Holy CINNAMON ROLLS, Batman!! The most delicious cinnamon roll recipe that you can make in a bread machine!! That's right… the bread machine will do most of the work for you.
The world's best homemade cinnamon roll recipe… from a bread machine?! You bet your buckets, pal! We love homemade cinnamon rolls in our house, and we have the easiest, most delicious cinnamon roll recipe… made mostly in the bread machine!
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Yes, the $4 bread machine from a thrift store. That one. But don't worry, you can still make these suckers without a machine — it just makes your life easier if you have one. If you don't have a bread machine, you can still easily knead this dough by hand and make these fabulous cinnamon rolls by yourself!
So now, we introduce you to…
HOW TO MAKE OUR DELICIOUS CINNAMON ROLL RECIPE
As with anything you bake, there are a few notes that will take your treat from so-so to absolutely divine! So, let's chat cinnamon rolls!
LET CINNAMON ROLLS RISE
Cinnamon rolls are all about the rising time. Most cinnamon roll recipes require you to allow the dough to rise TWICE. The first rise is before rolling the cinnamon rolls out — you might be tempted to roll it out sooner rather than later, but be sure to give it enough time to double!
MAKING CINNAMON ROLL FILLING
When making the filling, you've got two options. Combine all the ingredients and mix well until it forms a paste of sorts. Spread onto the dough with your hands or a greased spatula… OR soften the butter and smoosh it onto the dough, then just sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over the top evenly. BAM! Super easy!
It's totally up to you. Second option is definitely easier, but some may tell you the first option makes your rolls taste better because the cinnamon roll filling doesn't leak as much!
ROLLING & CUTTING CINNAMON ROLLS
After your rolls have risen, you'll want to roll them out into a rectangular shape about 1/4 inch thick. The more rectangular, the better, as this gives you more evenly-sized rolls. To prevent the dough from sticking to the countertop, add a little flour.
Once you've accomplished that, you can roll the dough right on up! Make sure you roll it up long ways. You'll want to get a pretty tight roll, then pinch it tight when you finish rolling. Don't let any filling escape!
Now it's time to cut evenly-sized rolls. You can totally eyeball this! But if you put a little dash mark in the dough for each roll, it makes it easier to keep the rolls evenly sized. About 2 inches is what you're going for here.
Pro Tip: Use unscented dental floss or fishing string to make your job cutting the rolls a little easier! This prevents squishy rolls.
SECOND CINNAMON ROLL RISE
Your rolls will need to rise again after you've rolled 'em out and filled 'em up! Add them to a 9×13 pan or multiple pans, if needed. Cover with a towel and let rise.
Pro Tip: Turn your oven on for one minute, turn it off, then cover and let rise in the warm oven — this decreases rising time. Once risen, pull them out. If not, you'll have some funky, potentially burnt rolls on your hands. Now that would just be sad!
WORLD'S BEST BREAD MACHINE CINNAMON ROLL RECIPE
Mmmmmm. You ready for this recipe!?
Bread Machine Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm milk
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- ⅓ cup margarine, melted
- 4 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 ½ tsp bread machine yeast
Sugar Mixture
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 ½ Tbsp cinnamon
- ⅓ cup butter, softened
Frosting
- 3 oz package cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla
- ⅛ tsp salt
Instructions
For Bread Machine
- Place dough ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (for me, it’s wet ingredients first). Select dough cycle; press Start.
No Bread Machine
- No bread machine? No problem… Add warm milk to a standard mixer using the dough hook and sprinkle yeast in. Add eggs, butter, salt and sugar. Add the flour slowly and allow to soak up the liquid. Beat the dough on medium speed for 5-7 minutes or until the dough is elastic and smooth. Sticky is okay!! If your mixer doesn't have a dough hook, combine the ingredients and then knead by hand.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
- After the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll dough into a 24×12 rectangle.
- Spread dough with ⅓ cup softened butter (I just smush it around with my fingers). Sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Make sure to get it to the very edges!! I like to save a little mixture to sprinkle on top of the rolls once they are rolled up. Roll up dough from the LONG side of the rectangle – you'll get more rolls that way! Cut into 12-16 rolls.
- Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan (or a bigger pan if you have it). Be sure to space the rolls out in your pan so they don't touch. You may have to bake them in 2 or even 3 separate pans, depending on how thick you cut them. I like to let them rise for at least 30 minutes (longer = bigger). Sprinkle them with the extra cinnamon sugar mixture if you have any. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.
