Who doesn’t love the cinnabons at the malls? Just walking by their stores and smelling these cinnabons baking, drives me up the walls. It’s very hard to keep on walking and not stop and spend $5 on a cinnabon.
Not to worry my friends! I have found the precious cinnabon recipe. I came across this book, More Top Secret Recipes: More Fabulous Kitchen Clones of America’s Favorite Brand-Name Foods
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but as I was making them they were looking like the real thing. I have to tell you, they are about as close to the real thing as you’re going to get.
Unbelievable! They are out of this world, and they cost a whole lot less. They’re huge just like the ones you buy, and they taste exactly the same. I felt like I hit the jackpot.
As these cinnabons were baking, the house smelled amazing, just like it does at the mall when you walk by the cinnabon store. I was so excited. And of course, you cannot have cinnabons without the yummy cream cheese icing.
You will want to try these. I’m so glad I came across this book, I’ll definitely have to try some other recipes from there. I hope you try them and let me know if you liked them as much as I did. Oh and by the way, this recipe makes 8 cinnabons, and well we couldn’t eat them all in one day so even 5 days later, just microwave them for 30 seconds and they taste like you just pulled them out of the oven.
I know you want one!
Ingredients:
- 1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
- 1 cup warm milk
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup margarine (I used butter)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup margarine, softened
- 1 tbsp of flour
- 6 tbsp margarine (I used butter)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions:
- For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.
- Add sugar, butter, salt, eggs, and flour to the bowl of a mixer and mix well.
- Pour the milk/yeast mixture in the bowl and using the dough hook, mix well until well incorporated.
- Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 16 inches long by 12 inches wide.
- It should be approx 1/4 thick.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- To make filling, combine the butter, brown sugar, margarine and cinnamon in a bowl.
- Spread the mixture evenly over the surface of the dough.
- Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
- Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Cooking time can vary greatly!
- While the rolls are baking make the icing but mixing all ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.
- When the rolls are done, spread generously with icing.
Enjoy!
Would these freeze well?
These are absolutely amazing! I prepared them the night before and baked them in the morning and it came out perfect. This is such a great recipe, my Dad said they were “the best” cinnamon rolls he has ever had! Thanks so much!
Wow, that’s the ultimate compliment. Thank you so much.
How did you store them over night?
You can place them in a plastic container and store them in the fridge, then what I usually do when I want one, I just stick it in the microwave for about a minute and it’s like fresh out of the oven.
To the people having problems with the dough being cake-y, if you don’t have a stand mixer you have to make sure to knead the dough for at least 10 minutes to build gluten in the flour. You know when your dough is done kneading when you get a golf ball sized piece and you can stretch it to almost transparent without it tearing. Good luck!
Made these today! My kitchen smelled so good. They were a little dry and maybe it’s because I don’t have a mixer or a hook. Had to do mix by hand. Any suggestions to make them not dry? We have enjoyed them.
Not really sure, too much flour maybe, the dough should be pretty soft. Glad you enjoyed them though.
wow that really look good i am go to make it
I would like to know if these can be made ahead. I was thinking of making them to take to friend’s and baking in the morning for a yummy breakfast. I was passed this recipe by a co-worker that brought them to work. Very Cinnabon like:))))
Thanks
Hi Nancy,
I think they would be ok, just put them in the baking dish and cover with plastic wrap and then refrigerate until morning, they should be fine. Merry Christmas.
So I have made these twice now, and although they turn out great. I always have a problem with rolling it out, and making them look neat. Any tips? Or does it just come with practise?
Hi Bree,
Hmm, I would suggest maybe chilling the dough a bit before rolling it out, so that it’s easier to handle. Also when you roll them roll from the edge farthest from you and roll towards you. Hope this helps.
Hi ,
Just wondering if you just used regular all-purpose flour or do you recommend a bread flour (i.e. King Arthur)
Hi there,
I used all purpose flour.
Absolutely wonderful!!! I made these for my husband and son today and they both were raving about how good they were. Hands down best homemade cinnamon roll recipe. Definitely worth the time to make.
