We’ve all stepped into the food court and smelled the amazing Cinnabon Rolls from afar. Our mouths start watering instantly.
We see them rolling, baking and frosting, but then we see the price, and have sticker shock. Well, with a little extra time to make homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch, this is the recipe for which you’ve been waiting.
I have mixed and matched numerous cinnamon roll recipes to finally come up with one that I love, and this one is amazing. Homemade Cinnamon Rolls are worth the effort, and if you have a mixer, you can hustle this process along.
Recipe: Homemade Cinnamon Rolls (Copy Cat Cinnabon Recipe)
Summary: This easy copy cat cinnamon roll recipe tastes just like the Cinnabon recipe. With delicious Cream Cheese Frosting, it’s a must have in our home.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 Tbls. ground cinnamon
- (2) .25 oz. pks. active dry yeast (I use 2 TB instant yeast)
- 1 tsp. granulated sugar (only if needing to proof the active dry yeast. If using instant yeast, disregard this)
- 2/3 cups granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup melted butter OR margarine
- 1 cup 110 degree water (approximately)
- 1 cup warm milk (must be warm)
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 eggs – slightly beaten
- Up to 8 cups all-purpose flour
Coating
- 1/2 cup melted butter OR margarine
- 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, pecans or raisins – (optional, but so good)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (or brown sugar – your preference)
Instructions
- Mix together 1 1/2 cups sugar and the cinnamon; set aside (this will be used later to spread on dough)
- In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in warm water; set aside (if using instant yeast, you can skip this step)
- In a large bowl, mix together milk, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup melted butter, salt, and eggs; add yeast mixture and 4 cups of flour to mixture; beat until smooth; stir in enough flour to form a slightly stiff dough.
- Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 8 minutes. I always know when my dough is finished kneading (either by hand or machine) when it can stretch quite well. It must be elastic enough.
- Place dough into a large greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Punch down dough and let rest for 5 minutes.
- Roll dough out onto a floured surface into a 15″ X 20″ rectangle.
- Brush 1/2 cup melted butter over dough; sprinkle cinnamon sugar liberally over dough; sprinkle nuts evenly over dough, if desired.
- Tightly roll up dough and pinch edges together to seal; cut the roll into 12 – 15 slices using dental floss or thread.
- Coat the bottom of a 13″ X 9″ X 2″ baking pan with 1/2 cup melted butter; sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar evenly in the bottom of the pan. (When attempting to make these a little bit of a lower fat version, I do not do this. If I do, then make sure after they are done baking, that you flip the pan over so that all the delicious drippings go onto the rolls.) Typically, I prefer more “doughy” rolls and like them as HUGE cinnabon sized rolls, but some have mentioned that they prefer an additional 8×8 pan for the extra dough.
- Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the prepared pan; cover pan and allow to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes or just eye ball them until nearly doubled in size.
- Bake rolls in a 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Preparation time: 30 minute(s) (plus additional rise time)
Cooking time: 25 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12 huge Cinnabon size or divide into two pans for regular sized rolls
Often, new bakers do not know when the kneading phase is done. When your dough can stretch like this, you have kneaded it long enough.
(Note to self: When letting the dough rise, make sure to check rising dough – this had definitely doubled in size. 
)
At this step, I begin losing patience. The cinnamon rolls are so close to being done, I can almost taste them, and I never want to take the time to roll tightly and cut, but yes, it’s necessary.
Oh glorious taste buds. I am so thankful for you. Cinnabon – eat your heart out. I made them myself and saved myself $20.
Cinnabon like Frosting
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 8 ounces margarine
- 1 tsp. vanilla ( I love using almond extract for variety)
- 1/2 tsp lemon
- 16 oz. powdered sugar
Beat together cream cheese, margarine, sugar, and vanilla. Spread frosting on warm rolls and eat until you are stuffed.
Initially, I made these on my bulk baking day. I tripled the recipe, which I only recommend if you’re an experienced baker. There was a TON of dough, and then I separated some into freezer bags. We’ve been pulling out 7-8 every day, thawing them the night before and popping them in the microwave. Typically, “day old” bakery can be dry, but heating it for about 30 seconds (with the frosting) makes it taste fresh out of the oven.
