Who doesn’t love a good cinnamon roll? Who also doesn’t love investing an entire 24 hours into making them? I’m looking at you, sourdough cinnamon rolls! This cinnamon roll recipe is simple to make at home and is lightly sweetened for those of us who don’t love a sugar overload. Bonus: the icing is a cream cheese icing and who doesn’t love that?!
What makes this cinnamon rolls recipe so simple and delicious?
I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but BEEP BEEP.
I was able to take my favorite YEAST BREAD recipe that is so versatile in making other breads like buns and dinner rolls, and make it into cinnamon rolls.
With the Good Lord as my guide, I was able to create my own cinnamon roll recipe that turned out to be wonderful. I love sweets but when it’s so sweet, it gives you a sugar rush headache, I’m out. The experience has been ruined.
If you like lightly sweetened breakfast treats or desserts, THIS recipe is for you.
How to make lightly sweetened cinnamon rolls:
Materials
Standing mixer and dough hook
8 quart+ mixing bowl
Immersion blender or hand mixer (optional but makes a great icing!)
Small bowl
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Whisk
Sauce pot
and this recipe (but I’ll put all you need to know below)
For these cinnamon rolls, I will cut the recipe above IN HALF.
Ingredients
BREAD
- 200g warm milk
- 1.5 tsp instant yeast
- 1 egg
- 1.5 tbsp organic raw cane sugar
- 2.5 tbsp melted butter plus 1 more tbsp for greasing bowl
- 375g flour
- 1.25 tsp real salt
FILLING
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (make your own!)
- 2 tsp cinnamon
ICING
- 1/2 block cream cheese
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar (make your own, so easy!)
- 1/4 cup milk
Instructions
BREAD:
Start by warming milk and melting butter. After that, add milk, yeast, eggs, sugar, and melted butter to create a yeast mixture in the standing mixer’s bowl.
Then weigh out flour and add it to the yeast mixture in the bowl, making sure to add the salt to the standing mixer bowl last.
Knead the dough for 18 minutes on low in your standing mixer. Set a timer because this step is very important to the success of your dough.
While the mixer is kneading, use butter or an oil like avocado or olive to lightly grease the bottom and sides of a bowl. You’ll want at least an 8 quart bowl because this dough rises high.
A period of rest
When the timer goes off, transfer the sticky dough to the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and let it rise for at least 30 minutes, no more than 1 hour. If you use plastic wrap, let is lie loosely on the bowl’s top. This dough will rise pretty high! Give her some room to grow.
Shaping dough and cinnamon rolls
Lightly dust a clean countertop with flour and turn out the dough onto it. Gently stretch out the dough with your hands to create a rectangle, leaving dough about 1/8 inch thick. Do the best you can. You can use a rolling pin but I found it easier to just use my clean hands.
FILLING:
Whisk together brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Now spread the sugar mixture over the dough all the way to the edges.
Start with the edge closest to you and begin rolling the sugared dough into a log. When you’ve almost completed the log, use the last edge to bring it up and towards you to seal the log. Then pinch the seam closed, including the two ends so all the sugar mix stays inside the log.
Using a knife or a vegetable cutter, cut your log into 10 equal pieces, about 1.5 inches thick.
Place your cinnamon rolls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
A little more rest
Allow the cinnamon rolls to rest and rise for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven in the meantime to 350 degrees.
After rest, put the rolls in the oven for about 21 minutes or until as golden brown as you desire. I do like my more noticeably brown AKA more done, so 21 minutes did it for me and my altitude in North Carolina.
ICING:
While your rolls are baking, make your cream cheese icing. In a small sauce pot on the stove, add cream cheese, sugar, and milk to the pot. Allow it to warm low and slow for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Break up the cream cheese with a whisk (can be the same one as with the cinnamon sugar mixture) while stirring.
NOTE: if no immersion blender, reduce milk to 3 TBSP but know the icing may be a little chunky due to the cream cheese.
Just before rolls are done, use the immersion blender to finish blending up the cream cheese right in the sauce pot. Doing this makes the icing a little thicker as the milk tends to make it more watery. Blend for about 1 minute.
Turn off stovetop and remove rolls from the oven. Allow cinnamon rolls to cook for 10 minutes before adding the frosting.
Serve with a cup of hot coffee and a smile. Makes 10-12 cinnamon rolls. ENJOY!
