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This Overnight Cinnamon Rolls recipe are the perfect make-ahead breakfast item. These rolls are soft and buttery. They have have a punchy cinnamon flavor and are topped with a fluffy cream cheese frosting. The best part about this recipe is that you can make the dough, assemble the rolls and have them rise in the fridge. The next morning all you have to do is bake!
You can say that I am a cinnamon roll lover. I love pumpkin cinnamon rolls, mocha morning rolls, gingerbread rolls and more!
Cinnamon rolls are a labor of love. They require two rises, making three separate components (the dough, the filling and the frosting), assembling, chilling, slicing, etc. Hence why I like to make the dough, the filling and the frosting the night before. This means we wake up the next morning and we bake!
Ingredients for Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- Flour – This gives structure and body to the rolls.
- Butter – This provides richness and flavor.
- Cinnamon – We cannot have cinnamon rolls without cinnamon.
- Eggs – These provide richness to the dough and make it taste oh so good.
- Active yeast or instant yeast – We need lift and rise and we get it from yeast!
- Brown sugar – Brown sugar and cinnamon are best friends. (PS: If you have rock hard brown sugar, here’s a post on How to Soften Brown Sugar that is very helpful.)
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe card below!
How to Make Cinnamon Rolls Ahead
Doing this all in one day (if you’re not a pro-baker and used to projects) might be a bit aggressive. If you do make these straight through, here’s how the steps will go:
Day #1
- Make the dough. Mix the dough until it’s all sticky and soft.
- Mix up the filling. The cinnamon sugar paste makes for a very neat cinnamon roll.
- Let the dough rise for 30 minutes.
- Make the frosting. I like to get this out of the way so we have it all prepped for the next day!
- Assemble the rolls. Roll out the dough, spread on the filling and then roll up the log and slice the rolls.
- Transfer them to a baking dish. And wrap that dish tightly with plastic wrap. Place it in the fridge to rise overnight.
- *NOTE* The next morning, let the rolls come to room temperature for 1 hour. During this time, they’ll shake off their chill and become soft and fluffy again.
- Bake them and then add the frosting on top!
Tips and Tricks
- Activating yeast can be tricky! You want to wait until it gets nice and foamy. If no foam or bubbles form, you’ll have to start again to ensure activation.
- Instant yeast vs active dry yeast: Active dry yeast has to be activated in liquid until it’s foamy and alive. Instant yeast can be added to dry ingredients. You can use instant yeast with this recipe. To do that, mix into the dry ingredients (you can skip activating it).
- If you like, you don’t have to assemble the rolls. You can mix up the dough, place it in a greased bowl, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise in the fridge overnight.
- For gooey cinnamon rolls: Pour about 1/4 cup of heavy cream to the bottom of the baking dish and spread it around. Then add the cinnamon rolls on top. Or you could drizzle the heavy cream on the top right before baking.
More Cozy Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast
The Fluffiest Pancakes
Breakfast
Breakfast Burritos
Holiday
Buttermilk Biscuits
Dinner
Chilaquiles
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Overnight Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Overnight cinnamon rolls that are ooey and gooey and soft. Make the dough the night, assemble the rolls the night before and allow it to rise in the fridge overnight. Just bake up the next morning!
Equipment
- 1 9×9-inch baking dish (or 9×13-inch)
- 1 Measuring cup
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1/4 cup lukewarm milk, (about 115F)
- 1 (8g) tablespoon active dry yeast, (see below for instructions on using *instant* yeast)
- 2 3/4 (357g) cups all-purpose flour
- 3 (38g) tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large eggs, beaten in a bowl
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 1/2 (113g) cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes
Cinnamon Roll Filling:
- 1/2 (113g) cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 (30g) cup ground cinnamon
- 3 (39g) tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
- 3 (38g) tablespoons white granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- Pinch kosher salt
Cream Cheese Glaze:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 (200g) cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- Pinch kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Instructions
To Make the Dough:
- To the bowl with of a stand-up mixer (alternatively, you can do this in a large bowl by hand), add the lukewarm milk. Mix in the active dry yeast and allow to stand and activate, about 8 minutes, until foamy and alive!
- To a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. To the bowl with the yeast mixture, add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract; then all at once, add the flour mixture. Attach the dough hook to your mixer and mix on low until the dough starts to become cohesive. With the mixer running on low, slowly add the cubes of butter.
- Knead on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Alternatively, if you’re doing this by hand, you’ll need to knead the dough for about 5 to 8 minutes. The dough will go from crumbly and separate to completely cohesive and smooth. The dough will be a little bit sticky. If it's super sticky, add another two teaspoons of flour. Remove the dough from the hook and bowl and form it into a ball.
- Transfer the ball of dough to a clean, lightly greased bowl (I used the flour bowl and just wiped it clean with a kitchen towel and then greased it with olive oil). Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let it rise for about 30-45 minutes, until super supple and a little less than double in size.
To Make the Filling:
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer (with the paddle attachment) or using a medium bowl and a fork, add the butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix and mash until the filling is completely smooth.
