Mom's Best Cinnamon Rolls

4.80 from 29 votes

For as long as I can remember, my mom has been baking loads of deliciousness like these from scratch cinnamon rolls.

Prep Time1 30

Cook Time25

Rest Time1

Total Time2 55

Course: Breakfast Recipes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: moms cinnamon rolls

Servings: rolls

Calories: 440kcal

Author: Deanne Frieders

Ingredients

For the dough

½ cup milk
¼ cup butter
1 teaspoon sugar
2 packages dry active yeast
1 ½ teaspoon salt
½ cup warm water 105-115 degrees
½ cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
4 ½ cup flour approximately

Cinnamon Filling

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoon cinnamon
6 tablespoon butter softened but not melted

Icing/Glaze

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoon milk or water
2 teaspoon vanilla extract optional

Instructions

To make the dough

To make the dough - In a small saucepan, heat milk to a simmer taking care not to boil. When milk comes to a simmer, turn off the heat and add the butter to melt. Cool to lukewarm.
In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water and add 1 tsp. sugar. Let stand until bubbly, about 5 minutes. Stir in milk mixture, ½ cup sugar, salt, beaten eggs, and half of flour. Beat until smooth.
Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic.
Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning over once to grease surfaces. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and turn out onto a floured surface. Cover, let rest 10 minutes.
In the meantime, mix sugar and cinnamon. Grease your pan with cooking spray or butter.
Roll dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle. Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Roll up, jelly-roll fashion, starting at the narrow end.
Cut rolls at 1 ½ inch intervals. See note for further instructions.
Put rolls, cut sides up, in prepared pan so that the spiral shows. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight OR set aside to rise for 20-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Let the rolls stand at room temperature for 20-30 minutes if they have been refrigerated.
When oven is preheated, bake 25-30 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Drizzle with glaze.

To Make the Glaze

In a medium bowl, combine sugar and optional vanilla. Slowly add milk or water, mixing until the desired consistency is achieved.

Notes

Worth noting:

If you have "block" or "bulk" yeast, 4.5 teaspoons equals two packets of active dry yeast.
Super duper important note: You can make these rolls and then freeze them before baking! Simply thaw, let rise and bake!
I like to lightly drizzle the glaze on the rolls when they have slightly cooled. (It sinks into the nooks and crannies this way). Let the rolls completely cool, then spread the remaining icing.

To Make Equal Cuts:

To make symmetrical rolls, which will keep your family from fighting over who gets what roll, here's how we'll cut them. (Mom gets the middle one - always!)

Make a cut in the center of the dough roll.
Now, cut each half into another half
Now we have quarters
Cut each quarter into 3 rolls.

I didn't learn much in math, but I can tackle this kind of math!

To Make Clean, Precise Cuts:

You can use waxed dental floss to cut the rolls by inserting underneath and then criss crossing the floss at the top, pulling quickly to cut.

My new and improved way is to use a large chef's knife dusted with flour.

I make precise, straight down cuts (as in no sawing back and forth) at each 1 ½ inch interval.

Nutrition