Cinnamon Rolls are a favorite in our house, and I’ll often whip up a batch of our favorite Everyday Cinnamon Rolls after church on Sundays. 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, or start the day with that many dirty dishes? While my Everyday Cinnamon Rolls do ok if refrigerated overnight, they are definitely best made fresh. So when I saw a recipe for overnight cinnamon rolls in my Family Meals cookbook from Williams Sonoma, 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 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 go back to sleep for a bit or take a shower and get dressed!) and then pop them in the oven. These are perfect for holidays or special occasions when you want something homemade and delicious without complicating your morning!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Active dry yeast – Just regular yeast, not rapid rise/bread machine yeast.
- Warm water – 105° is perfect. Too cold and the yeast won’t wake up, too hot and you’ll kill the yeast.
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Butter – Real, salted butter.
- Filling
- Butter – Real, salted butter.
- Brown sugar – I prefer brown sugar over white sugar in my cinnamon roll filling because it provides a deeper, richer flavor.
- Cinnamon
- Icing
- Powdered sugar
- Butter
- Milk or cream
- Vanilla extract
How to Make Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- The evening before you plan to make these, you’ll put your dough together. This is pretty straightforward and just involves letting the yeast bloom for a bit and then mixing the dough up in a stand mixer.
- The dough needs to rise for a couple of hours. During that time, you’ll mix up your filling of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. It helps if the butter is nice and soft!
- When the dough has doubled, you’ll punch it down and roll it out to a nice rectangle, spread on the filling and roll it up. I like to use dental floss or sewing thread to mark and cut my rolls. It slices through both dough and filling cleanly so nothing gets smashed and your filling stays in place!
- Place those rolls in greased baking dish, cover tightly, and pop in the fridge.
- In the morning, plan for about an hour and 45 minutes before you want to serve these. They will need to rise for about an hour and then bake for 30 minutes. After they cool for a few minutes, you can whisk up and spread on the glaze and serve warm!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store leftover rolls completely cooled, covered tightly, at room temperature and enjoy within a day or two for best results.
- If you like this recipe but don’t need overnight cinnamon rolls, you skip the refrigerator step. Just let the shaped rolls rise in a warm kitchen for about 30 minutes, or until puffed and about half again as tall as when they started, then bake as directed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. After putting the prepared rolls in the greased baking dish, cover tightly and freeze. When ready to use, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then allow to rise in a warm kitchen until puffy and about 1 1/2 times their original size, then bake and glaze as directed. This may take and extra hour or two because they will be starting out very cold.
Yes. I recommend freezing them unglazed, though. Once your rolls are baked and completely cool, wrap them individually in plastic and then place them in a zip-top freezer bag. When ready to enjoy, thaw at room temperature, then unwrap and heat for 15-30 seconds in the microwave, until just warmed through. If you’d like to make just enough glaze for one roll, you can mix up 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar with 1/2 teaspoon melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon milk or cream, and a tiny splash of vanilla.
Not dramatically, but 8 large rolls may need a few more minutes than 12 small ones. Look for golden brown tops and puffy centers! If you want to be precise, cinnamon rolls are generally baked through when the center of the roll reaches about 190°F.
This recipe is designed for regular yeast. If you’re in a hurry, I recommend these Everyday Cinnamon Rolls that use rapid rise yeast!
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- ½ cup warm water 105℉
- 4 ½ cup all-purpose flour 22 ½ oz
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup real butter at room temp
Filling
- ½ cup real butter at room temp, divided
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 tablespoons milk or cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- 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 ½ cup 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 tablespoons 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.
- Grab a piece of dental floss or sewing thread, about 12 inches long. First score the rolls with the thread 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.
- Place cut side up in baking dish. Melt the reserved 2 tablespoons 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. Then spread the glaze over them and serve.
Questions & Reviews
Ok – I tried these. The dough looked amazing! So soft & raised so well – but then I rolled it out. I think I rolled it too much/pressed too hard or something. They didn’t really raise the second time (after taking them out of fridge). When I baked them the tops of all of them and the outsides were all really hard and dry. I thought the middles still tasted amazing but still on the dry side. I really don’t have the knack for cooking/baking…Any pointers? Yours look so light and fluffly. I love love love your blog.
I’m not sure, it’s hard to give dough pointers when I can’t see it. But I would say to make sure it’s covered well in the fridge so it doesn’t dry out, and make sure not to add any extra flour so the dough stays tender. And then just practice!
This is the best cinnamon roll recipe! The dough was super easy to work with. I love the convenience of doing the hard stuff at night and just baking in the morning. We will definitely have these on Christmas morning! The only thing I will change is to use a thicker icing and more of it. Thank you! We love your recipes!! 🙂
I love, love, love your everyday cinnamon rolls! FAB-u-lous! 🙂 But, I am wanting to make these for a big family brunch so I can do them the night before. I need to make lots. Have you had success making a bigger batch before? I’d need to like 5x it. Any tips?! Thanks 🙂
I’ve never made more than one batch at a time so I’m not sure- sorry!
How would these turn out if you did not put them in the fridge overnight but cooked them right away. Would they taste the same? same consistency? Do I let them rise 3 hours or 2? I made them the overnight way and they were awesome!!
Thanks for great recipes!!
No idea, never done it!
These were amazing. Soooo good! The dough was beautiful and easy to work with. I used instant yeast and skipped the 2 hour raising. It worked great. I cut them into 8, and they were huge and delicious. I used some leftover homemade cream cheese frosting instead of the glaze….mmmmm. Thanks for the wonderful (and dangerous!!) recipe!
I made these yesterday and had them for breakfast this morning. They looked wonderful before and after they were cooked. However, they tasted like yeast! It was very strong. Did I do something wrong?
I can only assume something went wrong, because they shouldn’t taste like yeast 🙂
A co-worker gave me a recipe over 25 years ago for overnight cinnamon rolls, and I have lost it. They were wonderful and easy to pop in the fridge and bake the next morning. So I searched and found this recipe, which sounds pretty close to the one I had. Anxious to try these!! Thanks for sharing your recipe!!
Oh my gosh, these puffed up SO MUCH the next morning, they were amazing! Thank you so much!
I don’t have a mixer with a dough hook.Can you use a bread machine to do the mixing and kneading for you?
I suppose Kit- but I don’t have a bread machine so I’ve never tried it. Let us know!
I just made these by hand and the dough is very easy to work with. I also didn’t need to knead for the full 10 minutes recommended but I’ve got pretty strong hands. I got the right gluten development in about 6-7 minutes of kneading but I went by feel. The dough is in the fridge chilling right now.
These look delicious! Can you make them with instant yeast instead?