I’m so glad they turned out Debbie. Glad you liked them.
These are amazing!! Mine turned out a bit too cakey rather than doughy. Any ideas what I may have done wrong? I do not have a mixer or dough hook, so I had to do it all by hand. Maybe that’s why? Also I noticed when I took the dough out of the warmth it felt a little dry. Normal? Maybe the oven was a bit too warm?
Hi Jenna,
If you’re dough is too dry, you can avoid that by rubbing some oil over it. Not sure why they turned out cakey, the only thing coming through my mind is maybe too much butter or margarine. Well as long as they were delicious, that’s all that really matters.
in the UK we don’t use ‘cups’ so had a hard time converting. Yeast we used didn’t work-no rising at all-was incredibly sticky too BUT they look a bit of a mess but taste and smell amazing
Hi Leigh,
You should check out my measurements page, it’s there to help my readers with conversion problems.
I’m pretty sure this is the Holy Grail of copycat Cinnabon recipes. This is the closest recipe in texture and taste that I ‘ve tried. It is absolutely wonderful and foolproof! I even used my bread machine to make the dough. Thank you for sharing! I’m going to have to hunt down that “More Top Secret Recipes” book and try the rest!
Hi Kristinna,
I completely agree with you, I’m even afraid to make some more because they are so good, I might eat all of them.
These look amazing! I am new to baking though and I see that the recipe calls for a dough hook. I don’t have one of those :/ Is there anything I can use instead or perhaps another method?
My final question is, where may I store the dough in a warm dry place? Would an oven set to a low temperature work? Thanks!!
Hi Heather,
You can always mix the dough by hand, using a wooden spoon, the dough is a bit sticky so I wouldn’t recommend using your hands. Usually I turn on the oven to 200 F degrees for 2 minutes then turn it off, and then I put the dough in there to rest and rise, but make sure you turn the oven off.
Good luck.
Beautiful advice! Thank you! ^-^
Why margarine?
Its so bad for us!
That’s what the original recipe calls for, but I used butter, so feel free to use butter as well, they turned out great regardless.
Love it, just took mine out the oven and mind you i suck at baking lol! they smell delish! cant wait to taste them thanks so much for the recipe
Yay, you’ll love them, aren’t they gorgeous?
I always mess up my yeast bread recipes because of the liquid temperature. I would really like to make these but I am scared about the warm milk. Can you tell me how to warm it and how warm it should be before I add the yeast?
Thanks
Hi Kellie, it just needs to be warm to the touch, not sure about the temperature exactly. Usually what I do is microwave it for about 45 seconds.
Gorgeous cinnamon rolls! Found it through most favorited photos on FoodGawker.
Thanks Julia.
The instructions for the filling say to use milk, but I don´t see it listed in the filling ingredients. How much should I use?
Sorry, thanks for catching that, it was supposed to say margarine, there’s no milk in the filling.
These look delish!! I have all of the “Top Secret” cookbooks and most of the recipes I have tried turned out great. I made these cinnamon rolls years and years ago once. They were great but I just never made them again and then moved on to Pioneer Woman’s. I always used this icing recipe though!! I like it better. I think I’ll make this recipe again though!
Oh I hope you do, they are so worth it.
I used to work at Cinnabon.
They use margarine in their recipe. You roll out the dough first, then spread a layer of margarine on it, then put the cinnamon/brown sugar filling over then, roll the whoel thing up, then cut into 1 inch sections. You’re then supposed to ‘proof’ it (since most people don’t have a proofer, I recommend putting it in an oven set on the lowest setting above a pan of water) to let it rise (don’t let it rise beforehand, as this makes the rolls harder/stickier to cut, plus you end up with a ton of dough). After they’ve proofed, then pop them in the oven. When they’re golden brown, take out, and flip into another pan so the filling on the bottom gets to drizzle over the buns. Ice with cream cheese icing while still hot and voila!
Wow, there you go. This recipe calls for margarine as well, just not a margarine fan here, but now we know how the pros do it. Thanks.
These look delish!!!
Thanks Lisa.