Easy Cinnamon Rolls with Frozen Bread Dough
These easy cinnamon rolls start with a loaf of frozen bread dough, which lets you skip mixing and kneading the dough entirely. You roll it out, fill it with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, let the rolls puff up in the pan and finish them with a cream cheese icing that melts right down the sides.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Easy Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
- Serves: 18
- Main Ingredients: loaf frozen white bread dough, Filling, softened butter or margarine, packed brown sugar, ground cinnamon, Icing, softened cream cheese, softened butter or margarine
- Why You'll Love It: The only thing better than homemade cinnamon rolls with that delicious cream cheese glaze is easy homemade cinnamon rolls made with a shortcut so you can enjoy them sooner!
I’ve been making cinnamon rolls for years, but only in the last few have I started using this shortcut. Making the dough from scratch is fun, but it takes a good while and it’s not easy on your hands, and a loaf of store-bought bread dough gives you soft, homemade-tasting rolls that anybody can pull off. If you’d still like to go fully from scratch, my dough recipe is in the FAQ below.
Why Frozen Bread Dough Works for Cinnamon Rolls
A loaf of frozen white bread dough is a plain yeast dough, so it rises and bakes up soft and fluffy just like a scratch dough would. You get to skip the measuring and kneading, but you still need to plan for the waiting, about an hour for the loaf to thaw and two to four hours for the rolls to rise, depending on how warm your kitchen is.
One loaf rolls out to about 9 by 16 inches. My from-scratch version rolls out to about 16 by 21, so these have a few less spirals, but they taste just the same.
Ingredients for Easy Cinnamon Rolls
- Frozen white bread dough: One loaf of a brand like Rhodes or your grocery store’s version works. It needs to be completely thawed before you roll it.
- Butter: Half goes on the dough under the filling and half goes into the icing, so soften the whole amount at once.
- Brown sugar and cinnamon: Light or dark brown sugar both work, or use a mix of brown and granulated sugar.
- Cream cheese: Let it soften so the icing beats up smooth. If you’re feeling ambitious, here’s how to make cream cheese at home with 2 ingredients.
You’ll find the exact amounts in the recipe card below.
Helpful Tips Before You Start
- Give the loaf about an hour on a plate at room temperature, and poke the center now and then to make sure it’s thawed all the way through before you roll it.
- I always roll the dough out on a sheet of waxed paper because cleanup is so much easier.
- Stop the filling about half an inch from the edges so the log seals when you roll it up.
- A serrated knife cuts clean one-inch slices without squashing the spirals.
- For a warm spot to rise in winter, heat the oven to 150°F, turn it off and set the covered rolls inside with the door cracked for about 30 minutes, then close it until they’ve doubled.
How to Make Easy Cinnamon Rolls
1Thaw the Dough
Set the loaf of frozen bread dough on a plate at room temperature until it’s completely thawed, about an hour.
2Mix the Filling
In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon.
3Roll Out the Dough
On a floured surface, roll the thawed dough into a rectangle about 9 by 16 inches.
4Butter and Fill
Spread half of the softened butter over the dough, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over it and pat it down lightly, leaving a half-inch border.
5Roll Into a Log
Starting at a long side, roll the dough up into a log and press the seam lightly to seal it.
6Slice the Rolls
Use a serrated knife to cut one-inch slices and set them in a greased 9×13-inch baking dish.
7Let Them Rise
Cover the dish with plastic wrap and set it in a warm spot until the rolls double in size, two to four hours. In summer mine have risen on the deck in about an hour and a half, and in winter I set them on top of the washing machine while the dryer runs.
8Bake
Remove the plastic wrap and bake at 400°F for about 15 minutes, until golden brown.
9Make the Icing
Beat the cream cheese, the rest of the butter, the powdered sugar and a little cinnamon until smooth and creamy. That pinch of cinnamon gives the icing a bit of oomph.
10Ice and Serve
Spread the icing over the warm rolls. When I’m serving them straight from the oven, I let everybody ice their own.
Making Cinnamon Rolls Ahead
For a slow morning, let the covered rolls rise overnight in the fridge instead of on the counter. They rise more slowly in the cold, so take them out about an hour before you want to bake and let them finish rising on the counter while the oven heats.
They heat up well, too, so a pan baked for dessert after supper makes a fine breakfast the next morning. For a holiday brunch, they’re right at home next to a bacon breakfast casserole or a pan of Cracker Barrel-style hash brown casserole.
More Sweet Rolls and Cinnamon Treats
Easy Cinnamon Rolls FAQs
How do I make cinnamon roll dough from scratch?
This dough replaces the loaf of frozen bread dough, and everything else stays the same, except you’ll roll it out to about 16 by 21 inches.
