Cinnamon Rolls

The perfect Holiday breakfast mainstage. The tastiest snow day tradition. The best way to bring homemade pastries to an amateur kitchen. Cinnamon rolls.

This recipe is beloved by my family and I frequently will make a batch to store in the freezer and take a few out as needed. These are generally needed during the cold, dark month of January when post-holiday doldrums set in and everyone needs an extra kick to get going in the morning. When I make them, I mix the dough around dinnertime when I’m already in the kitchen. It’s done proofing right when it’s time to melt into the couch for the evening, and I can roll them up, slice and freeze without creating many more dishes. If you’re making them for breakfast, starting the night before is the way to go. Proof them in the refrigerator overnight and have warm, gooey rolls ready whenever you want them to be.

The recipe calls for bread flour, but all-purpose can be substituted in a pinch or if you’re not a frequent baker. Bread flour is higher in protein content which will yield a roll with a more uniform structure and even browning. The yeast I use most frequently is Active Dry, but fun fact- you can use Active Dry and Instant Yeast totally interchangeable in quanity. If you use Instant Yeast, there’s no need to hydrate it in the warm milk and you can just toss it in with the dry ingredients. Either way, a warm milk bath can only do great things for yeast. Note that at the end of the recipe, I give a few different options for the final proof. Cinnamon rolls are pretty durable in terms of proofing- there’s enough yeast in this recipe that you can get away with not being super methodical about the proofing stage. Don’t overthink it and don’t worry if your rolls don’t fully double- pretty much anything smothered in this cream cheese frosting will be delicious…