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Say hello to the BEST Easy Overnight Cinnamon Rolls! We make these for decadent cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning and they basically fly out of the baking tray. So fluffy and delicious you’ll want to make them every weekend!
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’ve been testing these fluffy cinnamon rolls for ages now! And by ages… I mean like a few weeks. But still! When it comes to perfecting cinnamon rolls, a few weeks can feel like a lifetime. I know you agree because I’ve been receiving tons of messages asking me to hurry up and post the recipe already! Which gave me extra incentive to hunker down and get it right.
Which finally happened yesterday! And I was so excited about it I couldn’t sleep. So I stayed up all night editing and writing so I could wake you up this morning to the sweet smell of cinnamon rolls!
So, without further ado, I present you with the BEST make ahead cinnamon rolls ever!!! They’re super fluffy and slathered in simple glaze made from powdered sugar and heavy cream. But you could cover them in cream cheese frosting! Both ways are so delicious!
Easy Cinnamon Rolls
Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success:
- While an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook is very useful for this recipe, it can be made without one. You’ll simply knead the dough by hand (step 4) instead. This will take about 10 minutes.
- For best results, use whole milk in this recipe.
- Be sure your butter and egg have come to room temperature!
- While you can certainly slice the rolls with a knife, I recommend trying the floss method. It puts less pressure on the rolls which helps the filling stay put. Just be sure to use unscented floss, otherwise your cinnamon rolls could have a minty or cinnamon aftertaste which is kind of gross.
- You can use almost any kind of baking sheet or baking dish for these cinnamon rolls, but I prefer a 9X13-inch baking pan.
- If you find your rolls are browning too much, you can cover them loosely with aluminum foil halfway through the baking process. Personally, I like my rolls with a good amount of color! Just be sure you bake them for at least 22 minutes, otherwise they could be raw or undercooked in the middle.
- Make ahead tip: Baked rolls may be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then warm them up in the oven before serving.
- Don’t want to wait overnight to bake? No problem! If you’re planning to bake the rolls right away, skip sticking the rolls in the refrigerator, and instead loosely cover them with plastic wrap and let the rolls rise in a warm place until they’ve puffed up and almost doubled in size, about 2 hours. Then continue as directed.
- Finally, once baked and frosted, the cinnamon rolls are best eaten within 24 hours. But between us bakers… I say eat them within an hour of pulling them out of the oven. Because is there anything better than a warm and gooey cinnamon roll?!
I think not ↓
Generously slather the glaze on the rolls and serve warm.
If you try this recipe for The Best Easy Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your creations makes my day ♥
More Breakfast Rolls Recipes:
The BEST Easy Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
For the Cinnamon Rolls:
- 1 cup whole milk (whole milk means full-fat)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
- 3 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- (1) 0.25 oz package active dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
For the Filling:
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
For the Glaze:
- 3 and 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
For the Cinnamon Rolls:
- Lightly grease a large bowl and set it aside.
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the milk just until small bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan; remove from heat. Add in the butter and stir until it’s completely melted; let mixture cool while you mix your dry ingredients.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine 2 and 1/2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix on medium-low speed until ingredients are evenly combined. Add in the egg, then add in the warm milk mixture and beat until combined.
- Add the remaining flour, a little bit at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Once all of the flour has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes. The dough should form a ball around the hook and pull away from the edges of the bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it with your hands for 1 minute. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to the prepared bowl.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Generously grease the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan and set it aside.
- Gently punch down the risen dough, then turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll it into a 12x18-inch rectangle. Be sure the dough is evenly thick before adding the filling.
For the Filling:
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, both sugars, cinnamon, and cloves; mix well until it’s a uniform paste. Using a small spatula or the back of a spoon, spread the sugar/butter combination all over the dough.
- Tightly roll up the dough to form an 18-inch log. Using a piece of unwaxed/unflavored dental floss, slice the log into 12 even rolls. To do this, simply slide a 12-inch piece of floss under the roll where you want it cut, grab both ends of the floss (one in each hand), cross it over the top of the roll, and pull it until the slice you want is cut. Repeat for all slices.
- Arrange the rolls in the prepared baking pan, cut sides up. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.
- When ready to bake, remove the pan from the refrigerator and let the rolls rise in a warm place until they’ve puffed up and almost doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Once the rolls have risen, preheat the oven to 375°F (191°C). Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove pan from the oven and cool the rolls on a wire rack while you make the glaze.
