Homemade CinnaBuns- The easy way!
These cinnamon rolls have power behind them – real power. You could pretty much get anything you wanted if you showed up toting a plate of these babies, warm with icing oozing down the side. Regardless of their power, though, I want you to try to use them only for good. Rather than taking over the world (which I am waiting ’til I get both kids in school to do because I just don’t have the time needed to run it until I have at least another hour free each day), you can use them as wonderful gifts of gratitude and tokens of caring. I especially love that I can make these ahead of time and put them in the fridge to pop in the oven first thing in the morning – which makes your gifts of gratitude and tokens of caring all the more easier to provide!
I have been making these for years but only in the past few have I started using the shortcut method. While it’s fun to make the dough from scratch, its much more time consuming and not that easy on your hands (especially if you have arthritis ~raises hand~). Using store bought bread dough as opposed to making your own makes these super easy for anyone, regardless of experience in the kitchen, to turn out these supremely impressive cinnamon rolls.
If you have a loved one who is a devotee of the cinnamon rolls in the mall, expect them to become your number one fan the moment these come out of the oven.
In fact, my husband prefers them!
Of course, since I do have two ways of making these, I’m going to give you my easy way and then my homemade dough recipe at the bottom of the post just in case any of you want to try out that method as well. The tutorial will focus on the easy way, though. Life is complicated enough. 
To make these the easy way, you’ll need: White bread dough (1 loaf), a stick of margarine, cinnamon*, cream cheese, brown sugar, and confectioner’s sugar.
*Note: I’m using super cheap cinnamon. I paid all of .50 cents for it. You can pay a small fortune for a jar of cinnamon these days but I guess my tastes have never been refined enough to tell the difference.~grins~
Now, my confectioner’s sugar and brown sugar are in little sealed containers. I got tired of dealing with bags and such so I picked those up on my last trip to the grocery store. For those of you who know me and fear I may be ill – because this seems almost organized and that is soooooooooooo unlike me- rest assured this is a random act of organization and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. ~exhales in relief~ Yeah, that kinda scared me for a minute there, too!
This I promise… ~stands up and places a hand on her lapel in Abe Lincoln style~
I will always remain true to myself. You have my solemn vow that there will always be several piles of unfolded laundry, a pantry that looks like a tornado hit it most days, and empty coffee cups sitting near my computer along with various other assorted messes not just in one room, but throughout my entire house.
Don’t worry folks, I won’t let ya down!
Get out one loaf of bread dough and sit it on a plate at room temperature to thaw. This will probably take about an hour.
Just go check on it every now and then and poke it a bit to see if it is still frozen in the center. We need it completely thawed because we’re gonna take our rolling pin and put some elbow grease into flattening and stretching that puppy out!
In a small bowl, place brown sugar and cinnamon.
Mix those up.
I used one of Katy Rose’s “golden forks” for this. She was pretty proud of that.
Place your thawed bread on a floured surface.
I always roll out a bit of waxed paper to do this on for easy clean up.
I think more sentences in my life should include the words “Easy” and “clean up” together. Especially this time of year.
~sighs~
Now, putting some elbow grease into this, roll out your dough.
My original recipe called for it to be rolled out to about 16×21 but that was when I was making the dough from scratch. When I use a loaf of dough, I roll it out to about 9×16. It comes out just the same but you just don’t have as many spirals to your cinnamon rolls.
I hope I’m making sense here…been a pretty stressful morning .
Take half of your stick of melted butter and spread it over your dough.
Sprinkle your brown sugar mixture over it and pat down lightly. I leave a little bit of edge on each side to help it seal when we roll it up.
Carefully begin rolling it all up into a log.
Like this. Press that together just a little bit.
Using a serrated knife (because that is what works best for me, but if you prefer some other type feel free!) cut one inch slices all down your log.
Place the slices in a greased 9×13 pan.
I am using metal but you can use glass if you prefer, whatever you have on hand.
You really can’t mess these up.
Cover with cling wrap and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, which could take anywhere from two to four hours, depending on the temperature.
Sometimes it’s hard to find a warm place in your house in the winter time. In the summer, I go put them in the garage.
In the winter, I dry a load of clothes and set them on top of the washing machine, near the dryer. ~grins~
At this point, you can also put them in the refrigerator and let them rise overnight. They will rise much more slowly in the fridge so get up about an hour before you want to bake them because you may need to sit them on the counter for about an hour to let them finish rising.
