanism. I know some people with very large batches who have burned out their motor on their stand mixer if they work the mixer too hard. The small batch shown below shouldn’t be a problem.
Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
Technically, you can eat these as an incredible breakfast. But given how sweet and decadent they are, I tend to think of these cinnamon rolls more as desserts. The rolls come out delightfully soft and buttery, and the frosting has a bit of Greek yogurt added in to cut down on the sweetness and thickness. I made this recipe twice during the past week, and was floored by the results. The recipe below is on the smaller size, and will yield roughly 6 cinnamon rolls. I like to make them in batches of this size, as I find 12 rolls to be a bit too much for my wife and I to eat by ourselves. But you can easily double the recipe. If you do decide to double the recipe, be careful that you don’t overwork your stand mixer motor, or allow the dough to climb up the dough hook into the gear mechanism. I know some people with very large batches who have burned out their motor on their stand mixer if they work the mixer too hard. The small batch shown below shouldn’t be a problem.
Ingredients
For the Cinnamon Roll Dough:
- 120 grams milk
- ½ package (about 3.5 grams) active yeast
- 290 grams all-purpose flour
- 60 grams granulated sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 whole egg
- 45 grams salted butter, softened
- 1 egg yolk, for brushing on the outsides of the rolls before baking
For the Cinnamon Roll Filling:
- 110 grams brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 45 grams salted butter, softened to room temperature
For the Cinnamon Roll Frosting:
- 60 grams cream cheese
- 40 grams confectioner’s powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 15 grams Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Add the milk to a small sauce pot and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Once the milk reaches a simmering temp, remove the milk from the heat.
- Allow the milk to cool at room temperature until it is around 100-110F, but no hotter than that.
- Add the active yeast to the warm milk once it has cooled down to the 100-110F temperature range, and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and kosher salt to the warm milk and yeast, and stir with a spoon until the flour is absorbed by the milk.
- Whisk the whole egg and cut your first 45 grams of softened butter into small cubes.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest for five minutes.
- When the dough has rested for 5 minutes, add the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, and turn the stand mixer on to low speed.
- Slowly add in the 45 grams of salted softened butter, and also add in your whisked whole egg.
- Allow the stand mixer to run on low speed for roughly 12-15 minutes, or until the dough is completely smooth and somewhat elastic.
- Whisk the remaining egg yolk, and set it aside for when you are ready to bake your rolls later.
- *This whisked egg yolk will be used for your cinnamon roll egg wash that you will apply to the tops of the rolls before baking to give them a nice golden-brown sheen.
- When the dough is done mixing in the stand mixer, pour the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface, and roll it out using a rolling pin until it is the shape of a rectangle that is roughly one foot long by 6-8 inches wide.
- Take your remaining 45 grams of softened butter, and gently spread the butter over the entire top surface of the dough.
- *Make sure your butter is really soft here.
- In a small bowl, mix the ingredients together for the cinnamon roll filling.
- Sprinkle the rectangle of dough that is covered with butter with the cinnamon roll filling.
- Gently roll up the cinnamon roll into the shape of a log.
- *I like to roll these up starting with the shorter side facing me, so I get more visible layers in my cinnamon rolls. If you roll the long side up, your final log will be longer, and you would have more rolls with fewer layers. If that’s your preference, go for it!
- Use a sharp knife to cut the log into six equal-sized slices.
- Place the cinnamon rolls in a 9” round baking pan lined with parchment paper.
- Cover the round baking pan with plastic wrap, and allow the rolls to roughly double in size before putting them into the oven
- *This should take about 40-60 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen with the oven on and the activity levels in the yeast.
- While the rolls are rising in the round baking pan, preheat your oven to 375F.
- To make your cinnamon roll frosting, simply whisk together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and Greek yogurt until the frosting is completely smooth.
- Reserve the frosting in the fridge for when your rolls are finished baking.
- When you are ready to bake the cinnamon rolls, remove the plastic wrap from the baking pan, and brush the top of each cinnamon roll lightly with the whisked egg yolk from earlier.
- Bake the cinnamon rolls at 375F for roughly 25 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown and fully cooked through on the inside.
- When the rolls are finished baking, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool at room temperature for roughly 3-5 minutes.
- When the rolls have cooled slightly, quickly apply the cream cheese frosting to the top of each roll.
- Serve while rolls are still warm.
Notes
Add some chopped nuts to the filling if that sounds good to you.