Cinnamon Rolls are a favorite in our house. We seem to always get the cravings on Sunday afternoons, so after church when we’re all home being lazy, I’ll often whip up a batch. There have been lots of times where I would have loved to make them for breakfast, but who wants to get up at the crack of dawn so they’ll actually be ready in time for breakfast?? Even if you don’t mind, by the time they’re ready to eat, you’ve got a kitchen full of dirty dishes. I’ve tried putting my everyday cinnamon roll recipe in the fridge over night and I haven’t had any luck. Actually, I’ve tried a few different recipes and none of them really turn out all that well. So when I saw a recipe for overnight cinnamon rolls in my new favorite cookbook, it instantly caught my attention. I tweaked the dough just a little and then used my own filling recipe. The cinnamon rolls were were just as I imagined they would be: soft, fluffy, full of flavor, and mouthwateringly delicious. The dough takes a bit longer than my other recipes, but it works out perfectly since you can whip them up up after dinner and pop them in the fridge before bed. In the morning, they just need to sit out for about an hour (so you can either sleep in some more or take a shower and get dressed!) and then pop them in the oven.
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe from Family Meals, Williams-Sonoma
Dough
1 T active dry yeast
1/2 C warm water (105 deg F)
4 1/2 C all-purpose flour (22 1/2 oz)
1t kosher salt
4 large eggs
1/4 C sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) real butter at room temp
Filling
1/2 C (1 stick) real butter at room temp, divided
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
Glaze
1 C powdered sugar
2 T butter, melted
2 T milk or cream
1 t vanilla extract
In the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle the yeast over the water, allow to bloom for a few minutes, then whisk until smooth. Whisk in 1/2 C of the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot for about 30 minutes.
Add the eggs, sugar, butter, salt, and remaining 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture. Fit the mixer with the dough hook and knead on medium speed until smooth 10-12 minutes. Add a bit more flour to reduce stickiness if needed.
Cover with plastic wrap, set in a warm spot and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
While dough is rising, prepare filling. Take 2 T of the stick of butter and set aside. Beat remaining butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together until combined and slightly fluffy, about 1 minute. It will be rather thick.
Butter a 9×13 baking dish. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Roll out into a rectangle about 15×10 in. Spread filling onto dough. Use a spoon (or your fingers) to spread it out evenly and then roll up length-wise.
Do you all know the trick to cutting cinnamon rolls? If not, go grab your dental floss! A piece of thread works fine too.
First score the rolls so you know you’re going to cut evenly. Then slide the thread underneath the rolls, cross over the top and pull. You’ll get razor sharp cuts without smashing your pretty dough.
You can cut the rolls to your liking. This will make 12 small rolls, 10 medium ones, or 8 large rolls. I made 10, but put 2 in a little dish to cook separately.
Place cut side up in baking dish. Melt the reserved 2 T butter and brush on top of rolls. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
The next morning, remove from refrigerator and let rise until half again as high, about 1 hour.
While rising mix glaze ingredients until combined.
Preheat the oven to 350. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. If you get impatient and wait about 47 seconds like I did then your glaze will instantly melt and fall into the crevices between the rolls. Then you’ll stick your finger in the little well so you can taste it and you’ll burn yourself and possibly let out an expletive. You’ll be so hurt you’ll have to stuff a cinnamon roll in your mouth to comfort yourself. And possibly another one because the first one was too hot to enjoy. Not that I have experience with any of this. Just trust me and let the rolls cool off a bit.
Then spread the glaze over them and serve.
Don’t have time for overnight cinnamon rolls? Try my “every day” quicker version instead!
Questions & Reviews
Just… WOW! Homemade cinnamon rolls have never been my strength and always turn out too dry and dense. But these looked so fluffy that I decided to give a homemade version one more shot this weekend, and they turned out A-MAZING! Like all the other comments have said, this recipe is fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth, and easily the best cinnamon rolls you will ever make. These will most certainly become a family tradition for holidays, back to school, and Sundays after church! Yum!
