Easy Cinnamon Rolls
Soft, gooey, brown butter, from scratch
Soft, fluffy, gooey homemade cinnamon rolls made with rich brown butter, a cinnamon-sugar filling, heavy cream and a silky cream cheese frosting. The secret: brown butter + heavy cream.
Ingredients
- Dough: 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour · 1 tsp salt · ⅓ cup (67 g) sugar
- ¾ cup (180 ml) warm water + 2½ tsp active dry yeast + 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 4 tbsp browned butter, cooled (for the dough)
- Filling: ⅓ cup (76 g) browned butter · 1 cup (135 g) brown sugar · 2 tbsp cinnamon
- ½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream, for pouring over
- Frosting: 4 oz (113 g) cream cheese · 3 tbsp butter · 1 tsp vanilla · ¾ cup (90 g) powdered sugar · 1 tbsp cream or milk
Nutrition is an estimate per serving.
Method
- Brown the butter: melt in a saucepan over medium heat until foamy and the milk solids turn golden and fragrant. Cool slightly. You need 4 tbsp for the dough and ⅓ cup for the filling.
- Activate the yeast: stir warm water, yeast and 1 tbsp sugar; rest about 10 minutes until foamy.
- Dough: combine flour, salt and sugar. Add egg, egg yolk, 4 tbsp cooled browned butter and the yeast mixture. Mix to a soft dough — if too sticky, add flour 1 tbsp at a time.
- Cover and rise 1–2 hours until doubled.
- Filling: mix ⅓ cup browned butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until spreadable.
- Roll the dough into a large rectangle, spread the filling evenly, roll tightly into a log and cut 8 rolls. Place in a greased dish.
- Rest 30 minutes, then pour ½ cup heavy cream over and around the rolls.
- Bake at 177 °C / 350 °F for 25–30 minutes until golden and cooked through.
- Frosting: beat cream cheese and butter smooth; add vanilla and powdered sugar, then cream or milk until silky.
- Frost while warm so it melts into the swirls.
Watch it made
Notes on this recipe
Brown the butter first, for both parts
Browning drives the water out of butter and toasts the milk solids, which is where the nutty, almost caramel flavour comes from. It is used twice here — in the dough and in the filling — and it is the single thing that makes these taste like more work than they are. Cool it before it meets the yeast; hot butter kills yeast outright. The browning itself takes about five minutes and is mostly a matter of not walking away.
Foamy in ten minutes, or start again
Yeast stirred into warm water with a spoon of sugar should be visibly foamy within ten minutes. If it is not, the yeast is dead or the water was too hot, and nothing later in the recipe will rescue it. Warm means comfortably warm to a finger, not hot. This check takes ten minutes and saves three hours.
Soft dough, added flour sparingly
The dough should be soft and slightly tacky. The instinct when it sticks is to add flour until it stops, and that is how cinnamon rolls end up dense and dry. Add a tablespoon at a time and stop while it is still a little sticky — it firms up as the gluten develops and again after the rise.
The rise, and getting ahead
One to two hours until doubled, and the time depends entirely on how warm your kitchen is; a cold room can take three. Doubled in size is the test, not the clock. You can shape the rolls the night before and keep them covered in the fridge, then bring them to room temperature and bake in the morning — the slow cold rise improves the flavour. Best warm, on the day.