***Note the new little feature I added at the end of each post. You can print this recipe and make it easy on yourself. It gives you the option to remove the pictures and save on ink. Enjoy!
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They look so good! I got in the habit of making Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls around Christmas time. I had to stop because of my wasit line!
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Yummy!
I made some Cinnabon-clone rolls last week. This time I got smart- I froze the batch in family-size portions (meaning four rolls). Now we can eat cinnamon rolls without staring at the entire dish of them. Certainly helps my waistline!
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Morning Jen!
I popped over to your blog today to check your post and what did I see??? Those yummy cinnamon rolls! I haven’t had breakfast yet..so, now I am off to eat. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
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My waistline thanks you, Jen.
These look amazing (even the Martha reject ones). 
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Thanks for sharing!!! Can you use butter instead of margarine in the icing? Margarine scares me!!!
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You have no idea how quickly I clicked on this post, “Cinnabon?! What?!…Must get that recipe NOW!”. I can’t wait to try this. Thanks.
Oh, and it was so nice to meet you last weekend. You are just as sweet, wonderful, approachable and chatty in person as you are on your blog. I wanted to round all the gals up (including you) and take them home with me
.
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I can’t wait to try these. The kids don’t have school tomorrow, maybe I will make them these as a special treat. I like the idea of making extras and freezing them. They look absolutely scrumptious!!!
Carla
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Yum!! I make some that use a box of pudding in the dough and like another commenter mentioned, I freeze the rolls so I can pull out just the amount needed. It makes the process of making cinnamon rolls just a tad bit easier knowing I can make them for the entire month in one go
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Absolutely – double/triple the recipe (if you’re brave) and stick some in the freezer. I made seventy rolls. We ate way too many but I did separate them into freezer baggies and then I take a few out as we go. Heating them in the microwave for a just seconds make them taste totally fresh.
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Jessica Reply:
February 11th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
@Jens,
I freeze the raw dough and then cook them from frozen – I was worried it would affect the quality, but it doesn’t! They’re just as good. It saves on the cooking time on this end of things.
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Those look so delicious, it’s scary!
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They look incredible! I would love to try these out. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
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OH, yes! I make a version of Cinnabon and they are too die for!
Glad I only make it for others or special occasions. I also freeze them, too.
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Oh. Holy. Night. A friend has an amazing cinnamon roll recipe that tastes like Cinnabon, but I can’t bring myself to make them because it uses sticks upon sticks of butter.
And I have to know: how did you add the “printer friendly” button on the bottom of your blog? Is it something I can add in blogspot???
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THANK YOU for sharing…my husband will LOVE these!!!
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These look DELICIOUS!!! Thanks for sharing this!! I am going to try these. You also have inspired me to steal my mothers bread machine and try a few loaves!
I got some GREAT finds a GW recently and just posted about it a few days ago. If you go to my blog it’s 2 or 3 posts down. I got a BRAND NEW pair of Coach shoes for $15! SCORE!
Kristi
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I do so love Cinnabon! These look really, really yummy.
Thank you for adding that Print Friendly feature! That was a kind thing for you to do. Ink is so expensive, and you sure can go through a lot of it!
Have a wonderful weekend, Jen!
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those cinn rolls look amazing. i used tomake them
all the time. now i’m afraid i would eat them all
myself!!!
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These look fabulous…one little question, what do you do with the cream cheese? Do you frost them with it and then put the sugar frosting over it?
Thanks
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Jens Reply:
February 14th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
@kathie, at the very end of the post, I have the ingredients to make the Cinnabon frosting. The cream cheese is whipped with the other items and spread on top of the roll. YUM!
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Oh my goodness, I have got to try those! I looove Cinnabon – who doesn’t? LOL
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Oh you naughty naughty oh I love you my best friend for life lady. lol
I have never had Cinnabon rolls. (Am I deprived??) You can bet I am going to make these though. They look soo good.