These are in the fridge right now and I can’t wait to bake them in the morning. Is 1/2 cup of water really all the liquid? I only used about 3 3/4 cup flour. Hope they turn out! I usually make your everyday cinnamon rolls but wanted them ready for morning!
Can/have you doubled this to make 24?
Sure.
I made these last night / this morning. They are every bit as delicious as they look. I’ve also made the pioneer woman’s. These beat the frosting out of them.
Hi,
Thanks for the wonderful recipe and mouthwatering pictures which inspired me to begin baking last night! The rolls turned out lovely, the dough when cooked looked like bakery rolls and the glaze was delightful. One problem albeit an overwhelming one, the rolls had this unmissable taste of yeast :S it kind of ruined the whole thing as whilst all else was perfect this was a big issue. I am determined to try them again, what could I have done wrong and what to do to improve?
I can’t count. I cut 8 of these (not 10) and they were ginourmous. They spread out and filled the entire 9×13.
Scrumptious! Same fabulous taste and light, fluffy texture as the Everyday Cinnamon Rolls but with the convenience of being able to make them a day ahead. I cut 10 and they are enormous and filled every ounce of a 9×13! I think even if I cut 12, they would be fatter than the Everydays. Both absolutely perfect recipes. I took the Overnights to share with some PTO moms while we worked this morning and they were a huge hit. Shared the recipes and your website!
These are by far the best cinnamon rolls ever! I made these after Christmas because the ones I made Christmas evening turned out horrible. My husband said to not look any further because these are the best he has ever had lol, I guess these will remain in our recipe box. I just started a blog [email protected] and will definitely post about these awesome cinnamon rolls
These are my Christmas morning rolls for the second year in a row. Your recipe is very well written and my family absolutely loves these. They talk about them all year. I feel like such an idiot because…for the second year…I rolled them down only 10 inches instead of down 15 inches. I ended up only going “around” 2 times with the cinnamon mixture. They will still taste great but I will get it perfect next time. I like what you said in one of the responses…”practice”…don’t give up if it isn’t absolutely perfect the first time.
Also, I rubbed them all around with the melted butter and did two layers of plastic wrap. One layer was tight around the rolls the other just over the top of the dish. This really helps protect them from drying out overnight. Merry Christmas!
For Christmas Eve we always make your Taco Chicken with Pioneer Woman’s Pico and Guacamole. Your taco chicken is amazing and should be a staple in everyone’s kitchen.
So, you mentioned a few cinnamon rol recipes here. Overnight, quick, etc… What’s your favorite? I have time for all options, so which is best (in your opinion). Thanks!
These just replaced my old overnight CR recipe. And I wasn’t 100 percent when I made these and they still came out amazing.
Hi! I was just wondering, has anyone tried to make these more than 24 hours before baking them? I have relatives coming in from out of town and I’d love to prepare the dough ahead of time, 2 days before I’m going to serve them.
Have you ever made these as a sticky bun?
I made these the other day after reading all of the great reviews. I was happy to see they were similar to your quicker version, I have made those a few times and LOVE them. The dough looked great yet a little dry compared to the other version, but after I baked them I thought they seemed to be pretty dry an not gooey… Like the others. I am going to try again and cut back on the flour. Do you think they can be made with milk and one less egg? Also, if i doubled the filling do you think that would mess them up? Despite thinking they were a little dry I have still managed to eat them! Thank you!! I wish your quicker version could be put in the fridge…. I love them, but have to wake up so early to feed my hungry husband and kids!
I would try to cut back on the flour a bit and not bake them quite as long. You’ll have to play around with the rest of your variations, I can’t promise how any of that would turn out. Enjoy!
I cannot find the darn “Print This” button anywhere! Am I just slow and missing it? Please help, I would love to make this tonight for our Valentine’s breakfast tomorrow! Thanks in advance.
Thank you for this post (though it was quite a while ago). I just found it today and am making these tonight for my husband and little one. Overnight cin. rolls are genius! Who has time to get up so early to make them?
This is perfect. Will add freshly diced apples into the filling for added nutrition. Yum!
