Soft, fluffy, bakery-style cinnamon rolls made using your bread machine! The machine handles the kneading and first rise for you, so all you need to do is assemble and bake them.
An Easier Christmas Morning Tradition
Holiday mornings require special treats, and for us, homemade cinnamon rolls are the perfect one for the winter holiday.
I toss the dough ingredients in the bread machine as soon as I wake up and let it do its thing while I make coffee and get ready for the day. I love how simple this is! I don’t need to knead the dough by hand or pull out my stand mixer. The bread machine does all of that automatically with just the touch of a button.
Once the rise cycle has finished, these cinnamon rolls are finished just like any other. I roll out the dough, cover it with a buttery cinnamon-sugar mixture, and slice it into thick rolls.
While the bread machine cinnamon rolls bake, I can mix up a super simple cream cheese icing. Everyone is enjoying a warm, gooey treat as soon as the presents are opened!
This recipe makes 12 good-sized cinnamon rolls. You might also like to try my Mini Cinnamon Rolls if your holiday crowd is a bit larger. This is also a great recipe for any weekend morning, so don’t save it only for Christmas!
Ingredient Notes
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
For the Dough
When loading your bread machine with ingredients, the order that they are added matters! Follow the order listed here for bread machine cinnamon roll dough, adding the liquid first, then the flour, and finally, the yeast.
- Whole Milk: Full-fat dairy milk helps to make the dough super soft and fluffy! It’s important that the milk is slightly warmed to a temperature around 110°F. At this temperature, the yeast will start to wake up and start working.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar feeds the yeast quickly and gives these cinnamon rolls the perfect amount of sweetness.
- Melted Butter: I melt unsalted butter in the microwave, and then let it sit for a few minutes to cool down so that it’s still liquid, but not too hot.
- Eggs: Let your eggs come to room temperature for the best result.
- Salt: Just a bit helps to season the flour and balance the sweetness.
- Flour: All-purpose flour works just fine to create these fluffy, soft rolls. Bread flour would result in rolls with too much structure and chew.
- Yeast: For bread machine recipes, you should use instant yeast, which is sometimes sold as “bread machine yeast.” Both are the same thing. Add the yeast to the machine last.
Once these ingredients are added, choose the dough cycle on your machine and let it go!
For the Filling and Frosting
- Unsalted Butter: The butter for the filling should be very soft, soft enough to spread onto the dough without tearing it. You can let it soften to room temperature, but if it’s cold in your kitchen, use the microwave to gently help it along (without melting it!).
- Cinnamon and Sugar: The perfect cinnamon-sugar ratio for cinnamon roll filling uses 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon to ½ cup of brown sugar. You can use either light or dark brown sugar.
- Cream Cheese: To make the perfect icing for any type of cinnamon rolls, start with softened cream cheese! It’s flavored with pure vanilla extract and sweetened with powdered sugar.
More Baked Breakfast Recipes
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Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- Sharp knife or dental floss
- Hand mixer or whisk
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup (ml) whole milk warm
- ½ cup (g) granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons (g) unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 ½ cups (g) all purpose flour
- 1 packet (g) packet instant yeast 2 ¼ teaspoons
For the filling:
- ¼ cup (g) unsalted butter very soft
- ½ cup (g) light or dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
For the icing:
- 8 ounces (g) cream cheese softened
- 1 cup (g) powdered sugar sifted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the following ingredients to the bread machine pan in this order: warm milk, granulated sugar, melted butter, eggs, salt, all-purpose flour, and instant yeast placed on top of the flour or in the dispenser if your machine has one. Insert the pan into the machine and secure it.
- Close the lid and select the dough program. Press start and let the machine knead and rise the dough until the cycle is complete.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently shape it into a rectangle. Roll it into an 18×12 inch rectangle (46×30 cm).
- Spread the soft butter evenly over the surface. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the buttered dough. Roll the dough tightly from the long side.
- Cut the dough into 12 even pieces, each about 1 ½ inches thick (4 cm). Arrange the rolls in a greased 9×13 inch pan (23×33 cm).
- Cover the pan and let the rolls rest for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool slightly.
- Whisk the cream cheese with the powdered sugar and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Spread the icing over the warm rolls.
Notes:
- Use instant yeast for the bread machine because it blends well with the other ingredients.
- If your bread machine has a yeast dispenser, you can use it instead of adding the yeast on top.
- If your dough feels sticky, dust your surface with a little flour as you roll.
- Warm rolls help the icing glide on easily, so do not cool them fully before icing.
- Rolls can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for one day or in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheat gently before serving.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Recipe Tips
- When spreading the cinnamon sugar mixture over the rolled-out dough, it’s helpful to leave an empty border of about ½ inch on both long sides of the rectangle. This will make the rolls easier to roll up and seal.
- It can also be helpful to use a ruler or a baking mat with measurements when making cinnamon rolls. Getting the dough rectangle to the correct size and cutting the rolls evenly will ensure that your cinnamon rolls fill the pan correctly.
- Add the cream cheese frosting to the cinnamon rolls while they’re still warm, but not super hot. You want the icing to melt partly so that it fills in all the gaps, but you don’t want it to melt completely.
- To make mini bread machine cinnamon rolls, follow the rolling and cutting instructions in my mini cinnamon rolls recipe! In that recipe, the dough is cut into strips, and each strip is rolled up individually to make smaller, adorable rolls. Reduce the bake time to about 13-15 minutes.
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