Looky there! Isn’t that beautiful? See how easy this is?
Hint: Don’t be going bragging about how easy it is to your family because if they don’t know, you’re pretty much a sure thing for a sainthood nomination when you make these.
Remove cling wrap and bake at 400 for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Meanwhile, back at the Duke place, Boss Hog developed a wild hankerin’ for some cream cheese icing. Being bighearted, Daisy decided to make it for him.
I watched way too much Dukes of Hazzard as a child…
Apparently, Ricky did too because when he saw the General Lee at a mall in Nashville this past weekend he about had a dying duck fit wanting me to take his picture by it.
Where was I? Oh ..yeah…Boss Hog wanted some cream cheese icing..
Place 1/2 brick cream cheese (recipe calls for 3 ounces, half of an eight ounce brick works for me!) and the other half of the stick of margarine in a mixing bowl.
Add confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon
The cinnamon gives your icing a bit of oomph!
Mix that up until smooth and creamy.
Ooooh…all ready!
Now I don’t put icing on mine in the pan, I serve them and let people put their own icing on.
I eat mine without any icing (I know, that is awful! But I can’t have the sugar and I still very much enjoy the cinnamon roll!) and my husband would pretty much put the entire bowl of icing on his if I let him…
Ooooh Lawdy, isn’t that gorgeous? These heat up well, too. I made them last night for dessert and we heated some for breakfast this morning. Delicious!
Cinna-Buns
- 1 loaf frozen white bread dough (such as Rhode’s)
Filling:
- 1/4 C butter or margarine, softened
- 1 C brown sugar, packed
- 3 T ground cinnamon
Icing:
- 3 ounce cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 C butter or margarine, softened
- 1 1/2 C confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional, I usually just leave it out)
Place loaf of dough on plate and let sit at room temperature until thawed. Once thawed, roll out onto floured surface to a size of about nine inches by sixteen inches. Spread 1/4 C margarine over dough.
In small bowl mix together brown sugar and 3 T cinnamon. Sprinkle over top of cinnamon roll, stopping about 1/2 an inch away from the sides so it will seal (see photos). Carefully roll up cinnamon roll into a log and press lightly to seal. Slice into one inch slices with serrated knife. Place in greased 9×13 inch pan and cover with cling wrap. Place in warm spot and allow to rise until doubled in size. Remove cling wrap and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, or until done.
Icing: Mix all ingredients together and beat with electric mixer until creamy. Spread over cinnamon rolls.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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From Scratch Dough
*This dough replaces the frozen loaf of bread dough. Use the rest of the recipe as written above.
- 1 Cup Lukewarm Milk
- 2 Large eggs, at room temp
- 1/3 C unsalted butter or margarine, cut up
- 4 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 C Sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp instant or bread machine yeast
Place all of the dough ingredients into the pan of your bread machine in the order listed. Program the machine for dough or manual and press start. After about ten minutes, check the doughs consistency. It should be smooth, not too sticky and not too dry. Adjust it’s consistency with additional flour or water if necessary to allow the machine to complete the kneading.
*If not using a bread machine, combine all of the dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until mixture becomes cohesive. Transfer to lightly oiled work surface and knead by hand for five to eight minutes or until it is smooth. The way I think of smooth is…~looks around to make sure no one is listening~ it needs to be like a baby’s bottom.
Place kneaded dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to grease all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place for one hour, until it is nearly doubled. Transfer to floured work surface and roll into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread with 1/2 stick margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Complete using recipe above.
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Nov 16 2009. Filed under Breads, Breakfast, Dessert.
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These sound great; I’m going to start making them right now!
Just a tip that I learned from my mother – to slice the cinnamon rolls, use a heavy duty thread. Slide it under the log, bring the ends up to the top. Continue pulling in opposite directions and you will get a perfect cut.
Denise B.
Dallas
Hi Christy,
Just read the recipe and it looks delicious. Sad thing is that I don’t need those tempting me since I’m at a point in life where losing or even maintaining weight is getting more and more difficult. However, they sound like a great thing to make when I can share them.
