baked cinnamon rolls

These cinnamon roll donuts are baked with a cinnamon-sugar topping and finished with a vanilla glaze. They are absolutely delicious and so easy to make! They taste just like cinnamon rolls and they have such a soft, moist texture. Perfect for holiday baking!

Cinnamon Roll Donuts

whole wheat pastry flour

sugar

baking powder

cinnamon

salt

almond milk

greek yogurt

vanilla extract

butter (melted)

coconut sugar

almond milk (or preferred milk)

Preheat oven and grease pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Whisk dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, whisk together the pastry flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt until evenly distributed.

Whisk wet ingredients.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond milk, egg, greek yogurt, and pure vanilla extract until smooth.

Combine wet and dry.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until fully incorporated.

Add batter to pan.

Spoon the donut batter into the donut pan. You can use a spoon or a piping bag. Gently shake the pan back and forth to level the batter evenly.

Donut Batter

Make cinnamon topping.

In a small bowl, melt 1 tablespoon butter and stir in the cinnamon, coconut sugar, and milk until smooth.

Drizzle topping over donuts.

Use a spoon to drizzle the cinnamon topping over the unbaked donuts in the pan. You can use the back of the spoon to spread it evenly around the donuts.

Bake donuts.

Bake the donuts for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned and firm.

Transfer to cooling rack.

Remove from the oven and let the donuts cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes before gently transferring to a cooling rack. Make sure the donuts are cool before glazing.

Cinnamon Topping

Make glaze.

To make the glaze, add powdered sugar to a bowl with salt. Stir together and add almond milk 1 teaspoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Glaze donuts.

Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the cinnamon rolls, or use a piping bag for more precision. Enjoy!

Glazing The Donuts

Made from scratch with bread flour and instant yeast, they have pillowy-soft dough, a gooey cinnamon sugar filling, and rich cream cheese frosting. Perfect for breakfast, these soft and fluffy rolls stay moist for days, if they last that long! Plus, there’s an overnight option for easy prep.

The Softest Milk Bread Cinnamon Rolls Ever

bread flour

water

instant yeast

fine sea salt

heavy cream (room temperature)

whole milk (room temperature)

vanilla bean paste

Tangzhong from above

salted European butter (cool room temperature)

brown sugar (packed)

vanilla powder (optional)

unsalted butter (room temperature)

cream cheese (cold)

heavy cream

Before you start, line a metal 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper.

First, make the tangzhong: In a small saucepan, whisk together the water and bread flour. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, for 4-5 minutes until the mixture is a paste-like slurry. Scrape it into a bowl and set it aside.

In a stand mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt until combined. Add the cream, milk, egg, vanilla, and tangzhong to the bowl. Knead on low speed with the dough hook for 2 minutes until it forms a rough dough ball.

On low speed, knead in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, letting it fully incorporate before adding more. Continue kneading for another 10-12 minutes until the dough looks smooth and elastic.

Remove the dough from the bowl and pull the sides down into the bottom center to create a smooth round ball. Place it seam-side down into the mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes.

While the dough rests, combine the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla powder for the filling. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 15x21-inch rectangle. Dollop the cinnamon sugar mixture across the surface, then spread it to the edges with an offset spatula, leaving a 1-inch border at the top clean.

Use a pizza cutter to cut twelve, 1 3/4-inch strips. Roll each strip away from you, then carefully transfer them to the baking pan. Cover the top with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 1-2 hours. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325 F/162 C.

Bake the cinnamon rolls for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden brown.

While the rolls are baking, make the cream cheese frosting. In a stand mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter until combined. Then mix in the powdered sugar. Keep beating on low speed until the frosting is light and fluffy, then mix in the vanilla bean paste and heavy cream.

Let the pan cool on a wire cooling rack for 15 minutes, then spread the cream cheese frosting on top. Let sit another 15 minutes for the frosting to seep into the rolls. Serve warm and enjoy!

Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days. Reheat them in the oven or microwave until warm before serving!

Hi Cambrea!

I have made this and I am so happy with how the bread came out! It's my dream bread texture. My search for a bread recipe for my rolls savory or sweet is now over :) I plan to stick to this recipe of yours, so thank you!!! :)

Best recipe for cinnamon rolls I have ever made!

I make cinnamon rolls once a month as they are a favorite in our house. I have been using a copycat Cinnabon recipe for awhile and it was pretty good. I decided to try your recipe as I have had really good success with the Tangzhong technique making dinner rolls. The dough from this recipe is on another level. The texture was absolutely spectacular and a unanimous favorite, it wasn't even close. This is our go to cinnamon roll recipe now. The recipe was very well laid out as a baker who weighs almost every ingredient I really appreciated having the weights all listed. Thank you for posting this.

These turned out amazing! So soft and delicious!

Great recipe! Delicious! People at work loved that weren’t too sweet, and I agree. Will definitely be making again. Loved the softness and texture. I’ve been using tanzhong in my sweet breads and dinner rolls for several years now, and that’s why I chose this recipe.  (If you don’t have both milk and heavy cream in your fridge, you could probably use all milk, or all heavy cream, or all half-n-half and it probably wouldn’t change the recipe a bit. I happened to have both so I followed the recipe exactly as written.). Putting this in my recipe file as a “keeper!”

super soft and gooey , but I had to use ap flour instead because I couldn’t find bread flour.

These are absolutely insane! I made them without a machine and they turned out wonderfully.

These are the best cinnamon rolls I've ever made. I've experimented using a different variety of breads etc. These are by far the best. Not just in taste but the texture and density of bread. 5 STARS. FOR SURE

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/KeA9DxT7.mp4

Watch out Cinnabon, because these are the best cinnamon rolls ever! They're extremely gooey, packed with cinnamon sugar flavor, and topped with cream cheese frosting. Overnight and freezing options are included!

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The most viewed baked cinnamon rolls recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine