They just don’t get any tastier than this! Other than nixing the shortening in favor of butter and sneaking in some whole wheat flour, I’ve pretty much relied fully on my mom’s cinnamon roll recipe just the way she made them (often!) while we were growing up.
Mom’s Cinnamon Rolls
- 1/2 c. very warm water
- 1 T. sugar
- 2 T. yeast
- 1/2 c. melted butter
- 2 eggs
- 2 t. salt
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 1/2 c. warm milk
- 5 1/2 c. flour (I usually sneak in about 2 cups whole wheat and then finish it off with unbleached)
- butter
- brown sugar
- sugar
- cinnamon
Icing
- butter
- vanilla
- milk
- powdered sugar
- Combine water, 1 T. sugar and yeast. Set aside for 5 minutes to activate.
- Mix 1/2 c. sugar, melted butter, eggs, and salt. Add yeast mixture.
- Stir in warm milk.
- Add 5 cups flour, 1-2 cups at a time.
- Knead dough on a well-floured surface, adding flour as necessary, until dough isn’t sticky.
- Let rise until double in a clean, oiled bowl.
- Punch down risen dough. Separate into two pieces.
- Roll out dough in a large rectangle. Spread with softened butter. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon.
- Roll dough. Floss dough into about 12 (1-inch) rolls. Place in 9×13 pan. Let rise until double.
- Bake at 350° for 20-22 minutes. Spread icing while hot.
For icing, melt butter (about 2 T.). Add 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 T. milk. Sift powdered sugar into mixture and stir well. I never measure this. You can absolutely use more of any ingredient.
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oh wow – my mouth is watering! Those look fantastic! I think we’ll be trying them soon!
They sound delicious! I make cinnamon rolls often, using the BH&G cookbook recipe. I’m going to give yours a try & see how they compare. Thanks for sharing!
Those look wonderful! I bookmarked this so I can make them sometime. I don’t think I’ve ever made cinnamon rolls – monkey bread from middle school life sciences doesn’t count does it
THANK YOU for sharing your recipe!! I can’t wait to make these tomorrow. I’ve always wanted to try your Big Batch version, but I know that while I may have good intentions of gifting 2 dozen, I know I’ll just eat them myself.
That picture sold me. Thanks for sharing! I’ve been looking for a great cinnamon roll recipe! YUM!
could you deliver one of these to me right now? they would go great with the cup of coffee i’m drinking.
extra frosting please.
Holy cow that picture!!! I want to dive through my computer and devour!!! YUMMY!
I’ve just overcome my fear of making all things involving yeast and I’ve been thinking about making some cinnamon rolls – I might give this recipe a try soon. Thanks!
Those rolls look ooey gooey delicious! I find myself replacing shortening with butter, too, in older recipes. Thanks for sharing a great family recipe.
I love YUMMY!!! cinnamon rolls. I think I will make some this week. THANKS!!! Geri
Ooooh! They look yummy! I came across you through Blogfrog!
I love your recipe – I am just starting to bake bread and cinnamon rolls are on my list.
They make non-hydrogenated shortening now but it’s so expensive – $7 for a little tub. I’d rather use butter.
Thanks so much for linking to Slightly Indulgent Mondays!
Those look delicious. I will be making a batch next week. I’m all baked out after last week.
These look fantastic! My mouth is watering.
Great idea to floss the dough, I bet thats easier than cutting.
These look too yummy!
I hope you’ll stop by and enter my blogiversary giveaway. I’m giving away an apron from Happy Find.
Yummy! This sounds delish!! Love me some cinnamon rolls – homemade that is!
hubby grandma used to make the best tasting cinnamon rolls
YUMMY! These look delicious and sound delicious. I’m definitely printing this recipe to try for the holidays!! Thank you.
Okay, so I am really new to this baking thing.. so please explain to me what is flossing the dough??
By the way my mouth is watering, and in NY it’s cold and raining, so could you deliver me some??
Charna
@charna scarpati, Follow the red link to the flossing tutorial. In a nutshell, using dental floss to “cut” cinnamon rolls is quicker, less messy, and makes the rolls so pretty.
Hey you been talking with my dentist? I floss okay. I do!