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These look soooo yummy good!!! I’ll have to try them!!
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Is it possible to make this dough the night before and then bake it the next morning? I would love to make these for Easter morning…but don’t have that much time before church. Or should I say I don’t want to get up THAT early!!
If it is possible, at what point in the process would you refrigerate the dough? Anyone know??
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Jens Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 6:29 pm
@Jennifer, hi Jennifer – yes, you can totally make these the night before and then let them do the slow rise in the fridge. Then pop them in the oven in the morning. So…after you shape them and cut them into rolls, cover them and put them right in the fridge. They will slowly rise over night and be ready first thing in the morning.
Make the frosting the night before too, and refridgerate. You’ll just want to soften it in the microwave in the morning to spread it easily. Hope that helps.
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Jennifer Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:25 pm
@Jens,
Thank you so much!! I am excited to try them this weekend! Happy Resurrection Day!
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Hi – I am trying your recipe, but I cut it in half. Now I kinda wish I didn’t. Next time I’ll go full boar for sure if these come out yummy. I’ll try to write and let you know. The waiting is killing me!
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They came out delicious and we even had some leftover to freeze. Yummy!
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Jen Reply:
May 15th, 2011 at 7:10 pm
YEA!! So glad to hear that. They are worth the wait, aren’t they?
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Oh….my……goodness……I am going to the grocery store!!!
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Oh my gosh I hate my cooking but i love these and can’t keep myself away thank you
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Jen,
I notice this recipe did not use brown sugar. Does it matter? Please explain. Oh! what side of the roll to place down in the pan? Should the cut side be turned up or down in the pan?
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just made the dough, this is a lot of dough for 12 buns.total this receipe uses 1 pound of butter.did you double some parts. ended up using 8 cups of flour to get it the consistency you said it needs to be. thats a lot of sugar filling also. am i reading something wrong? will let you know how they taste. just hope i dont end up wasting all the ingredients. awful lot of frosting for 12 buns too.
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Jen Reply:
December 15th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Kathy – It’s for 12 Cinnabon sized rolls. They are gigantic, so yes, the dough will probably make 20 or so normal size rolls. You have the option of making as much frosting as you desire, so if you want them with less frosting, just half the recipe, but for your traditional Cinnabon, they are oozing with frosting. Let me know how they turn out. You should be pleasantly surprised.
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lol havent seen a cinnabon in 8 yrs. forgot how giant they are. the buns were excellent . light and fluffy. huge even tho i made 17 out of them. making these for Christmas morning. thanks
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Jen Reply:
December 15th, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Phew – so thrilled to hear that.
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lol.thanks for your quick response,never had that happen before.Merry Christmas
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i havent tryed this but im sure it works and tastes great. but the true cinnabon recipe is so much easier than this. i use to work there.
you get dough, just regular dough from the store. like pilsbary or something.
smoosh the dough and role it flat into a rectangle longer sides laying horizontal.
spread butter all over the dough.
put the cinnamon brown sugar mixture all over the top, leaving about an inch at the bottom without
cinnamon brown sugar mixture being, 1 tbsp to every 1 cup brown sugar
when you bake,
bake at about 350 and for 10 to 14 minutes
and dont bake with butter on bottem of the pan, be sure to use wax paper.
to make them rise,
heat up oven. after oven is at temperature turn it off and wait about 5 minutes,
after that place cinnamon rolls in the oven for 5 to ten minutes. then turn on oven and bake.
hope it works out for you the same way it does for us.
P.S. gas ovens cook faster.
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cant imagine pillsbury dough tasting like this, so light and fluffy. stored these in a glass bowl covered with saran wrap and 3 days later they were just as good. didnt have to warm them up. this dough is worth the effort
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I made these for Thanksgiving breakfast; the kids loved them! Two of my wife’s friends also tried them and fell in love. Will be making these again to eat during Channukah!
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I made these today! So yummy. I will be making them again!!!!
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To freeze, do I freeze them raw or baked? Do I frost raw rolls or save frosting for after they bake?