For the Glaze:
- In a large spouted measuring cup, combine all of the ingredients and mix until well combined. If the glaze appears too thick, add a little more cream; if the glaze appears too thin, add a little more confectioner's sugar.
- Drizzle the icing over the warm rolls and serve at once, or set aside and allow the icing to set before serving.
- Wrap any leftover rolls tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Loved the recipe! Will be making it for sure!
I also love your writing style!
On a side note, you should review step 1 of the glaze.
Thanks!
Those measurements can’t be right. I know what I’m making so, I’m good. Newbies, maybe not. I’m other news, these things are amazing and totally worth the effort.
Can you please share the right measures? Please
Good morning! These look delish! Quick question though, wouldn’t adding cream to the thin out an already thin glaze and wouldn’t adding more sugar thicken and already thickened glaze?? I want to make sure I’m reading this correctly under the first step in the directions for the glaze.
These are a lot of work but awesome!,
Thank you for a beautiful recipe. Made this tonight for my family and the kitchen smells divine. It tastes even better.
I’m trying to figure out if this recipe is worth making and while your comment implies the recipe was great, your rating is just 4 stars. Can you please elaborate or make a suggestion?
My gosh go in your kitchen and make them, then you can rate them you’re self!!.. Some of you people on here seem so ungrateful.. maybe say “thank you for the recipe, maybe I’ll give it a try“..geez!
I just baked them this morning. They are so delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
I did exactly as instructed but the bottom burned, and the rack was in the middle and temperature is 375°. I’m so pissed off I wasted ingredients.
That’s too bad they burned. To be honest you shouldn’t give 1 star for your mistake. This is an intermediate to advanced recip. Not fair of you. Do the right thing and change that rating.
Sometimes if you use a cheap pan that could happen.
Use parchment paper…especially if your pan is dark.
I was thinking the same about the parchment paper, and am glad I saw these comments. I was debating using it and I think I will just in case since I’ve never used this specific oven for these before. Are you sure your oven temp is correct? (I mean calibrated, not you setting the degrees.) just a thought. Sorry they burned!
GIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
I made this to share with friends. These rolls came out really good and wverybody loved it. I did some changes to the frosting though. I use one block of cream cheese and reduced the powder sugar. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Love this recipe, the glaze needed much more cream than called for, mine didn’t double in size after I removed from refrigerator but I left them for 2 days, still came out fine but dense!
Could you use part wholeweat
I made these last week and they were amazing! I only keep 2% milk in the house so I added an extra 2 tablespoons of butter, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. I’ve tried several other recipes and it seems like the rolls end up too hard or dried out, but these were perfectly soft with gooey centers. They disappeared quick! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi there,
This recipe looks stunning and I am so excited to make it! I have a question though, can they stay in the refrigerator for longer than 12 hours? 18 hours? I want to make them ton Saturday but will be out from about 3:30, so i wanted to make the dough then bake them Sunday morning. Is that too long? Alternatively, is it possible to make the recipe without leaving the dough overnight?
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes!
I made these for the first time. Oh. My. Gosh. My husband said he wants these added to the Christmas morning breakfast menu. The most superior cinnamon rolls I have ever made! I did do something differently. After the tools were prepped and in the pan I covered them and set them in the cool oven overnight to rise there. Thank you for sharing. We loved these
I’ve been searching for years for the perfect cinnamon roll recipe and tried TONS. This is by far the best! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! They turned out wonderfully and it was so nice to have them all ready to go the day before my brunch party. This ones a keeper!
Love the recipe!!! I’ve done it twice… Both success!!! Very easy and delicious
Can I freeze the dough unbaked?
I cooked mine in two 8×8 pyrex, 6 per pan. I’m glad I set the timer for 15 minutes as the tops would’ve been darker than I would’ve liked beyond 15 minutes. They were cooked through so no additional time needed. I was happy with the outcome, I’ll use this recipe I’d I make cinnamon rolls in the future and I’ll never scoff at the price of cinnamon rolls again after this long process LOL – Impatient Baker.
What type of yeast is everyone using? long acting, instant, act.
Regular (Active Dry) yeast. I think Rapid Rise yeast would work, but the rise times would be all different.
I’ve tried a lot of recipes and finally I find one where the bake is even. It was cake-like all the way through. All my past attempts were crusty on the outside and raw on the inside. THANAK YOU!
So yummy and fluffy! I have so much extra filling and frosting leftover that I think next time I’ll increase the dough ingredients by 1/2. Even without using up the filling, my rolls had a nice caramel candy surrounding all of them in the pan. I did not have to grease the baking tray at all, just used parchment and they came right off. I should have placed them slightly closer together so they were just touching and would “pull apart” after baking. I doubled the cinnamon in the filling and a stick of softened cream cheese and extra cream to the glaze ingredients.