The best thing about coming across another recipe for cinnamon buns is that, well geez I have to try them to see if they are better than the last ones. Again.
oh they look fabulous!
These look scrumptious. I’ve spent a lot of time looking for the “best” cinnamon rolls. I’m looking forward to trying your recipe. It sounds great. I hope you are having a wonderful day.
Ahhh… I can smell them now! Thanks for sharing your mom’s special recipe!
ButterYum
Wow, those look good. Wow. I need to make those! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Is this supposed to make 1 dozen or 2 dozen?
@Jill, It makes 2 dozen.
Oh and do you ever make these and freeze them? If so do you just freeze the dough and assemble them later or do you assemble, cut, and then freeze?
@Jill, I have made them and frozen them. That’s best for our family, or we’ll eat 2 dozen rolls in 2 days. Not good!
I’ve never tried to freeze UN-baked rolls, though I have heard it’s possible. Maybe I’ll try sometime!
I’m drooling now! Those look and sound soooo yummy!!
I just made these last night and they turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!
@Katie, Yay! So glad you liked them.
Those look great. How much cinnamon in the rolls, I did’nt see it in the recipe
@Lisa, I have no idea how much cinnamon I use. I just shake it straight from the spice bottle, sprinkling it evenly until the dough is covered.
I made these this morning for breakfast and the family loved them. I’ll have to make sure to put the cinnamon and sugar al the way to the edges next time because the end pieces didn’t have much in them. So yummy!
OMG–They were so delicious!! Our family devoured them. But it’s hard to make when I’m half asleep. Have you ever tried making them the night before, storing them on the pan in the fridge, and baking them in the morning?
@Lauren, Yay! So glad you liked them. Yes, I’ve rolled them out at night and stuck ‘em in the fridge. Put a damp towel over the top. In the morning pull them out and they should take about an hour to rise. Enjoy!
Did you use self rising flour or all purpose?
Thanks in advance for your reply! These look yummy!
I use all purpose flour. Let me know what you think of them!
Just curious if next time you make these, can you give us just an “idea” of how much powdered sugar you use to make the frosting? I’m so not good at “eyeballing” it. Thanks. I know when you’ve done something a thousand times it just seems automatic. Sorry to be a pain!
@Stephanie, Not a problem! I’m actually making a batch tomorrow. I’ll try to get it measured for you.
If you don’t hear from me, shoot me a reminder email.
Hey Amy, just curious if you jotted down your icing measurmments when you made these over the holidays. Thanks! We LOVE these rolls!
Ack! I did, Stephanie, but clearly I got distracted and didn’t send them to you. Rats! I remember thinking I didn’t use nearly as much sugar as I thought. 2T butter, 3T milk, vanilla, and maybe 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar? Try that and see what happens. So sorry!
Can you give me a tip on how to make these the night before so I can pop them in the oven the next morning?
I am planning to make these for Christmas morning. I am wondering how much you can do the day before so I have less to do in the morning.
Thanks for your help. Monkey bread is a tradition for us, but looking forward to trying these ooey gooey substitutes.
Jessica
On Sunday evening I whipped up a batch and let them sit out all night long (in my cool kitchen, with a tea towel over them). Never had done that before. Was sure hoping I wouldn’t regret it in the morning! You know what? They were beautiful in the morning, and ready to pop in the oven. Yay!
oops, sorry. Just saw that someone else asked this above. I didn’t take time to go thru all the comments.
I’ve got a batch rising right now. I had to add a LOT of extra flour – is that normal? The dough still tasted ok; can’t wait until I bake them in the morning!
Hmmm… not sure about that. How did they turn out for you? I like my dough to be very soft. Definitely softer than bread dough, just not sticky. How much flour did you end up using?
@Amy, The dough was very sticky until the (gradual) addition of a couple more cups. They tasted wonderful though! No complaints – I was just curious about the flour
I promised the playgroup cinnamon rolls Thursday. I think I wil try these. I’m going to make cream cheese frosting, though.
I love it!
Cream cheese frosting is yummy! We like maple-flavored, too.
Probably a stupid question but I would like to try making this but using my bread machine. I am new at bread making and this is a great helper for me. Can you tell me how you would adapt the recipe to make the dough in the breadmaker??
