Here’s a delicious Old Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls recipe.
We got about a foot of snow at my house this past week… which was awesome because we played and played and played in all of its gorgeous wonder. But now it’s raining. I mean REALLY RAINING… like pouring… on all of that fresh snow. So there is a great deal of flooding happening in our city today. My husband just left for the fire station to pick up a zillion sandbags to help prevent the snow-melt and torrential downpour from coming into our house and garage. It’s an icky, icky day.
So what I’m really trying to say is, it’s a great day to bake some old fashioned cinnamon rolls! This one makes enough for a small crowd, so plan accordingly. We actually didn’t have a small crowd around at all when I made these, but we managed to eat all of them anyways. They’re hard to resist!
How to make Old Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls:
Since this is the old-fashioned kind, you’ll start with your typical yeasted dough. I found this dough really easy to work with. You can either mix it by hand and knead it by hand, or you can use a stand mixer to do the work for you if you have one of those! The dough does need some time to rise.
After you roll your dough with butter, cinnamon and sugar inside, you’ll use the “dental floss method” for cutting. I’ve made cinnamon rolls a zillion times before and have never used dental floss for cutting the rolls. It works so perfectly. Just wrap the dental floss around the roll and pull. That will turn out perfect cuts for you!
The cut rolls are placed on a cookie sheet, covered with a towel and given some time to rise as well.
Here’s what they look like fresh out of the oven!
This old fashioned cinnamon rolls recipe has a very simple sugary glaze to drizzle on top. You can certainly use a cream cheese style icing to spread on top, if you prefer. We loved this recipe as written. These are best fresh out of the oven warm and gooey. If you eat them later… just heat them up slightly in the microwave and they’ll soften right up.
Here are a few more cinnamon roll recipes you might enjoy:
- No Yeast Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls
- Amish Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Icing
- Orange Cinnamon Rolls
- Make Ahead Cinnamon Rolls
- No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls
- Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Icing
- Grandma Billie’s Cinnamon Rolls
Old Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
DOUGH:
- 5 cups all purpose flour, divided (plus more, if needed)
- One .25-ounce envelope active dry yeast
- 1 cup milk
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
FILLING:
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
GLAZE:
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 to 4 tablespoons half and half cream or heavy whipping cream
Instructions
PREPARE THE DOUGH:
- In a large bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups of the flour and the yeast. In a medium saucepan, heat and stir milk, butter, sugar and salt just until warm (110 to 115°F) and butter almost melts. Add the milk mixture and eggs to the flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can with a wooden spoon. (ALTERNATELY: You can use a stand mixer to combine the ingredients and do the kneading to follow).
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in any remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total) - adding in extra flour, if needed. Shape into a ball. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease all sides of the dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour).
- Punch down the dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Lightly grease two baking sheets or two 9 x 1 1/2-inch round baking pans. Roll each dough half into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle.
ADD THE FILLING AND ASSEMBLE THE ROLLS:
- Brush the rectangles with the melted butter. In a small bowl, combine the 2/3 cup sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over dough rectangles. Starting from a long side, roll up each rectangle into a spiral; seal seams. Cut each spiral into 12 slices (place a length of dental floss under the roll, crisscross it at the top and pull quickly to make a neat slice). Place slices, cut sides down, on prepared baking sheets or in prepared pans.*
- Cover loosely; let the dough rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown. If necessary to prevent over-browning, cover the rolls loosely with foil for the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking. Remove from oven.
ADD THE GLAZE:
- In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar, corn syrup and vanilla. Stir in enough half and half or cream to reach drizzling consistency. Drizzle glaze onto warm cinnamon rolls.
Notes
- To make the rolls ahead: Prepare as directed through Step 1 in the second section. Cover slices loosely with plastic wrap, leaving room for slices to rise. Chill for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. Uncover slices; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Break any bubbles with a greased toothpick. Continue as directed in steps 5 and 6.
- To create a warm place for rising, use your oven. Turn on the oven to 400 degrees for 1 minute, then turn it off to create a nice, warm place for rising your dough. Don't forget to turn it off though... you just want to warm it up slightly- you don't want it hot!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have just made this recipe. They came out beautiful! However I only used about 3 to 3 1/2 cups of flour. 5 cups is way too much.