These are the best Cinnamon Buns you’ll ever make! They are soft, fluffy cinnamon rolls with the best gooey caramel sauce in the bottom of the pan. They’re easy to make ahead and freezer-friendly!
Can’t get enough cinnamon rolls? Try this Easy Cinnamon Roll Casserole recipe, Cinnamon Roll Bites, or Healthier Cinnamon Roll Baked Pancake with Maple Cream Cheese Syrup!
Table of Contents
- Why we love this homemade cinnamon roll recipe:
- Dough ingredients:
- Sauce, filling, and frosting ingredients:
- How to make Cinnamon Buns:
- Tips for making the best cinnamon rolls:
- How to store Cinnamon Buns:
- Can I make these gluten-free?
- Frosting for Cinnamon Rolls or Cinnamon Buns:
- More breakfast bread recipes you’ll love:
- The Best Cinnamon Buns Recipe
These Cinnamon Buns are perfectly soft and fluffy, and my family’s top secret (not really) cinnamon bun sauce coats the bottom of the pan, taking them over the top. The sauce is key to making these the best cinnamon buns you’ve ever had!
With two rises, these cinnamon rolls become super fluffy! A warm cinnamon filling and smooth, and tangy cream cheese frosting make these the real deal.
Why we love this homemade cinnamon roll recipe:
- Classic: Cinnamon rolls are a classic breakfast with a warm cinnamon filling, fluffy dough, gooey caramel sauce, and tangy cream cheese frosting! It’s a breakfast treat you’ll come back to again and again.
- Make-ahead and freezer-friendly: Who doesn’t love having gooey cinnamon buns ready to eat at a moment’s notice? These Cinnamon Buns can be made a day ahead of time and baked the next morning, or you can freeze the baked rolls and reheat them later!
- Perfect for a special occasion: These buns are perfect for Christmas morning, brunch with family or friends, or any time during the year when you want a homemade breakfast treat!
Dough ingredients:
- Warm water: Activates the yeast by creating the ideal environment to start fermenting, which is crucial for the dough to rise.
- Active dry yeast: The leavening agent that makes the dough rise, giving the cinnamon buns their light and fluffy texture. You can also use instant yeast if you want the dough to rise more quickly!
- Milk: Adds moisture to the dough, making it softer and richer. It also helps with browning during baking.
- Unsalted butter: Butter is the heart of any good cinnamon bun. It makes everything richer—from the dough to the filling and frosting—giving each bite that melt-in-your-mouth texture! Use room temperature butter.
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast, helping the dough rise, and adds that irresistible sweetness to every layer, especially when it caramelizes during baking.
- Salt: Enhances the overall flavor of the cinnamon buns and balances the sweetness.
- Egg: Adds structure to the dough and helps it to rise higher!
- All-purpose flour: This is the foundation of your cinnamon buns. Flour gives the dough its structure, helping it hold together while still being soft and fluffy.
Sauce, filling, and frosting ingredients:
- Heavy cream: I only recommend heavy cream for this sauce, because it won’t curdle when it’s cooked. This is essential for making the sauce smooth.
- Corn syrup: Corn syrup prevents the sauce from crystallizing, giving you that perfect sticky texture without any graininess.
- Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavor to the filling and sauce. It also caramelizes, giving the buns a sticky, gooey texture!
- Ground cinnamon: Provides warmth and spice to the filling.
- Cream cheese: This is the base for our frosting. Make sure you’re using room temperature cream cheese, as it will mix more smoothly. Full fat or light will work great!
- Vanilla: A splash of vanilla in the frosting adds a lovely, warm flavor that complements the cinnamon and cream cheese.
- Powdered sugar: This gives the frosting its sweet, smooth finish. It melts into the cream cheese, making the frosting perfectly spreadable and delicious!
How to make Cinnamon Buns:
This Cinnamon Bun recipe is super easy to follow! Check out the recipe card for more in-depth instructions.
- Dissolve yeast in warm water until frothy.
- Combine yeast and milk mixtures with the egg.
- Add flour to the mixture.
- Knead the dough until a slightly tacky ball forms.
- Place dough in a large bowl.
- Let dough rise until doubled in size.
- Heat cream, corn syrup, sugar, and butter until boiling, then simmer.
- Pour the sauce into a pan and set it aside.
- Place buns on top of the sauce.
- Let the buns rise until doubled in size, then bake until golden brown and frost as desired.
Tips for making the best cinnamon rolls:
- Bloom the yeast: You want to make sure that your water isn’t too warm or too cold, or it won’t activate the yeast. Thankfully, you can see if your yeast is blooming before you add it to your dough. If it doesn’t bubble and froth, you may want to start again with a fresh packet of yeast.
- Let it rise: you don’t want to skimp on the rise time, as this is what makes your Cinnamon Buns fluffy and soft. I like to place my dough, covered, in the oven with the light on. It provides a warm, draft-free environment that is optimal for proofing dough.
- Roll it up tight: You want to try to keep the dough tight when you’re rolling so that all of that sugary cinnamony goodness will stay inside and not leak out.