Not a stupid question at all, but without knowing your machine, I may be very little help. You’ll need to look in your manual to see in which order to add the ingredients. Then set it for “dough cycle.” Also, you may want to try these: http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/01/bread-machine-cinnamon-roll.html I’ve never tried them, but they sure look good!
I tried this recipe. Its the bomb. It’s better than any recipe I tried. The dough rises beautifully. These will be gone tonight.
Yay! Thanks for letting me know.
Ah, fantastic! Wish I had I read the comments first, I made one dozen instead of two, and crammed them all into the pan! Still delicious, but the corner rolls got a bit over-cooked, and they were all popping out of the pan like roll-monsters.
For the filling, do you blend the sugar and cinnamon? If not, what order do you layer the filling ingredients?
Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh, no! Glad they still tasted good and didn’t get all doughy. I usually do brown sugar, white sugar, then cinnamon.
Make sure you don’t get “Very Warm Water” from the tap. As lead deposits build in the water heater never consume hot water from the faucet, only cold.
Yes. I’ve heard that before somewhere…
Just made these today for a bake sale. Pretty easy and they taste so great!! I did learn a few things along my way. I guess it is all trial and error. If you are not using a disposable foil pan, spray your pan with stick spray. I had a heck of a time cleaning my cookie sheet. Also don’t use a cookie sheet. My sides were not high enough and some of the cinnamon mixture oozed out and onto the bottom of my oven. Also, don’t cram them in the pan. I let mine rise and bake too close together and they didn’t come out very round and they looked ugly when I cut them apart, but they still tasted good. I also didn’t have real butter and used tub margarine. I highly recommend this recipe. Next up is adding chopped pecans to the cinnamon mixture. Will post that in a few weeks.
Hmm, I’ve never had to spray my pans, but I say do whatever works!
I never put more than 12 rolls in a 9×13 pan, and usually I don’t put more than 9 or 10. It just depends on their size after rolling out.
yum my mum made these with sultanas/raisins and lemon icing!!!
Mmm, sounds delicious!
In the ingredients list you have 5 1/2 c of flour but for the instructions you say add 5 cups. Is the other 1/2 cup used to flour your work area?
Yes, you may need it for that, or at different altitudes a different amount of flour is needed. I also use more on humid days. It’s really important to get the “feel” of the dough and not just go with a specific amount of flour.
Thanks for replying. I actually needed to use approx. 1 extra cup of flour as the dough was extremely sticky initially. I am in Florida so that may be why. These cinnamon rolls were a big hit in my household. I actually ended up making them twice within 3 days. Thanks for sharing this recipe and I love the flossing tip!
Hi – I made these and they tasted great. But I had to add almost 7 cups of flour to get the dough to right consistency. It does seem like your recipe has much more liquid than other ones that use that 5 cup of flour measurement – I was just curious if that seemed excessive to you? Thanks, Laurie
Hmmm, that does seem like more than I ever use. I like my cinnamon roll dough really soft, not like bread dough at all. I’ll try to really pay attention next time I make them to see how much I actually dump in. Toward the end I don’t even measure. I just add “a little more” as needed. Be sure to ask again in a couple weeks if you don’t hear from me!
I had been craving cinnamon rolls for a while and wanted to try my hand at making them myself. This recipe was easier than I thought and absolutely scrumptious! I even froze some for easy-baking later. Loved these cinnamon rolls!
Excellent! So glad you like them!
I followed exactly the recipe you and boy they turned out delicious but not so pretty like your’s. Your’s came out way better, mine were a little messy and i use the floss method you have on your website. Do you think i did something worng? Thanks!
If they turned out tasty, you likely just need to practice rolling and cutting. You’ll get better with time. Mine are only pretty because I’ve made them hundreds of times.
I found this recipe on Pinterest. We just started a freezer meals group at church so I wanted to try this recipe. I have one dozen in the freezer and we cooked the other dozen. They were soo good! We definitely will be making these again! Thank you for sharing this recipe! This is now my new favorite cinnamon roll recipe!
One question, when you roll yours up, do you roll it kind of tight or loose.
So glad you enjoy them! As far as rolling goes, hmmm, I would say loose. Maybe.
I guess I’ve never really thought about it! I don’t stretch the dough or anything to keep them tight, though.