Happy Monday peeps, it’s a cinnamon roll kinda day today! This is a recipe long time coming I’ve actually been working on it for a while and been wanting to share it for ages! but of course when the time comes to make them and take pictures….the pictures turn out awful! :/
I’m trying to force myself to just post the recipe and I’ll just remake the rolls so that I can retake the pictures. It’s alot harder than it looks! My OCD is really kicking in.
Let’s just get right into it shall we 😄
This recipe is very much like my easy, one rise cinnamon rolls recipe. In fact it’s pretty much the same except that one is adapted to make a smaller batch and only one rise. Today’s rolls are a tribute to the famous Cinnabon cinnamon rolls which have managed to make their way into the hearts of millions all around the world. Did you know that it’s actually a father and son team who founded the franchise and they hired a very talented baker to create the Cinnabon roll recipe. She spent ages trying to come up with the best recipe and until this day, people everywhere are trying to recreate those treasures.
I actually strayed away from those who try to ‘clone a Cinnabon’. See my thought is that we already have that awesome recipe and no matter what you do, you can try everything, you’re never really going to create that exact same cinnamon roll. I spent months trying to, I made batch after batch, played around with recipes, researched the web to get as much info as I could to re-create those gems. There are a few solid leads with plenty of resources that can be credited to have fabulous similarities to the original recipe.
Many people think adding buttermilk to the dough is what takes them over the top. I agree that buttermilk is amazing in cinnamon rolls but when I added it to my dough, I didn’t like how it turned out. The main ingredient in classic Cinnabons is water. Their dough is more ‘bread like’ than overly soft/fluffy so I knew you must have plenty of water instead of milk in the dough but when I paired it with buttermilk, it just didn’t work for me. I ended up using a mix of milk and water.
That’s how I decided to make these Cinnabon Style not Cinnabon clones/copycats 😄
Key Ingredients
Let me just take a few moments to discuss the ingredients quickly. Since we’re going all out and making big, tall Cinnabon like rolls, I encourage everyone to get the best quality ingredients as possible. They really make a huge difference!
Cinnamon
Cinnabon uses Makara cinnamon that is found in Asia. Some Cinnabon branches sell it and if you’re lucky to be close to one of those then by all means go get some! For all us not-so-fortune folks, please buy the highest quality cinnamon/cassia powder you can find. This is the first and foremost important ingredient and tip to make an amazing roll. Cinnamon is the star of the show after all.
Butter/Oil/Margarine
There are alot of credited sources which show that Cinnabon uses oil in their dough. This is very likely since, like I mentioned above, their dough is quite ‘bready’ so oil will help to achieve that texture. Honestly most of the times when I’m making cinnamon rolls I use oil in the dough, in all my recipes, to save the butter for my filling and frosting but there is a textural, also amazing, difference when using butter. I do love butter though and use that when I’m making rolls to give away or if I’m having people over and in today’s recipe, if you don’t want to use oil, I recommend using melted butter for similar texture but with that extra buttery flavour.
For the filling, Cinnabon uses margarine instead of butter because margarine has a lower melting point than butter so it should make the rolls gooey-saucy-melty. Let’s face the fact that most people have butter on hand more than margarine so I don’t think you need to go out and get some just for today’s rolls. Butter works just fine and that’s what I use. Please do get a good quality butter!
Brown Sugar vs White Sugar
It is claimed that Cinnabon uses mostly soft brown sugar in their filling to make it extra gooey. So in trying to be as authentic as possible, I did use soft brown sugar but personally I love using white sugar in my cinnamon rolls because white sugar melts quicker so the rolls become more saucy which is how I like it. Plus the flavour of white sugar in cinnamon rolls is great too. My ultimate filling is a mix of both white and brown sugar. You can play around with what you like, Brown sugar = gooey, white sugar = saucy.
Vanilla
Some sources claim that Cinnabon uses some sort of vanilla flavour in their dough. That’s why there are some recipes that call for vanilla pudding. I honestly don’t really think the dough needs the extra addition but I did want to make these rolls similar to Cinnabon so I used vanilla extract in my dough. You can use vanilla bean or you can leave it out altogether if you want.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ahh yes the cherry on top if you will 😄 According to some sources Cinnabon uses an egg white based glaze to slather on their rolls and while you could very well do that if you like, I decided to just go the easy route and use a classic cream cheese frosting to make it more Cinnabon-y, add in a little corn syrup and even a splash of fresh lemon juice for that extra tang but I usually leave out the lemon. Theses are Cinnabon style not copycats remember.
And finally..
Roll Size
It’s no surprise that Cinnabons rolls are big and tall. That’s the beauty of them really so to achieve that height, you need to make more dough. I played around with how much dough, how big to roll the dough, how to cut and I finally settled on the dimensions written in the directions below. Each roll comes out tall! and also makes 12 which is what I was going for. Alot of recipes make more so you need a bigger pan or two pans even but I wanted enough to fit only in a 9 x 13 inch tin without having to use something else for the extras. Of course if you find yourself having more dough than me, everyone has different results, then please do use a bigger pan or more than one because the rolls do need space to rise.
You need to try and use some with tall sides because that helps shape the rolls as they rise and bake and have have that height when they’re done.
Another tip from Cinnabon is to add some cornstarch to the filling to prevent it from spilling out. They obviously use some other type of ingredient but cornstarch does the trick too. Also, after you’ve spread your filling, you need to push it into the dough by rolling over it with your rolling pin like I showed you here. This makes the rolls extra delish and gooey/saucy.
I like to make my rolls at night then place them in the fridge to rise slowly so that by the time morning comes, they’re ready to bake and are warm, fresh and delicious! I do this all the time with my breads and rolls and what this does is give the rolls time to develop and intensify their flavour and texture. This technique is called retarding. Look at all this wonderful cinnamon sugar butter that seeps out 😉 the rolls are pretty much taking a bath in it which will then thicken up and become all nice and syrupy!
Okay I’ve been blabbering on for way to long now! Here’s the recipe, I hope you guys enjoy the Cinnabon-y cinnamon rolls and please tag me with your pics if you do make them and all other dutch baker bakes on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter @dutchbaker blog 💙
Make sure you invite your family and friends because you will become a super star after they eat these babies 😉 they disappear in moments!