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Jen Reply:
December 21st, 2011 at 11:03 am
You have the choice to freeze them raw (after you have them in bun shaped form. If you do this, take them out of the freezer, let them thaw and rise for the second rise). They are fine freezing baked as well. Frosting goes after they are baked.
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I’ve made these so many times! Best recipe ever! For the sugar cinnamon mixture, I substituted half of the granulated sugar for brown sugar. I’m making them right now! So excited to eat them!
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Dear Jen, I have tried every cinnamon roll recipes available on the internet. I must say, this one really is the best! Thank you for sharing this with us. The only thing I would change is the flour. I’ve decided to use bread flour instead of all purpose flour and then turned out great!
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anthony, how does the bread flour affect the rolls. are they lighter, denser etc. thanks
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These were VERY delicious and flavorful. Thank you for sharing the recipe and I can’t wait to check out your blog. I used Penzey’s Cinnamon from http://www.penzeys.com. I also mixed in a box of vanilla instant pudding into the warm milk and whipped it with a mixer and folded it in. It was actually a little too much dough for my Kitchen Aid mixer to handle so I ended up kneading by hand.
I would recommend using TWO 9x13x2 pans instead of one. I used one 9x13x2 and one 8×8. The rolls in the 8×8 pan came out beautifully but the rolls in the 9x13x2 were very overcrowed and were very misshapen. Many of them turned inside out and some of the edges on those were overdone compared to the inside. I had to take them all out and bake them on a large cookie sheet to get the insides done. Not a very good result but I am sure they will taste good. I added a little heavy cream to icing for flavor. very very yummy.
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I love your recipe (and so does everyone who has tasted it), but I noticed you changed your page and I wanted to let you know that your ingredients for the icing has a mistake in it on the printed recipe. You put butter on there twice and left out the cream cheese
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Jen Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 9:48 am
Oops, thanks so much for catching that. I changed it so that it was easier to print and doing so, must have accidentally left that off.
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Jen Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 9:59 am
I went back and looked at my error. I actually moved the cream cheese frosting to the bottom of the post. What you caught was for spreading over the dough. Thanks.
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No problem! I printed off the recipe and when I went to make the icing I didn’t have the recipe (That’s almost the best part lol). I actually make this recipe and after I slice my dough(and let rise a second time), I will freeze them until ready to bake and it works really well. My husband especially likes a freezer full of cinnamon rolls so he can have some anytime lol! Thank you again for such a great recipe, I have told tons of people about this site
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Melissa, when you freeze them do you ice them or put the icing on after they are baked? i have seen it done both ways. I have never had a chance to freeze them! Im hoping to get some in the freezer before kids return from school for the summer. thanks
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Melissa Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
@kathy, i freeze them unbaked. After I roll and slice them I will let them rise again on a cookie sheet, then I put them in the freezer long enough for them to get partly frozen(so they don’t squish), then I put wax paper on the top and bottom and store them in a freezer bag. Then I pull them out and bake like normal, it’s just like if you were baking frozen cookie dough from the store.
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Melissa Reply:
March 12th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
@Melissa, I also ice them after they are baked
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@ melissa, thanks so much. i really appreciate it
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My Doug did not rise. I used instant yeast. I didn’t see where you would add the hot water. Is that something I did wrong?
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Jen Reply:
March 24th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Was your milk warm enough? In order for the dough to activate, the yeast has to be in something warm. That’s all I can think of, unless your instant yeast wasn’t fresh? So sorry. I know that’s so frustrating after all that work. If that were to ever happen again, I suggest putting your dough into a slightly warm oven to try and force it to rise.
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Jen Reply:
March 25th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Let me know about the heat of the liquid and I’ll try and brainstorm to figure out what happened.
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UGH! I had been planning to make these tonight, and went by the 30 minutes you put for a prep time at the bottom.
Really sucks, because when you count the time it takes to wait for these to rise, it’s more like 2.5-3 hours before they go in the oven. So one day I guess I’ll take a half-day off at work and make these, but plans to do these tonight are ruined.