WANT A CREAM CHEESE FROSTING RECIPE that only needs a hand-held mixer? Have at it, friend. Makes enough for this batch of cinnamon rolls. It’s a “small to schmedium batch” of frosting. Lightly sweetened and adds a fantastic savory and tangy taste to this sweet treeat.
One Recipe, MANY PRODUCTS
This one yeast bread recipe above can yield many creations. Hamburger and hot dog buns, sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls, garlic knots, dinner rolls, and more.
This cinnamon rolls recipe may seem like a lot but I can assure you as a mom, homeschooler, homesteader, wife with a LOT going on… I don’t have a lot of time to play around with recipes. I like simple and efficient AND delicious. This recipe checks the boxes.
From start to enjoying a roll, these cinnamon rolls may have taken 1.5 hours. I was able to do a couple chores and homeschool a lesson during this entire process. I like that kind of efficiency.
All the LINKED Recipes in this recipe:
For fun: hamburger and hot dog buns
Small to Schmedium Batch Cream Cheese Frosting
Follow Along for More & Share with a FRIEND!
Keep up to date on recent posts and sharings and more on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram: @johnsonhomenc and sign up for my weekly newsletter HERE.
If you try this recipe, come back and leave a comment or share a picture on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest so I can see it!
Simply Sweet Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- Standing mixer and dough hook
- 8 quart mixing bowl
- Immersion blender or hand mixer optional
- Small bowl
- parchment paper optional
- baking sheet
- whisk
- sauce pot
Ingredients
BREAD
- 200 g warm milk
- 1.5 tsp instant yeast
- 1 egg
- 1.5 tbsp organic raw cane sugar
- 2.5 tbsp melted butter plus 1 more tbsp for greasing bowl
- 375 g flour
- 1.25 tsp real salt
FILLING
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
ICING
- 1/2 block cream cheese
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
Instructions
- BREAD:
- Start by warming milk and melting butter. After that, add milk, yeast, eggs, sugar, and melted butter to create a yeast mixture in the standing mixer’s bowl.
- Then weigh out flour and add it to the yeast mixture in the bowl, making sure to add the salt to the standing mixer bowl last.
- Knead the dough for 18 minutes on low in your standing mixer. Set a timer because this step is very important to the success of your dough.
- While the mixer is kneading, use butter or an oil like avocado or olive to lightly grease the bottom and sides of a bowl. You’ll want at least an 8 quart bowl because this dough rises high.
- When the timer goes off, transfer the sticky dough to the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and let it rise for at least 30 minutes, no more than 1 hour. If you use plastic wrap, let is lie loosely on the bowl’s top. This dough will rise pretty high! Give her some room to grow.
- Lightly dust a clean countertop with flour and turn out the dough onto it. Gently stretch out the dough with your hands to create a rectangle, leaving dough about 1/8 inch thick. Do the best you can. You can use a rolling pin but I found it easier to just use my clean hands.
- FILLING:
- Whisk together brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Now spread the sugar mixture over the dough all the way to the edges.
- Start with the edge closest to you and begin rolling the sugared dough into a log. When you’ve almost completed the log, use the last edge to bring it up and towards you to seal the log. Then pinch the seam closed, including the two ends so all the sugar mix stays inside the log.
- Using a knife or a vegetable cutter, cut your log into 10 equal pieces, about 1.5 inches thick.
- Place your cinnamon rolls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Allow the cinnamon rolls to rest and rise for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven in the meantime to 350 degrees.
- After rest, put the rolls in the oven for about 21 minutes or until as golden brown as you desire. I do like my more noticeably brown AKA more done, so 21 minutes did it for me and my altitude in North Carolina.
- ICING:
- While your rolls are baking, make your cream cheese icing. In a small sauce pot on the stove, add cream cheese, sugar, and milk to the pot. Allow it to warm low and slow for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Break up the cream cheese with a whisk (can be the same one as with the cinnamon sugar mixture) while stirring.
- Just before rolls are done, use the immersion blender to finish blending up the cream cheese right in the sauce pot. Doing this makes the icing a little thicker as the milk tends to make it more watery. Blend for about 1 minute.
- Turn off stovetop and remove rolls from the oven. Allow cinnamon rolls to cook for 10 minutes before adding the icing.
- Serve with a cup of hot coffee and a smile. Makes 10 cinnamon rolls. ENJOY!
Notes
Leave a Reply