This is a beautiful dough recipe. Soft, supple, just as it should be. Excellent tutorial. Thank you for sharing. After cutting mine, I froze them, and we rise/bake them two at a time, so always fresh and warm. Thanks again. Will be watching your blog more, now that I have stumbled across it. Best wishes.
These were great! I made them pretty much as written except that I let them rise overnight when it said to let them rise for two hours, (before rolling them) and then let them rise for two hours when they were supposed to rise overnight. In the filling I used a little less brown sugar and added a little salt and vanilla to give it a more complex flavor, it also decreased the sweetness to a really nice level. Making me feel less guilty about eating one for lunch!
Thanks for the awesome recipe!
I realize this is an old post, and I realize that you’ve already gotten a lot of comments about how these good are, but I can’t help myself. I had to comment and let you know that we really enjoyed these! Every time I’ve made cinnamon rolls before, they were always so dense and chewy – the secret is in the LACK of flour! I totally resisted the urge to add more flour and let the extended kneading time do it’s thing – this was the most soft and easy to work with dough which resulted in the lightest, tender cinnamon roll! Yum! And it was not a lot of effort at all, just some time. Thanks so much for sharing – I love so many of your recipes!
So after reading close to 100 comments I am convenced this are the vest cinnamon rolls ever and I haven’t even made them yet :)… so my question is when you say “The next morning, remove from refrigerator and let rise until half again as high, about 1 hour.. Do you take off the plastic wrap or leave it on?.. I am still new to baking with yeast and tried your breadsticks yesterday… next time I will need to hide them till dinner is done… I was afraid there wasn’t going to be any left to eat with dinner… they were amazing!!
Honestly, it doesn’t really matter 🙂 If I’m using a shallow pan I take it off so it doesn’t get in the way of the rolls rising, and if it’s a deeper pan, I leave it covered. Either way!
So I made them last night to have before we went to the zoo this morning…well this morning I pulled them out and they were almost half frozen.. (note to self.. check fridge temp!!).. so I cut my oven on to preheat for a couple minutes then turned it off and placed the rolls in there and in an hour they rose perfectly!!.. I made 1.5 batches since I was making them for some friends too..I cut them small and got over 20!!.. even with cutting them small they rose and baked up huge!!!… we loved them!!!.. this is defentley a keeper recipe!!.. going to try your french bread recipe today to go with some left over Gumbo I pulled out of the freezer
OMG! THESE ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!! 😀 Made them for this morning to try the recipe out and to have breakfast made before my oldest goes to school and WOW! This is a recipe is for keeps!
I put your badge on my blog and I will be back for more recipes to try out, cause if one’s good, so are the others! 🙂 Thank you for such an awesome, and easy recipe………not to mention, once again, YUMMMY!
I used maple nut extract in place of vanilla in my frosting and the maple nut complements the cinnamon and sweetness, like kate said in her comment: “holy foodgasm!” LOL! :p
I was searching for an overnight cinnamon bun recipe and it was a decision between yours and Pioneer woman’s. I’m so glad I picked this one because yours were so much less effort in the morning!! honestly I don’t think I could have been bothered to roll out dough 6am in the morning.
I baked some left over ends that weren’t pretty enough to be on a pan right away and they were fluffy and moist,just like you described! suprisingly with a crunchy exterior, I’m not sure if that is suppose to be the way it is or because I knead the dough by hand ( my cheap temporary hand held mixer would have burst into flames if I had used it for 10 minutes )
I hope the rolls will be just as good or even better tomorrow once they have been left to rise for an hour.
Hi Sara,
I’d really appreciate if you could give a substitute for eggs in the recipe i.e. to make eggless cinnamon rolls.
Thanks,
Hema
I honestly don’t know, sorry!
I just made these yesterday, and let me tell you, they were a dream!!!!! I love how you just let them sit for an hour before popping them in the oven the next morning. The texture was light, airy and moist. Ended up not needing all the flour it called for. Ive learned the hard way to never just add in all the flour recipes say to use. These were hand kneeded to since I have no mixer. Delicious recipe! My hubby, who isn’t even a real cinnamon roll fan said they were great.