I made your pecan pie muffins (in mini form) yesterday for a get-together with our wine group. They were a hit and I came home with a empty plate! The batch made 24 mini muffins, baked about 17-18 min. (linked to your recipe in my blog post)
I was wondering about adding a tsp. of vanilla, which I use in most of my baked sweets, even my absolutely best ever pecan pie. I use my Mom’s recipe and I’ve never had one better. She found the recipe in a newspaper over 50 years ago.
I am prepping these tonight to have for breakfast tomorrow! I’m so excited that I found Rhodes frozen white bread at the grocery store my husband works at!
Okay Christy… I need tips and tricks on rolling out this dough. Boy it was stubborn! I let it thaw completely, and then even let it sit a little longer because I thought the cold dough was causing it to keep pulling back.
What do you to to roll it out so nicely?
I want to know, too. I made them yesterday, but the dough was like elastic. I kept rolling it out and it kept shrinking back up. I did finally get it all rolled out and the cinnamon rolls were very yummy.
Now I have another question. Can I make these a day ahead of time and then pop them in the oven the next morning? I want to make them for Christmas breakfast, but I don’t want to have to start on them at 5 in the morning. It takes a while for them to rise. Well, for me it did.
Thanks for any tips and help.
Hey!
.
I’m responding on me phone so please forgive if it’s short
This dough is gonna be very elastic so you just gotta put your weight into it. I press pretty hard on my rolling pin and even then it springs back and I have to take several goes at it. Make sure your rolling pin is floured so it doesn’t stick and you’re doing great!
As to the other question, I’m making these Christmas Eve and covering them in Saran wrap. Then I’ll put them in the fridge overnight and take out about thirty minutes before I bake them. Works great!
Back when I made the dough from scratch there were a few mornings where I got up at four thirty to make these, took FOREVER! sooo glad to have the frozen dough shortcut now!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks, Christy!
Hi Christy,
I loved the recipe…and I think it’s possibly the best/simplest one I’ve ever seen for CinnaBuns. I love the way you make things seem so doable.
One thing I thought I’d suggest, for people like me who like the CinnaBuns best when super-duper warm, and seem to have too many in a batch. I thought it might be a good idea to put them into two 8×8 square pans…rise/bake one for dessert, and put one pan in the refrigerator for the next morning (like Sunday before church). That way, there’s approximately one bun per person (since there’s the 4 of us in my little family), and each one would be eaten hot.
I’m on your husband’s side re: the cream-cheese frosting. Bring it on!!
Let’s see: white bread, dairy, fat, salt…seems like the ideal way to cause obesity, diabetes, heart disease. Eat more of these, we need to support the obscene medical establishment in this country. And America desperately needs MORE Fat pig humans. Maybe they’ll start making ambulances wider to acccomodate you fat pigs that eat this crap…
God love ya, this sounds like someone whose never had anyone love them enough to bake for them. Goodness knows I can’t see why with that sunshiney attitude.
Bless your sour little heart. I swear I wish I could just hug you and invite you into my kitchen. I reckon I could wrestle up some decaf, non-coffee coffee and serve it with organic soy milk. ‘Course we wouldn’t be able to add sugar and I’m sure you’d object to artificial sweeteners of any kind but if we could just get you to take a gander outside and maybe offer you a hug or two, you might could wrestle up a little smile and then I bet, just maybe, you could stir that coffee with your pinky and it just might add a little natural sweetness.
I know you got it in you, hon bun.
Hang in there sweetie, life is good and if you let it, it gets even better
Gratefully,
Christy
Christy, I admire your grace in the face of extreme rudeness! What a rude person.
Wow Dr. Interfool, sounds like you have a case of verbal diarrhea. Maybe make yourself some of these wonderful cinnamon buns and it will keep your hands busy long enought to resist the urge to post ridiculous garbage on a recipe website.
Christy these cinnamon buns were fantastic, my boyfriend is absolutely hooked! Thankyou for making an ‘easy’ version!
[...] all for making things easier in the kitchen. Check out these homemade cinnamon buns – the easy way – from Southern [...]
You are a very entertaining writer, and I can’t wait to entice my children home from college on the weekends with the promise of these Cinnamon rolls.