- Bake at 375°F until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Don’t over-bake!
- While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, ¼ cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.
Notes
That's it!
Are you drooling yet? Hope you enjoy this cinnamon roll recipe as much as we do! If you try it and love it, please leave a comment and let us know below!
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Looking for more great breakfast ideas?!
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Now, let's roll!
I am OBSESSED with cinnamon rolls! Going to make this super soon!
Like you I got my bread maker on the REAL cheap, as in – FREE.99 (my favorite price – wink) since it was given to me. Those things are seriously worth the extra cupboard space they take up. I love making homemade garlic breadsticks in mine, too. SO good!
Wow FREE?! That’s even better than $4! Nice work!
Do you think I could make them today and cook them tomorrow?
You could sure try! I don’t see why it would hurt!
I freeze mine then pull them out the night before (Saturday) and bake then on Sunday morning. We love our cinnamon rolls!
Such a great idea, thanks for sharing!
I what point do you freeze them , and do you thaw before baking ?
I freeze before they raise. After I get them in the pan, I cover with foil & freeze. They will raise as they are thawing during the night. It makes it easy to have them ready for Sunday breakfast.
My favorite!! I am so trying this! Thanks for sharing!
Mel | http://www.thegossipdarling.com
So can I make these the night before. Get them into the pan. Cover and put in the fridge. Then in the morning take them out to rise and bake? If so, how long do I need to wait for them to rise?
We usually recommend letting them rise until they’ve doubled in size, about 30-60 minutes depending on the temperature of the room.
Quick question: do you allow the dough to go through the whole dough cycle in the bread machine?
Yes – just the whole “dough” cycle 🙂
What if you don’t have a bread machine.
You can make it without! Just mix the dough and let it rise, like you would in any other cinnamon roll recipe.
Hi, just made your cinnamon rolls and they are very good I made 16 I Love my bread machine for my bread on dough cycle then I put into a long bread pan and get a nice loaf of bread. I do not bake anything in the bread machine anymore I only use the dough cycle. Thanks for the nice recipe
This is by far the easiest and best cinnamon rolls I’ve had! I shared with neighbors and friends and got great compliments.
My rolls didn’t rise again after cutting them. What did I do wrong?
Did you cover them with a dishtowel and put them in a warm place – be sure it’s not a hot place though. I live in Colorado so mine take a long time to rise – like hours-
Made these today! Delicious!
Glad you liked them!
Can I use regular flour and regular yeast?
You can, but you’ll have to add your yeast to water before adding it to the mixture if you’re still using a bread machine.
Ok – I’ll admit I had my doubts when the dough texture was so difficult to work with, but that may have been my yeast. End result is delicious – I used Muscovado sugar, Mexican cinnamon and added pecans. I saved out part of the filling and used it to create a topping with a little butter instead of icing – these came out incredible! Thank you!
Ok, so I started making the dough in my bread mixer! That amount of flour is too much for my regular size bread maker, it actually came to a stop! So I dumped it all and kneaded by hand, it’s rising to go in the oven, so we will se3 what happens!
I might try 1/2 a recipe next. This made 16 buns and eight would be enough for us.
Love this!
I have these baking in the oven right now!! I will be glazing some with white icing and some with caramel!!!! Some for home and some for work, my coworkers love me!!
These are my FAVOURITE cinnamon buns! Perfect cinnamon to bread ratio and the icing is delish! ??
can I use all purpose flour?
You were right, will not buy rolls in a can again. Making second batch and adding perserves instead if cinnamon mixture
I am a novice baker in every way. I just retired and started baking to keep out of my wifes way. I just made this recipe for the first time. The glass man repairing our windshield was y first victim. He ate one and took 2 with him. This is a fantastic recipe and if a novice like me can make them turn out great anyone can
Made this today n omgosh. My hisband about ate them all lol. They were awesome n take like I girl them at a bakery store. This is the best recipe I have ever used for cinnamon rolls.
Do you mean an 8 ounce package of cream cheese? Or are there really 3 ounce packages?
I too got my bread machine at a discount,(in a free pile at the end of a driveway on a Monday evening, apparently an unsuccessful yard sale.) No book or recipes with it so I am so glad I found this recipe. I followed the recipe with the exception of adding a little bit of orange extract and the zest of one little mandarine orange to the dough. I did the same with the icing. Also, I found out a little late that I only had 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. So I grated
another 1/2 tsp from a cinn stick & grated in a bit of fresh nutmeg & a pinch of ground cloveto go into the filling. They are literally the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had!! Thank you for the inspiration. Sweet wishes and memories made from an Oregon girl.
