Outrageous 1-Hour Cinnamon Rolls

These homemade 1-hour cinnamon rolls will knock your socks off! My homemade cinnamon rolls taste just like Cinnabon but are kinda, sorta even better. Plus, they take no time to make at all!

Outrageous! 

The only way I know how to describe 1-hour cinnamon rolls. But I can find other words too like ‘dangerous’ and ‘deadly.’ For someone that loves making a big deal out of Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast, without a whole lot of fuss, these are perfect. Ready in no time and they taste even better than the stuff you get at the mall.

Perfectly swirled with cinnamon sugar and rolled up in hot, buttery dough, and if that wasn’t enough, we top it with a tangy and sweet cream cheese icing that I contemplated eating straight from the bowl with a spoon because, holy cow, that. Is. Good.

Cinnamon rolls are my jam. I mean, I’ve made caramel apple rolls in an hour, and now I’m finally getting around to sharing my 1-hour cinnamon rolls recipe with you. It’s one I sat on for quite some time because I just couldn’t get that cream cheese icing right. Until now that is. 

It’s the last couple months of the year which means three things, I’ve dusted off all my baking gear, bought all the butter I could find at Costco, and pre-booked all my Orange Theory classes because this girl is gonna need to keep it all together somehow with all that dessert around!

This is my classic, go-to 1-hour cinnamon rolls recipe that I’m sharing with you today. The equivalent of giving you my heart in the food world. The fluffiest, softest, sweet dough, loaded up with buttery cinnamon sugar swirls and finished just the way they make it at Cinnabon. 

I made not one, but two whole trays of these rolls last week and had to call everyone I know to take some because if I kept them in the house both the hubby and I would undoubtedly polish off both pans. I rang him up at work one afternoon to check if I should keep a few around or give them all away and in his most serious voice he responded, ‘keep a few, I want some.’ Y’all, this guy supposedly doesn’t like any dessert that doesn’t contain chocolate, but even he couldn’t pass these up!

What do you need to make the 1-hour cinnamon rolls dough?

• Butter
• Milk
• All-purpose flour
• Sugar
• Salt
• Instant yeast
• Powdered milk (affiliate link)
• Eggs

Do you have to use powdered milk when making cinnamon rolls?

No, it’s not a 100% mandatory ingredient, but it’s one that I’ll never make cinnamon rolls without. It gives these 1-hour cinnamon rolls that bakery style flavor, one that you can’t pinpoint while you’re eating but you know there’s something super special about these rolls.

How do you make the dough for 1-hour cinnamon rolls?

This is quite possibly the easiest cinnamon roll dough you’ll ever make. We’re not wasting hours upon hours letting the dough rise. This is made for weekend mornings, after all. Just toss the ingredients into your stand mixer (affiliate link) and let the ingredients mix up together and let it run for 5-7 minutes until the gluten develops and the dough is stretchy and perfect. Then cover it up and let it hang out for 10 minutes.

What if it’s cold where I live, will the dough rise in time?

If it’s super cold where you live or your kitchen is drafty, I have a tip for you! While your dough is mixing, run to your laundry room and heat the dryer on the highest setting for about 5 minutes. Then, turn the dryer off, cover the dough bowl with plastic wrap and place the bowl inside. Don’t turn the dryer on again, the warmth in the dryer with bring your dough right up. I do this all the time! And no, your dryer won’t smell like bread dough afterward, don’t worry! 

What’s in the cinnamon roll filling?

• Cinnamon 
• Brown sugar
• Granulated sugar
• Nutmeg 

Does the quality of ingredients make a difference?

Make sure to use good quality cinnamon when you make my 1-hour cinnamon rolls. During recipe testing, I used cinnamon that I bought in a large bulk size container, and I could barely taste the cinnamon at all! I made them again the second time using good quality cinnamon, and I can’t stress how big of a difference it made to the finished product! Siagon cinnamon works best here but I know it can be quite expensive and you may not want to splurge on something like that if you don’t bake too often. Use the best quality cinnamon that you can, and I promise you, these 1-hour cinnamon rolls will treat you well.

