A few months ago I made giant cinnamon rolls the size of my face. From that moment on, I’ve basically fallen in love with the buttery cinnamon sugar little swirls that make them incredibly special. I didn’t post the recipe on the blog because quite frankly, I was a little embarrassed by how much butter I used. Hehe.
Of course, everyone I served them to were in love and agreed that were they the absolute best brunch treat and that of course, I should put them on the blog.
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Mmmm okay. I guess I can clog your arteries for a day (sorry). Plus now that it’s September I feel like I can throw ALL the pumpkin recipes in your face. You guys know how I feel about pumpkin, right?! Let’s put that on and in everything we can. Starting with cinnamon rollssssssssss.
It’s my guess that you’re probably going to need a mind-blowing roll recipe so you don’t have to go out and buy cans of weird dough with ingredients you can’t pronounce. I believe that baking cinnamon rolls from scratch is really something everyone should experience at least once.
Okay, let’s get to the good stuff.
You guys are going to LOVE these. There’s brown butter to add a touch of caramel flavor to the dough, spices and a lovely cream cheese frosting spiked with a little vanilla.Thankfully for your waistline, I cut back on the butter from my original recipes. I’m definitely not saying that these rolls are healthy, instead I consider them a special morning treat to share with family, friends and that sweet boyfriend (I’m making them for Tony!).
Now, I want you guys to pay close attention to the recipe. It’s very important to follow the instructions, but here are a few more tips:
Bread flour: You’re probably wondering why I used bread flour in this recipe and if you can use all purpose flour or whole wheat. The answer is yes, you can use those flours but the recipe will not taste the same. I use bread flour because it has a higher protein which means the cinnamon roll stay nice, soft and ooey-gooey in the middle. It’s also great to have on hand, so I advise picking up a bag. Life-changing!
Browning the butter: I give instructions below on browning the butter (or check out this step-by-step), however you definitely don’t have to do that. Instead you can just use melted butter. I recommend using brown butter though because it adds a wonderful flavor to baked goods.
Activating the yeast: This is a critical step and if you aren’t experienced in baking, I recommend that you pay close attention to my instructions. To activate the yeast, you want the milk to be warm but NOT hot. Usually if you can stick your finger in it and it’s on the very warm side, this is good. If the milk is too hot, it can kill the yeast. The yeast helps the dough to rise, so you need this to work in order to make the cinnamon rolls! You will be able to tell if the yeast is activated if it starts to make the milk foamy after 5 minutes or so. If it doesn’t appear to be foamy at all, you might want to start over as you may have killed the yeast by having the milk too hot, or perhaps the milk wasn’t warm enough. Yes, baking is precise sometimes!
I hope you guys enjoy these cinnamon rolls. See the notes in the recipe below for options on freezing for later or make-ahead rolls! xo.
More delicious brunch recipes to try:
The Best Cinnamon Rolls You’ll Ever Eat
Brown Butter Blueberry Coffee Cake
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Brown Butter Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Pecan Gingersnap Cookie Streusel
Dark Chocolate, Almond & Sea Salt Banana Baked Oatmeal
Coconut Double Chocolate Pumpkin Bread
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Almond Breeze. As always, all opinions are my own. I love baking with their almond milk. Thank you for continuing to support SRCooking!
