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These easy overnight cinnamon rolls start with cold overnight roll dough, then are rolled out and filled with spicy cinnamon sugar, then piped with lines of tangy cream cheese icing for the perfect cinnamon bun of your dreams.

People my Gram was LEGENDARY for her cinnamon rolls. She never used scales, she just knew by eye and by feel when her dough was right, and it never disappointed. Her cinnamon rolls were soft and airy and oh so gooey. Since her passing my Mom and I have been on a quest to recreate her rolls or even come remotely close to her standard of perfection.

I’ve tested my fair share of recipes, but it wasn’t until I misinterpreted an idea in an old cookbook my aunt gave to me that I hit something special. My time saving hack will not only make it so you can lazily make your rolls fresh in the morning, but gives you better flavor without any trouble.

Here I’m sharing all my best tricks and tips for amazing cinnamon rolls with my easy recipe. If you can make the dough, you’ll have no problem with this recipe. My youngest baking students make these every year, and it’s one of their favorites.

So grab some cinnamon and let’s roll.

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overnight cinnamon roll on plate with fork, napkin and cinnamon sticks

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

What you’re probably doing wrong to your cinnamon rolls

Stop adding flour: Cinnamon roll dough is a tricky thing. To make it up, you’ll swear six ways to Sunday, “This is far far far too wet, this can’t be right.” So what do you do, dear? You add more flour. Don’t add more flour! Some of the stickiness will disappear as the flour fully hydrates during the rising time.

Roll your dough cold: Room temperature roll dough is extremely soft since it is a higher hydration dough. If you do add flour, you’ll find your roll gets more stodgy and dry. This is not a great roll. The best way to deal with the natural softness and stickiness of the dough is to chill it overnight. Chilled dough will not stick nearly as much, and it rolls out quickly since the gluten in the flour has had time to relax. In the time that it takes you to roll out the dough, the rolls will be handleable but not sticky.

How fresh is your cinnamon?: All spices, once they’re ground start losing flavor. Gradually over time, even the best quality cinnamon will lose its good sharp spicy flavor. If you have a local spice store that grinds things fresh, buy some cinnamon and see what you think. Savory Spice Shop where I live changed my mind about spices in general this way. Nowadays I simplify things and get a better product by buying whole cinnamon sticks and grinding my own cinnamon in small batches in a coffee grinder dedicated to spices. Maybe it’s obsessive, but taste my cinnamon rolls before you go hating.

Protect your rolls from the heat: When you’re baking pizza, you heat up the oven as high as it can go and bake your pizza in seconds. That heat gives food flavor and a texture that you wouldn’t get at a lower heat. When you’re making cinnamon buns, you need to do something different. To get a soft pillowy texture, it’s better to insulate the dough from the direct heat of the oven. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to use a glass baking dish. The glass heats up more slowly, making for bottoms of the rolls that are as soft as the sides. The tops will then brown and get a little crust before the insides have time to dry out.

Ingredients for Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Overnight cinnamon rolls start with my overnight roll dough. This dough is the basis for a lot of things I make including the lemon monkey bread muffins and strawberry jam rolls.

Overnight Sweet Roll Dough
- Water
- Yeast: instant
- Sugar: granulated
- Butter: adds fat for flavor.
- Milk: whole milk for flavor and tenderness.
- Salt
- Vanilla paste: for flavor.
- Eggs: adds fat and protein for texture and structure.
- Flour: all-purpose
Brown sugar
Butter: for softness, flavor, and mixes with the cinnamon sugar for ultra gooey caramel goodness.
Cinnamon: I like the sharp flavor of this Saigon cinnamon. For a softer, more floral taste, this ceylon cinnamon is lovely. Stella Parks has a great discussion about types of cinnamon that’s worth a read. I now have both types of cinnamon in my pantry, and I love the ceylon for franzbrotchen–German style cinnamon rolls.
Cream cheese icing: cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, rum (optional) and vanilla. This will be a thick enough icing to pipe.

