The Best Gooey Cinnamon Rolls
Warm, gooey cinnamon rolls that are rich and moist from top to bottom! Every deliciously sticky bite is finger-licking good.
Equipment
- 1 Stand-up mixer
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup whole milk, warm
- 2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup salted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Cinnamon Roll Filling
- 1 cup salted butter, extremely softened you can put the butter in your microwave on defrost for about 30 seconds, then 15 seconds at a time
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 3 tbs cinnamon
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, room temp
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla
Instructions
- Pour the warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast overtop. Allow this to sit for 10-15 minutes, until the yeast forms a thin frothy layer on top.
- Add the room temperature eggs, butter and sugar. Mix until combined.
- Add in salt and 4 cups of flour; mix using the beater blade just until the ingredients are barely combined. Allow the mixture to rest for 5 minutes so the flour has time to soak up the liquids.
- Switch the beater blade for the dough hook. Beat the dough on medium speed for 5-7 minutes, adding in up to ½ cup more flour only if needed; the dough should be elastic and smooth. The dough should be slightly tacky and will pull away from the sides of the bowl but may stick slightly to the bottom.
- Coat a large bowl with cooking spray or olive oil. Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and place it in the greased large bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel.
- Set the bowl in a warm place and allow the dough to rise until almost double, for about 30-45 minutes. Use your oven's proofing setting or set it to 100F. Alternatively, you could start to turn the oven on to 350F as if you were preheating it, and turn it off after 2 minutes, then allow the dough to proof in the slightly warmed oven. Do not allow the dough to rise too much.
- While the dough is rising, prepare the cinnamon filling. In a medium bowl, combine the soft butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, mixing until well combined. Set aside.
- Sprinkle a pastry mat or work surface generously with flour. Turn out the dough onto the surface and sprinkle the top of the dough with additional flour.
- Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough to about a 24×15" rectangle.
- Spread the cinnamon filling over the whole dough rectangle – the filling should be extremely soft and smooth. It may be easiest to use an offset metal spatula to evenly spread the filling.
- Starting on the long side, roll the dough up tightly jelly roll style.
- Cut into 12 slices and place in a greased 9×13 baking pan. Cover the pan and allow the rolls to rise for 20 minutes while the oven is preheating.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
- Once the rolls have risen, use a brush to spread the room temp heavy cream over the top of the rolls, allowing it to soak down in and around the rolls.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes, until the rolls are lightly golden brown and the center rolls are cooked through.
- While the rolls are cooling, prepare the cream cheese frosting. Either in the stand-up mixer or with a hand mixer, combine the softened cream cheese and butter until blended well.
- Add in vanilla extract and the powdered sugar. Beat until combined.
- Once the cinnamon rolls are out of the oven, after resting for just 5-10 minutes, spread half the frosting over the warm rolls so that it melts and soaks down into the rolls.
- Once the cinnamon rolls are completely cooled, use the other half of the frosting and finish re-frosting all the rolls for that artistic, bakery-style finish. Enjoy!