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Jen Reply:
March 25th, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Oh, I am so sorry. It says it in the directions, but that it’s at clear. Yes, yeast rolls take awhile. If you don’t have the time to do everything at once, you can always do everything up until the last rise and let the cinn. rolls rise in the fridge overnight. Then pop them in the oven in the morning.
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Hey Jen, Can you sub butter for maragine in the icing? Thanks!
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Jen Reply:
March 27th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Oh yes, definitely. In fact, for the past two years, all I have used is butter. I better edit that. Thanks for asking.
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I made a novice mistake, I used active dry yeast but followed the directions for the instant yeast:( I thought that is what I had:( So I didn’t do the “proofing stage” I am at the dough rising part of the recipe (first rise in the big bowl) And alas it isn’t rising which is because of my mistake, is there any way to correct it at this point or did I just waste all these ingredients?
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Christina Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 10:46 pm
@Christina, I am about 40 minutes into the hour of rising
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Christina Reply:
March 28th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
well after an additional 20 minutes with the heater next to it I think it is rising a little bit… we’ll see if I can make this work:(
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Jen Reply:
March 29th, 2012 at 9:29 am
Oh Christina – bummer. So sorry. I know that is frustrating. I am just seeing this now, but let me know if it turned out. I was going to suggest that you put it in a very low heated oven to help, or else take the bowl of dough and let it rise in the fridge over night. Even though that is a cold rise method, it gives it hours and that might work. Let me know.
Christina Reply:
May 13th, 2012 at 12:33 am
@Christina, Jen, they turned out great but I’m definetly going to try again with correct use of yeast to perfect it. Thank you do mich, they are awesome!!
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I made these rolls today and they are amazing. I used whole wheat flour and worked perfectly. Used raisins in the filling. Cut dough into 4ths froze three and cooked the rest. I will definetly use again. And the icing is so delicious my husband ate up the extra with some strawberries
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I just made these, sat down to a warm one, OMG are these so good….ty for sharing this recipe
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Anyone up? This may be a dumb question. In your recipe, it seems as you proof according to one pack of yeast (by the instructions on the back of the yeast pack). Should this be doubled? Like 1 pack per 1/4 of water, so 2 packs is 1/2 cup? Or should I use 2 packs in the 1/4 cup of water?
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kathy Reply:
April 7th, 2012 at 1:35 am
@Alissabeth, i always proof mine seperately in cas there is a problem with a packet of yeast. so i will put 11/4 cup water and 1 packet in a cup and do the same for the second. i have bad yeast in the same batch of packets so its just an extra precaution i take. before i started that i would just double everything, yeast, water and sugar. enjoy, they are delicious
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kathy Reply:
April 7th, 2012 at 1:36 am
@kathy, boy i cant type thats 1/4 cup water up there
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I always use 2 packets with the 1 cup warm water and the sugar.
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i’m a little confused – where does the 1 cup of 110degree (and i am assuming this is in Fahrenheit not Celsius?) boiling water come into the recipe?
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Jen Reply:
May 4th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Sorry for the confusion. If you look up at the list of ingredients, you will use that warm water ONLY if you need to proof your yeast. As per the instructions, if you are using instant yeast, then this proofing step with the water can be eliminated. Hope that clears things up.
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Jen Reply:
May 4th, 2012 at 9:23 am
Oops, and I forgot to add. You definitely do not want it boiling or it will kill the yeast. Just very warm.
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nikkita Reply:
May 4th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
@Jen, ohhh, makes more sense now ^_^ (even though it says it in the recipe, my brain just didn’t click D= )
though i only ever use about 3 Tbs to dissolve my yeast as i find this is enough
and i can never seem to roll a rectangle – i’m so uncoordinated!
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These are the best cinnamon rolls that I’ve ever made, or bought. Thank you for sharing this recipe. The first time I made them I loved the actual roll so much that I did a little experiment and made just the dough and put golf ball size pieces on a cookie sheet and baked. They were also amazing as just plains rolls with melted butter and garlic brushed on the tops. Were a great addition to my lasagna for dinner.
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