Process for making homemade overnight cinnamon rolls

finish rolling overnight cinnamon rolls dough

Make the overnight dough: refrigerate. This will allow the dough to rise, develop more flavor, and take away almost all of the stickiness of the dough.
Roll: Roll out the cold dough on a lightly floured surface. It will take just a few seconds to do so because this dough is so easy to roll!
Mix: Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together.
Spread: pour cooled melted butter over the surface of the dough, then cover it with cinnamon sugar. Use a spatula to spread the sugar/butter from corner to corner. A lot of bakers like to make a paste from the sugar and room temperature butter. I personally prefer the cooled melted butter. My Gram did it this way as have I.
Roll the log: Roll the dough over on itself to make a tight log.
Cut: Cut through the log to make rolls. You can eyeball it or use a measuring tape to make precise tick marks with a knife on where to cut. Dental floss makes nice clean cuts through all the layers of dough.
Rise: Set the cut rolls in a buttered glass 9×13 pan and let rise.
Bake: bake until golden brown on top and set.
Ice: Mix the icing ingredients together into a thick icing. Fill a disposable pastry bag or plastic bag with the icing. Cut the tip and pipe simple lines at an angle across the top of the cinnamon rolls.
Don’t burn your fingers: it’s your right as the baker to eat a hot cinnamon roll straight out of the pan. Watch those fingers as that sugar gets hot!

Easy Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 9 hours 50 minutes
Yield: 16 rolls

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Description

These are the lightest cinnamon rolls you’ll ever eat. The overnight rest of the dough in the fridge makes the dough a cinch to roll out and makes for a tastier roll. You’ll never make cinnamon rolls the same again.

Ingredients

Scale

Overnight Roll Dough

1/4 cup warm water (59 mL)
2 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 g)
3/4 cup whole milk (177 mL)
4 Tablespoons butter (57 g)
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, cold
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (360 g)

For assembling the cinnamon rolls

1 stick butter (113 g), melted
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cream cheese icing

2 oz cream cheese, softened (56 g)
6 Tablespoons powdered sugar (45 g)
2 Tablespoons butter (28 g)
1 tsp spiced rum (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste

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Instructions

Make the dough:

Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water in a small bowl with a pinch of the sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
Warm the milk in a small pan on the stove until you see bubbles around the edges. Cut up the butter and add it to the pan to melt.
Crack your eggs and use a fork to whip them into the butter and milk mixture, then add in the sugar, salt, and vanilla, then stir to combine. Check the temperature with your finger (the milk/egg mixture should be just warm to the touch.).
Put the flour into a large bowl or your stand mixer bowl. Make a well in the center with your hands, then pour in the milk mixture then the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.
After that, with a dough hook on your stand mixer, beat the dough for about 5 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid) until you get an elastic sticky dough that pulls away in strands from the sides of the bowl.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in the fridge to rise overnight or 4 hours minimum.

Make the rolls:

Melt the butter for assembly and set aside to cool.
Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.
Sprinkle some flour on a work surface, then scrape out the cold dough on top of the flour. Sprinkle flour over the top of the dough.
Quickly roll the dough into a rectangle about 12″X16″.
Brush a glass 9″x13″ pan with a little of the melted butter.
Pour the melted butter over the dough, being careful to not let it flow off the sides.
Scatter the cinnamon sugar over the dough.
Use a spatula to mix the butter and sugar together into a thin layer covering all of the dough.
Roll up the dough over itself along the long edge into a tight log.
Eyeball or use a measuring tape to mark the dough for cutting the rolls into 16 pieces.
Run a length of dental floss under the dough. Cross the ends over each other with opposite hands and pull on the floss to cut a roll.
Set the cut roll in the prepared pan.
Continue cutting the rest of the rolls.
Cover the rolls with a clean tea towel and let them rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).
Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and set.
Set the pan on a wire rack to cool while you make the icing.

Make the icing:

Beat all the ingredients together into a smooth thick icing.
Fill a disposable pastry bag or plastic bag with the icing.
Cut the tip of the bag off, then pipe lines at an angle across each cinnamon roll.

Rolls are best eaten the same day that they’re made, but you can freeze them without the icing in an airtight bag for up to 1 month. To reheat, warm them in a pan in a 300F degree oven for 15 minutes. From there you can ice them.

Notes

Bake in glass: I have always made cinnamon rolls in a glass 9X13. It’s my belief that the glass insulates the sides of the rolls from the heat, making for a softer roll.
Use better cinnamon: Cinnamon, like all spices loses its flavor gradually over time once it’s been ground. Buy the best cinnamon you can find, or better yet, buy WHOLE cinnamon sticks and grind them a couple at a time in a small coffee grinder set aside for spices.
Skip the rum: the rum rounds out the flavors in the rolls, but feel free to skip it. If you do, just use 1 tsp of vanilla instead.

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Additional Time: 9 hours
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Category: Morning breads
Cuisine: American