What makes 1-hour cinnamon rolls cream cheese icing better?

I played with the cream cheese icing tons. Like a whole lot! I used the traditional ratios of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla and no matter how much I played with it, I didn’t love it. It just didn’t have that tang that I wanted from the icing.

The trick? A hint of lemon juice.

Now, let me just say, if you don’t like things that have buttermilk or a tang to it, this might not be your sort of thing. And you can certainly replace the lemon juice with additional milk, but if you’re into gourmet style rolls that cut through a bit of that sweetness, and add a bit of sophistication, a hint of lemon juice in the icing is going to blow your mind in the best way!

How to bake 1-hour cinnamon rolls make:

This recipe makes 12 rolls, and I like to bake them in a 13×9 inch baking dish (affiliate link.) This gives the rolls enough space to expand so that they bake up more evenly. I always find it tricky baking rolls in a round baking dish; mine tend to come out a bit doughy and underbaked in the middle sometimes.

And that’s it! You seriously won’t believe how easy it is to make 1-hour cinnamon rolls. Get the kids together and make it a weekend project. Or drop a hint to your s/o and have them make them for you! 😉

Continue to Content

Yield: 12 cinnamon rolls

Outrageous 1-Hour Cinnamon Rolls

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Homemade 1-Hour Cinnamon Rolls that’ll knock your socks off! These cinnamon rolls taste just like Cinnabon but are kinda, sorta even better. Plus they take no time to make at all!

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Ingredients

Dough:

• 5 tablespoons melted butter (salted)
• 1 cup milk (whole or 2% work best)
• 4- 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (plus more)
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ teaspoons ‘rapid rise’ or instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon powdered milk
• 2 large eggs, room temp

Filling:

• 5 tablespoons salted butter, room temp
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon 
• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Icing:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, room temp
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 -3 tablespoons milk

Instructions

1. DOUGH: in a glass measuring cup, heat the milk for 45 seconds or until warm to the touch (about 105- 110ºF.) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add 4 cups of flour, sugar, salt, powdered milk, and the yeast. Add the warm milk mixture, eggs, and melted butter. Beat on medium-low speed to combine. If the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl, add 2-3 tablespoons of flour at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the side (up to ½ a cup.) Continue running the dough in the machine for another 5-7 minutes on medium-low speed. Remove dough from hook and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. (See notes)
2. FILLING: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200ºF. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg, set aside. 
3. ROLLS: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough into a 16 x 10-inch rectangle. Use a small spatula to spread the softened butter over the surface evenly. Sprinkle with the prepared cinnamon brown sugar mixture. Roll up the dough firmly but not too tight and cut into 12 pieces using dental floss. Place the prepared pieces in a lightly greased 13x9 baking pan. Turn the oven OFF. Cover the dough loosely with a damp tea towel and place the baking pan inside the oven for 20 minutes to rise.
4. BAKE: When the dough has risen, remove from the oven and set aside on the counter. Place a rack near the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until the rolls are golden and cooked through (prepare the icing while you wait.) Remove and let cool on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes.
5. ICING: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the butter and cream cheese together for 30 seconds or until smooth. Add lemon juice along with the powdered sugar and mix on the low setting until smooth. Pour a tablespoon of milk at a time until the icing reaches desired consistency. Note that it will have tiny grains because of the lemon juice, and that’s okay! Drizzle the prepared icing over the warm cinnamon rolls and spread using an offset spatula. Serve warm!

Notes

• If it’s particularly cold or drafty in the kitchen the day you’re making these, you can heat up your (empty) dryer for 5 minutes on high, turn it off, and place the bowl inside. This allows the dough to rise quickly. If you live in a warm place or are making these in the summer, you can do this on the counter.

Have you made this recipe?

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