Great rec. Smells so so good
Oh good, I hope they turned out great for you! 🙂
Anyone have any more info or tips on freezing these so I can make lots of them and freeze them?
One reader had this to say about freezing them: “I freeze before they raise. After I get them in the pan, I cover with foil & freeze. They will raise as they are thawing during the night. It makes it easy to have them ready for Sunday breakfast.” You could get some foil baking dishes like these and they would freeze great! You would just have to make the frosting while they’re baking. Hope that helps!
After making can
you not bake them for a few days
I don’t see why not! But if it’s going to be too long in between then you may want to freeze the dough, then pull it out the day before making them to thaw.
Loved these but they weren’t done on the inside 😬 will plan to reheat them in oven maybe they will cook the rest of the way.
Oh no! We’ve never had that happen. However, all ovens cook differently, so you should definitely try cooking them longer next time and hopefully they’ll come out perfect!
My first try at cinnamon rolls and they turned out fantastic. I used a powdered sugar glaze instead because I did not have cream cheese and it was great! Thanks for the recipe. I will try freezing some next time.
I have made these for Christmas morning 2 years ago, now I make a batch more regularly because family love them so muc. I use butter instead of margarine for the dough and learned to be patient, and let the dough rise in the bread machine after the dough cycle has ended. I also added pecans to the filling, per my hubby’s insistence. I usually freeze them and take a couple out at a time.
These cinnamon rolls are the best. I have made them several times and they come out great. I have even made a batch and put an uncooked tray in the freezer and left them for a few weeks – cooked them and came out just as good. My family is always asking for these rolls.
Super Easy to make, able to get the ingredients in the bread machine in about 10 minutes. The dough comes out perfect (not too sticky), easy to roll out. I make about 24-26 rolls (cut 1 ” thick). I don’t use the glaze, I make my own vanilla powdered sugar glaze. Everyone LOVEs this. I also make it at night, roll and cut it out and place in pan and cover with plastic wrap and leave in the frig. In the morning, I warm up my oven to 100 degrees, turn off the oven and then let it rise in a warm oven for 45 minutes or so, then I remove to pre heat the oven for baking at the 375°F. So I can bake these even on a work day and bring it to the office warm on a Monday morning.
These are THE best cinnamon rolls I have ever had. I don’t have a bread machine. I used regular flour, regular active yeast, and substituted applesauce for the eggs for our egg allergy. My family thinks I’m a total boss. These are amazing.
Cinnamon rolls was one recipe I was unsure if I could pull off and I reluctantly bought the cans of them when the kids asked for these treats. No longer! I made this recipe and it was fantastic! I did make a few small alterations to suit my tastes. I subbed butter for margarine in the dough and I added a small splash of milk to the icing as mine was dry. I cut 12 big rolls and stuffed them all in a 13 by 9 as it makes them rise really tall. Also, I really wanted to prep at night and have for the next morning, so I set up the pain with the cut rolls (pre-final rise). I wrapped in cling wrap and refrigerated overnight. The next morning, I put the tray on the radiator for an hour to rise. The heat from the radiator made them HUGE, but not over-proofed. Finally, I baked for 17 min at 350 degrees. (I did the lower temperature and for a tiny bit longer, since the rolls were packed together.) The rolls were ready in time for the kids to eat before school and I felt very proud at having finally pulled off this recipe. Never going back to the cans. Thank you!
Wow wow wow!!! It sounds like you made some AMAZING cinnamon rolls, way to go! So glad you loved them!! 🙂
Wow, thank you for this recipe, I love it so much!!!
I had pretty much given up on making cinnamon rolls because they never turned out very well and were a lot of work and mess. Since discovering these, I make them all the time, and they are awesome every single time! And easy and actually fun to make! 🙂
Yay! SO glad you loved them!
When you are freezing them and then thawing overnight, you say they rise while thawing overnight, are you just leaving them on the counter overnight or in fridge?
Thaw in the refrigerator the night before and place in a warm spot to rise the morning you’re baking them.
We love raisins, so I added some after the dough rose the first time. These were fantastic. Thanks for the recipe
Yum! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Just a thought – this recipe looks delicious! However, I have a 1 lb bread machine and I can tell just by looking at the ingredients that this will make at least a 2 lb loaf. It would do people a favor if you mention that in your recipe.
I will scale this one down to use in my machine though – thanks!