Ok – so these cinnamon rolls are amazing! And SO easy. They are actually sitting on my stove cooling right now. I stole one because I couldn’t wait, and then I ran up here to comment about how wonderful they were. I barely had a chance to clean the frosting off my finger tips. ( my apologizes to my keyboard!) The only thing I did different was I left the cream cheese out of the frosting. Too much of anything dairy upsets my stomach, so it was more of like a glaze the way I made it. Which was still great. My mom used to use the came ingredients to make a glaze for sugar cookies when we were little, so I figured it would work out just fine. Oh – and I added a little bit of vanilla. I don’t know how much, maybe teaspoon or so? Sounds good .. we will go with that!
Thanks for the recipe, can’t wait to try another Southern Plate meal. It seems like there just aren’t enough meals in a day sometimes! Ha-ha
Sounds like a wonderful recipe! I can’t wait to try it…but I’m not going to let my family know that I plan to try it until I make it! They’ll be pestering me nonstop if they know I play to make it.
Dr. Interfool, dahling, I imagine the stress of reading about all that fat, sugar,and (gasp!) white bread took at least 5 years off your bitter sounding heart! Maybe you ought not to be reading such shocking websites such as this. Can’t be good for you!
These look delicious!! I wanted to make them but I cannot find the Rhodes bread dough. Can anyone give me an idea of who carries it?
I’ll have to try these, definitely. I hadn’t thought of using frozen bread dough for cinnamon rolls. I’ve been making mini-cinnamon rolls for several years now w/ crescent rolls. When you take the dough out of the can, you don’t separate the rolls into triangles, you leave them in two rectangles and close the seams. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on them, roll them up, cut them into five rolls, bake about 15 minutes, and frost them w/ conf. sugar glaze…melt-in-your-mouth yummy!
I’m gonna get some bread dough this week and fix them up Friday night and have these for breakfast Saturday morning. Come to think of it, I’m hoping our local grocery store carries it!
♥Susan
The fact that you use margarine instead of butter invalidates the whole deal. Margarine has no health benefits over butter but butter has far superior taste, especially cakes and cookies.
~giggle~
That isn’t why I used it, honey bunches. My readers know exactly why I did though.
God love ya!
CJ
Gee, Keith, use butter if you want to. Nobody’s going to send the margarine or butter police to monitor you.
~laughs~ Cathy, I love ya!!
Now Keith, if you ever happen to come back to your little comment here, I want you to take a deep breath…exhale..and unclench. It’s ALL GOOD!!!!
~hugs Cathy~
[...] reading the full recipe, check out Christy Jordan at Southern [...]
I made this recipe for my boyfriend because he loves cinnamon rolls… he has declared I’m never allowed to buy them again! They were AWESOME, and I agree the cinnamon in the frosting adds a little zip. I’m currently making them for my parents and siblings since we’re all home for Christmas, and they were all looking over my shoulder and saying how great they look. Thanks for the recipe!
[...] Homemade Cinnabuns – The Easy Way! [...]
These were so so good. I made them last night. There were fourteen of them. There is only five of us and they were all gone. I was hoping to atleast have one left for breakfast this morning. Thanks you for the wonderful recipe.
Sprinkle a little water on the counter and then lay the wax paper sheet on it. The paper won’t slide around when you roll out the dough.
This is a cool way to do a quick, easy cinnamon roll. (Luckily, I let my bread machine do the mixing and the rising, and then I’m at the rolling out point.)
BUT, I can’t believe no one mentioned that you should flip your cinnamon rolls over once out of the oven, so the ooey gooey stuff sinks back in and over. YUM! Just a tip I learned on another recipe.
(I am going to try your homemade doughnuts recipe tomorrow. Mmm..!)
[...] If this got you thinking, check out my cinnabuns post here… [...]
Guess what? This recipe make a fantastic king cake! I’m from New Orleans and have never made a home made king cake before. I’ve tried and it never worked out. Today the Saints are playing for a spot in the SuperBowl so I bake when I’m nervous. I looked at this recipe and thought it would make a good king cake dough. So I cut the cinnamin dough into 3 strips and made a braid put it in a circle. It tastes just like a bakery king cake down here!!! I just finished icing it with the icing and black and gold sugar (Saints colors) and everybody at my Saints game party is enjoying it. I never got a chance to take a picture it went so fast. The next time I make it I’ll send you a picture. This is slap ya mama good! THANK YOU!
HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!
Thank you for telling me, now I wanna make one!