This was my first time making cinnamon rolls and I loved not only creating them per your directions, ( I recently have gotten into making bread) but these were so delicious as well. I did end up with two crazy ends, but that just gave me more rolls. Win win in my book. Thank you for this recipe. I will be making these again.
Can you use whip cream if you don’t have whole milk?
I decided to make this recipe because really it was the best easy and I loved that I could make them overnight! Everything came out perfect!! I just decided to go with a cream cheese frosting instead!!
Really recommend trying it!! Thanks for this awesome recipe, it was my first time doing cinnamon rolls!
These turned out amazing! highly recommend.
This is one of the best recipe we made being on community quarantine. All my children came home and since then our kitchen had been busy tinkering different recipes. They love Cinnamon Rolls soo much! Our kitchen smells divine and the baking steps are easy to follow, and with that my grade 8 son can bake it alone! Soft, yummy, and irresistible! Thank you for!!!
It looks so yummy!!! I’ll make Cinnamon Rolls on this weekend.
First time making cinnamon rolls and I’m SO HAPPY with how they turned out. Super soft and yummy! My only suggestion is when you add the filling make sure it has cooled enough that it’s a paste, not liquid. My butter was melted as the recipe states but because it was so runny it leaked out all over my counter when I rolled the dough. I think this was my mistake and I should’ve let it cool enough to solidify a little. I ended up scraping up the leftover filling off my counter and adding it on top of the rolls before baking and they turned out fantastic! We ate them as is without any icing.
This happened to me too and I had a ton left over so I will 1/2 the filling next time for sure and let it cool in the fridge.
Can these be refrigerated longer than 12 hours?
I am wondering this too
Two hours after refrigeration (for 8-12 hours) to bring the rolls to the right puff is SO not enough. I went 6 hours on a warmed oven. Should there be a proofing drawer involved?! Please advise. They turned out fine, but maybe no refrigeration…
Also, turned the rolls after cooling slightly to get the stickiness on both top and bottom.
Such an amazing recipe. Everyone loved it!
It even turned out pretty good with all my German ingredients.
Will definitely make those again soon.
All the best from Germany
Directions say if icing is 2 thick, add cream ( that will thin it out)
If to thin, add powdered sugar ( that will thicken it)
I love these rolls, but when I baked them all the filling ended up melting out of the rolls and into the bottom of the pan. It set as a solid lump in the pan! I’m not sure what I did wrong – any ideas?
These were the easiest & best cinnamon buns I’ve ever made. Thank you fir sharing. 5 stars
I have never left a review on any food blog I think ever but I felt compelled to do so now. I believe it was 3 Christmas’s ago now I decided that I would help with something special for breakfast and wanted to make cinnamon rolls from scratch. I found some recipe online that you make the morning of and only let rise for like 20 minutes and as an inexperienced baker I didn’t know any better… the recipe was a disaster- it tasted like straight flour and only my dad would eat it to save my feelings. Fast forward to the next Christmas and I was desperate for redemption. Christmas Eve I drank a little to much wine but still got home and was up until midnight making the rolls- petrified that I had over mixed or killed the yeast. The next morning I woke up early to put them out to rise- I kept them on my lap the whole morning to make sure they were warm, I constantly measured their progress, I spoke words of love to them hoping it would help. As I arrived at my parents house to put them in the oven I discovered the faith in my baking was so low that premade store cinnamon rolls were bought as a back up. It was maybe the proudest moment of my life when everyone was speechless with how good these were. Seconds were had by all and I am now requested to make this recipe for basically every special event. All this to say- thank you and these are truly the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had.
My family says these are the best cinnamon buns I have ever made – and I have made quite a few. Thank you so much for the recipe and I give it a ten out of ten. I am going to test some of your other recipes.
Made this with the not overnight version and they came out amazing! Will definitely make again.
Have made these b4 but only have a hand mmixer can I use it instead of big mixer they were awesome so gonna try again
Hello. Do you recommend parchment paper in the 9×13 greased pan? It appears that there is parchment paper in one of your pictures. However your directions and article do not mention using any. Thanks.
My first time making homemade cinnamon rolls and these were PERFECTION! Thanks to the baker who advised to check at 15 minutes. I put foil over and after 5 more minutes, mine were done through and through! No issues at all. Go for it!
Easy to make and a huge with our family!