To Assemble the Cinnamon Rolls:
- Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough into the center. Lightly flour your rolling pin and roll the dough into a 1/4-inch thick square that measures 15“ x 15“ If it’s not a perfect square, then that’s totally ok.
- Add the filling to the dough and spread into a thin layer, using a butter knife or offset spatula. I smeared the filling pretty close to the edges. Starting from the edge furthest from you, roll the dough towards you, horizontally, into a firm log.
- Taking a piece of dental floss, trim off the ends. Cut the rolls into 1 inch rolls, for about 12 rolls. OR you could do 1 1/2 rolls for 9 rolls. I've done both depending on how many servings I need.
- Transfer to a greased 9 x 9 baking pan (or something comparable). Cover the baking dish tightly with plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge overnight.
To Make the Cream Cheese Icing:
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer (or a large bowl) with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugars, vanilla paste, salt and heavy cream. Beat for about 20 seconds.
To Bake the Rolls:
- The next morning, remove the rolls from the fridge. Allow them to stand on the counter to come to room temperature for about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. This will depend on how cold your fridge is. I like to make sure they feel soft and supple. *See below for instructions on assembling the rolls and then allowing them to rise overnight in the fridge.
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Remove the plastic wrap from the baking dish and transfer to the oven to bake for about 18-20 minutes, until they've puffed up a bit and are medium golden brown.
- When the cinnamon rolls come out of the oven, let them stand for about 5-10 minutes. Then add on the icing to the warm cinnamon rolls.
Notes
Using Instant Yeast:
Instant yeast is different than active dry yeast. Active dry yeast has to be activated in liquid until it’s foamy and alive. Instant yeast can be added to dry ingredients. You can use instant yeast with this recipe. To do that, mix into the dry ingredients (you can skip activating it).
Nutrition
Serving: 12g | Calories: 405kcal | Carbohydrates: 25.7g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9.3g | Saturated Fat: 5.3g | Cholesterol: 67mg | Sodium: 264mg | Potassium: 81mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3.5g | Calcium: 140mg | Iron: 0.4mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this Recipe? Please Rate & comment below!
Hi,
How do I meadute the butter? On a scale?
Don’t knoe if I have the same cup sizes..
Thanks!!!
Are you in the United States? You don’t measure it out. It will say where 2 tablespoons are on a stick of butter.
OMG! Best cinnamon rolls ever! I made them last night for today (Easter) and they were perfect! I hate when cinnamon rolls don’t have enough cinnamon but these did not have that problem. They are so delicious and so cinnamon-y! Also I was about to make extra icing because I love heaps of icing but I am glad I didn’t since this recipe made more than enough! I wish I could attach pictures too because the swirls look so beautiful when they come out of the oven! I will definitely be recommending this recipe to everyone! Thank you for sharing 🙂
These came out so good . I was concerned about only 1/4 cup of milk, so I added 1/4 cup of warm water too. May not have been necessary but they came out great. I chose to make the rolls the night before and store in the frig- overnight. They are light and fluffy and yummy!
I did everything exactly. Had to try to activate yeast 3, times, but it finally worked. Put the dough in the fridge to rise over night, which was from 12:30-6am, and nothing happened. Can I still use it? I’ve set it on the counter to come to room temperature. I’m so sad.
yes! absolutely. use it. roll it out, put in the filling and let the cut rolls rise for an hour!
My dough has been in the fridge for about 3 hours but doesn’t seem to have risen at all… I used instant yeast, bought from the store yesterday! Will the dough still work?!
yes! everything should be fine. what stage are you at? did you form them into rolls OR just the first rise?
What if I have fresh yeast? Any instructions?
hi! sorry i have no idea. have never used it in a cinnamon roll recipe.
here is a guide on using “cake yeast” aka fresh yeast. it says you would need twice the amount. i imagine you’d add it to the liquid ingredients in this recipe. again, i’ve never tried it so not sure how much and not sure if you’ll end up with the same results. but here is the article:
https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-baking-with-yeast-2
Making these this morning, but there are only two of us. Could I freeze half of them for a later date?
yes absolutely! I would bake them off and then freeze them. I would freeze half of the cream cheese frosting separately. You can thaw both of them in the fridge overnight and heat up the rolls in a 200F degree oven.
if I’m using instant yeast, is it the same amount as active dry yeast?
It would be the same amount but you can just add it to the dry ingredients vs. activating it with the warm milk.
My dough came out sticky and I added more flour and hoped that it would help, it did sorta but was still pretty wet. I only added the 1/4 c of liquid but maybe I did the wrong measurement. It’s it 1/4 c fluid or 1/4 c using dry measuring cups?
it’s 1/4 cup fluid. did it end up working out?
These look so good but I’m sad I can’t eat them! Do you have any suggestions for a gluten-free version of this? Do you think gluten-free flour could work as a substitute?
Hi Keke, This should work with a gluten-free flour blend. I hear cup4cup is a good brand and bob’s red mill!