- Use the right knife: I prefer to use a serrated knife for slicing cinnamon rolls as there will be less squishing, and your rolls will be rounder and hold in more of that cinnamon sugar filling.
How to store Cinnamon Buns:
On the counter:
The baked Cinnamon Rolls can be stored on the counter for 3-4 days without frosting. Because I use a cream cheese frosting, that can’t be left out.
If you want to store them at room temperature, simply leave the frosting in a container in the fridge and frost them only when serving.
In the refrigerator:
You can place your pan of rolled, unbaked cinnamon buns in the fridge, covered in plastic wrap, up to 24 hours before baking. Place in the refrigerator before the second rise.
When ready to bake, simply leave it on the counter for 20-30 minutes while your oven preheats, then bake it as directed.
You can refrigerate the baked cinnamon buns for up to 1 week with frosting in the fridge. But I bet they won’t last that long 😉
How to freeze Cinnamon Buns:
You can freeze the prepared pan of unbaked rolls for up to 3 months, but I actually don’t recommend this because I’ve never found them as fluffy as baking them right away.
You can freeze the baked cinnamon rolls with frosting, covered tightly, for up to 3 months. This is the way I prefer to freeze them! You can also leave the frosting off and reheat them gently in the oven at 225 degrees F for 20 minutes, and they will taste fresh out of the oven!
Can I make these gluten-free?
Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience with gluten-free baking, but I encourage you to check out this Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls recipe from my friend Erin. They look incredible!
Frosting for Cinnamon Rolls or Cinnamon Buns:
There is really only one answer here: it’s gotta be cream cheese. The way the tanginess of the cream cheese complements the sweet, sticky, gooey sauce…. it’s just unreal. Crazy good.
If you want it to sink into all of those crevices, be sure to spread it on while the cinnamon buns are still warm and let it get a little melty all up on those rolls.
Since these are so ridiculously good, you can skip the frosting and just eat them as is, and I’m pretty sure you’ll have no complaints 😉
More breakfast bread recipes you’ll love:
- Peanut Butter Streusel Banana Bread — take your banana bread up a notch!
- Lemon Bread Recipe — when you want something tangy and sweet.
- White Chocolate Cranberry Sweet Rolls — a festive twist!
- Maple Glazed Apple Crisp Cinnamon Buns — when you’re feeling a little extra 😉
The Best Cinnamon Buns
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
Dough
- ½ cup warm water (between 105 and 110 F is best)
- 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package)
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup sugar (50 grams)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg (room temperature)
- 3-4 cups all purpose flour (500 grams)
Sauce
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup corn syrup
- ½ cup brown sugar (about 85 grams)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Filling
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- ¾ cup brown sugar (128 grams)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 ounces cream cheese room temperature (¼ package)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Cinnamon Bun Dough
- Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside for 5-10 minutes until frothy.
- In a medium bowl, combine milk, butter, sugar, and salt and microwave on high for 45 seconds. Whisk until butter is melted. Set aside until it is lukewarm in temperature.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can mix and knead by hand), combine milk mixture and yeast mixture. Stir in egg (be sure it is not cold!).
- With the mixer on low speed and the dough hook on, gradually add in just enough flour so that a soft dough ball forms. It should be soft and slightly tacky, but not sticky.
- Drizzle some oil over a large glass bowl. Place dough ball in bowl, and turn so that the dough is lightly coated in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel if desired. Let sit in a warm, draft-free place for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size (the inside of the microwave or the oven with the light on are great options!)
Cinnamon Bun Sauce
- Just before your dough is ready to roll, make the sauce.
- In a medium saucepan, combine cream, corn syrup, sugar and butter. Heat over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Lightly grease a 9×13″ pan and pour prepared sauce into the bottom. Set aside.
Cinnamon Bun Filling**
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Once the dough has risen, remove from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a roughly 14" by 18" rectangle (you can really make them as large or small as you want — a wider rectangle or square will give fewer, larger rolls. A long skinny rectangle will give more, smaller cinnamon buns).
- Spread butter over the dough and sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and cinnamon
- Roll the rectangle up tightly, starting at the short end. Pinch the dough together to form a seam at the end.
- Trim the ends and slice log in half. Slice each half in half, so you have 4 equal pieces. Cut each piece into 3 equal sections so you have 12 buns. Place in prepared pan on top of sauce.
- Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel or piece of plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 23-27 minutes, until light golden brown on top and bubbling at the edges.
- If desired, turn out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let the caramel sauce run down into the buns. (If you are frosting them, I recommend leaving the gooey sauce at the bottom).
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and sugar and beat until combined and fluffy. If desired, add a touch more sugar for a thicker frosting.
- Spread over cinnamon buns. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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nancy says
Hi Ashley, I just made these. They are amazing. The only comment I really have is you don’t say how long to let the dough knead?? Thank goodness I am a little familiar with these. I let my mixer knead the dough for 6 minutes. They came out perfect. Thank you for a great recipe. The sauce on the bottom takes them to another level.
Ashley Fehr says
Hi Nancy! Yes in step 4 — you work the dough just until a tacky dough forms.
Ashley Behler says
Sending thanks your way! 💌