- 1 cup lukewarm milk
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut up
- 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast
Add everything to a bread machine in the order listed and run the dough cycle, checking after about 10 minutes and adding a little flour or water until it’s smooth, not too sticky and not too dry. Without a bread machine, stir everything together in a large bowl, knead on a lightly oiled surface for five to eight minutes until smooth, then let it rise in an oiled, covered bowl in a warm place for about an hour, until it’s nearly doubled.
Why didn’t my cinnamon rolls rise?
A cool kitchen is almost always the reason, since frozen bread dough rises slowly when it’s cold. Give them more time, or use the warm oven trick in the tips above.
Can I use store-bought frosting?
Store-bought frosting works in a pinch. For a change from cream cheese icing, whisk 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of strong coffee for a quick coffee glaze.
Easy Cinnamon Rolls with Frozen Bread Dough
Ingredients
- 1 loaf frozen white bread dough such as Rhode’s
Filling
- 1/4 cup softened butter or margarine
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 tbsp ground cinnamon
Icing
- 3 ounces softened cream cheese
- 1/4 cup softened butter or margarine
- 1.5 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional
Instructions
- Place the loaf of dough on a plate and let sit at room temperature until thawed. Once thawed, roll out onto a floured surface to the size of about nine inches by sixteen inches. Spread butter/margarine over the dough.1 loaf frozen white bread dough, 1/4 cup softened butter or margarine
- In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top of the dough, stopping about 1/2 an inch away from the sides so it will seal. Carefully roll up the cinnamon roll dough into a log and press lightly to seal. Slice into one-inch slices with a serrated knife.1 cup packed brown sugar, 3 tbsp ground cinnamon
- Place in a greased 9×13 baking dish and cover with cling wrap. Place in a warm spot and allow to rise until doubled in size. Remove cling wrap and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Mix all icing ingredients together and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Spread over cinnamon rolls.3 ounces softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup softened butter or margarine, 1.5 cups confectioner’s sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional
These came out just wonderful – the only change I made was to add the juice of half a lemon to the icing, which thinned it down a little, but cut the overwhelming (to me) sweetness of the powdered sugar, and eliminated the cinnamon which wasn’t listed in the ingredients on the actual recipe.
I make the same icing for my pineapple cake (no cinnamon there!), but it has even more powdered sugar for its thicker consistency, so I always add lemon juice to it. This worked out well for me!
This is awesome!!! Thank you for the short cut!!!!
Brenda Herring
Hey Sugar!
You said “*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~”
Shame Shame Shame on you honey. You’ve never tried Watkins Cinnamon then, because it is the only PURE Cinnamon that the FDA allows to say it’s pure. And you can TASTE the difference darlin’. Get yourself some of that Watkins Cinnamon, stick your finger into your cheap stuff and taste it, clean your palate and then taste the Watkins Cinnamon. I’m telling you Sugar, you’l TASTE the difference and I’m not liein’
Love Love Ya,
Rita K
Hi Christy! I’ve always made my cinnamon rolls from scratch. Xmas morning I am tired! I’ve been up wrapping all night, kids are excited to open gifts so they wake me at the crack of dawn, and making cinnamon rolls is about the last thing I want to be doing. 😉
This year I want to try the easy method. What is your favorite way to do them Christmas Eve before bed? Do I let them rise before putting in the frig, or do I just make and pop in the frig? Just need to get the rise timing down on them. You don’t know my gang when they are waiting for Xmas morning buns! It makes a cross country car trip of “are we there yet?” sound good.
Christy… HELP!!! I made these last night. 4.. count them 4 pans. I let them rise, they were BEAUTIFUL!! Beautiful pans of Cinnabuns. I put in icebox after they rose to cook this morning. This morning, I open icebox and ALL 4 pans are FLAT!! *crying* Hoping they rise again… going to go ahead and cook them in about 1.5 hours after they get room temp and see what they look like. *crying again* HA HA LOL 4 pans of beautiful Cinnabuns…. *sniff* RIP…
Oh my hearts just sank with you when I read this. I’ve done the same thing and I was so disappointed in myself I actually cried because I had been so proud thinking of sending them to people.
It sounds like your dough was allowed to rise too much, more than double in size, then overnight it quit rising and started dying off once it reached the limit of how large it could become. I’m hoping, praying, and crossing my pinky toes that it rises some again for you.
The good news is that your rolls are still bakeable/edible, it’s just that they will be harder -but I’m a trooper, I ate them anyway. 😉
I wish I could get in my cat (or caR even, since my cat is quite lazy)and come right over there to make cinnamon rolls, drink coffee, and giggle the morning away with you. I’d make you giggle, I promise!
Okay… cinnamon rolls are really wonderful… only hitch… I should not bake and eat a whole pan at one time! Would love to have them fresh every day but do not have that kind of time… How about some freezing information- pre-bake?
If you ask hubby to stick them in the oven in the morning while you are applying your face upstairs be SURE to tell him to take off the plastic wrap!! Guess how I know? Plastic coated cinnamon rolls–ugh!