Gratefully,
Christy
These are wonderful! I made these to take to a friends’ brunch, but my husband found them and thought I made them for him. Needless to say I had to make a stop at the grocery store on the way to pick up something to take
I remember laying in front of the t.v. watching Dukes of Hazzard with my brothers thinking it was great and that I would marry Bo Duke one day
“Breaker One, Breaker One, I might be crazy, but I ain’t dumb! Craaazy Cooter comin’ at ya! Ya’ll out there on the Hazzard net?”
Christy, I made these rolls this morning just using the recipe, but then later noticed that the cinnamon was not included in the icing. They were good anyway!
Christy, I’ve been trying to perfect my cinnamon roll recipe since I was 16 years old. Last night I decided to try a new recipe, not having realized that you had a dough recipe here in this post. My dough was already rising when I saw your dough recipe, but what do you know, they’re almost the same! Just mine had less salt and I ended up not using all the flour (which was bread flour). I made it in my Kitchenaid mixer. I did make your cream cheese frosting recipe though. These cinnamon rolls were SO good- the second best I’ve ever made (the best were one random batch I made in Austria that for some reason were incredible even though I used the same recipe I’d always used), and the frosting was the best cream cheese frosting I’ve made for cinnamon rolls. We just love cinnamon rolls and homemade ones make breakfast a special occasion
Also, my first bunny was named Cinnabun. I got him when I was 10 and named him after Cinnabon cinnamon rolls because my family loved cinnamon rolls and he was cinnamon colored. I thought I was so clever for thinking up that name! Cinnabun’s been gone for years now, but my love of bunnies continues and I have 4 now
[...] Homemade CinnaBuns [...]
When I make bread dough and need to keep it warm to rise, I put a folded afghan or small throw blanket over it. I figure it it keeps me warm, it’ll keep the dough warm!
these are the best cinnamon buns ever! how easy with the frozen bread dough! and better than the ones you buy in the malls…no kidding…my family LOVES these!! yummo:-)
thanks Christy!! much love:-)
I actually laughed out loud when I read your comment about not putting icing on your Cinnabuns. So…..now I suppose that Brown Sugar in the middle doesn’t count? Good to know!!
Girl I LOVE your reasoning!!!!!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Again Christy you have made my day!! I switched to the frozen dough to elimanate the need for the knead hehehe just a little joke there, anyway have never really thought they were worth it compared to what I used to make. Now I see why after being ‘educated’ on the finer points of quick and easy!! My mouth is watering and can’t wait to use up the 2 loaves languishing for love in my freezer.
Luv Ya Bye:o)
Christy,
I just made these today and they are deelicious!! With or without the frosting, they are super yummy. Thanks for another great recipe!
I just made these as a special treat for tonight and I have to say making them with my 2 year old was a treat in itself! But when they came out the oven and my kids and hubby tried that first bite, their eyes rolled back in their head and I am now a QUEEN!! WOOOOHOOO! Thank you Christy for all the great southern recipes! I am a true Southern gal too and its great to share some of these with my family, just like my grandma did when I was a kid!!
I am using this wonderful recipe and adding raisins and pecans. Thank you and I know they are going to be delicious.
Wow Christy! I am a recent subscriber to your site….which is soooo awesome by the way…. made these last night for the family and OMG!!! so yummy!!! I will be trying many more recipes that take me right back to the good ole days that I have forgotten about along the way. Thank you so much
Hi Christy,
I, too, am a recent subscriber and LOVE your site! I’m not a great or very knowledgeable cook, but I’ve always wanted to cook the recipes that my southern grandmothers used before they passed. Your site will help me to be a better grandmother! I was thinking that I might make these cinnamon rolls to give as a gift to a friend whose large family is arriving for a visit. Besides just making them the night before and taking them to her house that night, could I take them to her a day or two in advance? Could she then just keep them in the fridge until her guests arrive and cook the same as in your recipe? Or freeze them? Thanks for your help!
I loved it!
It was so good. I fixed some and… yum!!
I love this recipemy mom is a great cook. She helped me make some.
Of course im only a child but im still learning to cook.And thats a good thing.
You’re hilarious!
I’m so glad I found this website… YAY! for easy recipes!
I can’t wait to try it.
prepping for these babies tonight to have while we “work” our neighborhood garage sale in the a.m. (oh, I’ll be a good neighbor
) You always make me laugh with your commentaries, and I cannot wait for your book!!! Thanks so much for helping keep my southern roots here in Montana!!