Last updated on March 28th, 2019 at 03:23 pm
Cinnabons Cinnamon Rolls – a cinnabon copycat recipe, about the closest you’ll get to the real thing. Super easy to make.
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.
Cinnamon Rolls
The cinnamon rolls are out of this world, and they cost a whole lot less. They’re huge, and they taste exactly the same. I felt like I hit the jackpot.
Although they’re not as big as the ones you buy because I wanted to make a dozen with this recipe, so I cut each roll so that’ it’s 1 1/2 inch in height whereas the original ones are 2 1/2 inches.
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, if you can’t eat them all in one day they last quite a while in the fridge, even 5 days later, just microwave them for 30 seconds and they taste like you just pulled them out of the oven.
I have made this recipe many times over the years and have used both butter and margarine. I believe Cinnabons are originally made with margarine, so if you want to have a true copycat recipe use margarine. Honestly they taste the same to me so it’s your choice, butter or margarine.
Make Ahead Cinnamon Rolls
These cinnamon rolls are great because they could be made ahead. Prepare everything as stated in the recipe up until step 10 where you place the rolls in the baking pan. Simply cover them up tightly with plastic wrap and store them in the fridge overnight.
The rolls should continue to rise in the fridge but if by morning they have not doubled in size, turn your oven on to 200 F degrees until it warms up, then turn it off. Place the pan in the oven for about 30 to 45 minutes until the rolls double in size. Then you can bake them as instructed.
Can You Freeze Cinnamon Rolls
Absolutely! Prepare everything as stated in the recipe up until step 10 where you place the rolls in the baking pan. Wrap the pan in two layers of plastic wrap. Freeze for 8 hours up to 6 weeks. The night before you want to bake the rolls, thaw them out in the refrigerator, still wrapped. They will thaw overnight. Finish the rest of the steps to bake them.
Craving More Cinnamon Roll Recipes? Try These
- Finnish Cardamom Rolls
- Strawberry Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
- Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls
- Apple and Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnabons Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 1 cup milk lukewarm
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup butter unsalted, softened, or margarine
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Filling
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 3 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup butter unsalted, softened, or margarine
Cream cheese icing
- 6 tbsp butter unsalted, softened, or margarine
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar also known as icing sugar, or confectioner's sugar
- 1/4 cup cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with a tsp of sugar (you can take a tsp out of the 1/2 cup of sugar) in a large bowl. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. If the yeast is good, it will start to froth up.
- To the bowl of your mixer add the sugar, butter or margarine, salt, eggs, and flour and mix until well incorporated.
- Pour the milk/yeast mixture over the flour mixture and using the dough hook, mix well until well incorporated.
- Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
- Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray or butter.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approximately 16 inches long by 12 inches wide. It should be approximately 1/4 inch in thickness.
- Spread the 1/3 cup of butter evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with the sugar 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 1/2 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan. You can also use floss to cut into slices, as seen in the video. Place the cut rolls in the prepared pan. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rise for another 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cooking time can vary greatly!
- While the rolls are baking make the icing by mixing all the icing ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy and smooth.
- When the rolls are done, spread generously with icing.
Watch How To Make It
Notes
Nutrition
How to Make No Knead 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls:
From the Jo Cooks recipe archive originally posted September 29, 2012.
Oh My Goodness!! These are the best homemade Cinnamon Buns 😀 Putting the recipe in the Archives!
Love this!
My family requests these regularly, and they always turn out amazing. By far my favorite cinnamon roll recipe!
Ok, some backstory… 1) I’ve never baked with yeast (to be honest, I’m not the best baker). 2) I use a toaster oven (just decrease the heat by about 10° C). 3) I used almond milk and plant based butter for the batter, coconut oil to spread before the sugar and lactose free cream cheese for the frosting. 4) I halved the recipe. And lastly, I don’t own a stand mixer. I attempted to use my blender, but … that was a fail😆. I scooped it out and used my hand (for all of 3 minutes. I’d given up by that point). Anyways, I continued, and it came out AMAZINGLY. I’m actually still in shock as I’m typing this. It was light and fluffy. Perfect sweetness. I can go on and on. My confidence as a baker has increased solely because of this recipe. Try it! I can’t wait to make again
That’s so amazing to! We’re glad you’re entering the baking world with so much confidence 🙂 Kneading by hand is definitely the best alternative to a stand mixer, plus it’ll give you a little workout 😉 Enjoy!
I’ve made these three times so far and they only get better and better! Thank you so much for sharing! I have a question – can I double the recipe to make two batches or would I need to make two separate batches?
Yes you can definitely double the recipe. We’re so glad you love these rolls, enjoy!
I bought the ingredients to make these tomorrow. I don’t have a standup mixer. Will it work if I kneed the dough?
Yes you can knead it by hand! It’ll take a bit longer, but will turn out. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic.
Amazing recipe!! I’ve made it a couple of times at home, and the buns have been absolutely delicious every time!
I do have a question, though, that I hope you can help with – I find that the dough ends up being really sticky, and so it’s really hard to lift off the surface (even though it is floured). Do you have any tips on how to help this? I’m quite new to baking, so don’t want to add too much flour and ruin the perfect recipe!
Thank you so much! 🙂
You can sprinkle a little bit more flour into the dough! We live in a pretty dry climate, so if you have more humidity that can be a factor.
I just made these and it was my first time making homemade cinnamon rolls. My god were they good. I rarely leave recipe ratings but I had to say something. Thanks for this!
So glad you liked them!!
Turned out absolutely perfect! Letting the dough rise twice in the oven (not hot but light on) helped them get nice and big. The dough is super easy to work with (i kneaded by hand) and it rolled super easily. I probably didn’t roll the dough enough as I still had leftover butter and sugar to put on it, but better more than not having enough! They baked to perfection in the oven and got absolutely HUGE! they taste beautiful especially when warm. I highly recommend!
I have been making cinnamon rolls for years and have not had a trouble with the dough rising until lately. I do what the recipe says , I use the instant yeast, but they don’t rise, they still taste good but I like the high rise buns. Do you know what my problem might be.
Your yeast is dead! Buy a new jar of yeast and store it in the freezer so it’ll last longer.
These were amazing. I skipped the frosting and poured a 1/3 of a cup of coconut milk over the top right before baking. My family loved them!
So happy to hear this!
One small suggestion I forgot to mention… In your website publishing tools, is it possible to change the total time? I should know better, but I was in a rush and thought the 40 minute total time was seriously the total time it took to make these. I work with yeast all the time, so I should have realized right away that the 40 minute total time didn’t include rising, but I didn’t stop to realize that.
I think it would be helpful to all, and especially to those who don’t work with yeast often, to include the rising in the total time calculation. 🙂
Other than that, these were so good I’m making them again tomorrow to take to church for our snack time.
The recipe maker plugin automatically separates these times, so we can’t change that unfortunately! We’ve written lots of info in the post and in the recipe card so for anyone who is new to yeast bread making I would definitely suggest giving the post a read-through before heading into the kitchen 🙂
Hello! What if I don’t feel comfortable rolling this out on my counter? What other alternatives are there? Can I just make a shorter thicker log on a cutting board?
If you have a nice and big cutting board, that will work. You need to roll the dough out so that you can actually roll it into a log. You won’t be able to get any swirls through your cinnamon rolls if the dough isn’t rolled enough.
i always roll out on tinfoil, couple drops water underneath so it doesnt slide, easy cleanup too 🙂
That’s an awesome tip, we’ll give it a try on our next baking day!
My favorite cinnamon bun recipe. So good!