These incredibly delicious Cinnamon Rolls can be in your hands in only 1 hour with NO KNEADING required! Topped with my fabulous cream cheese icing, these might be the best cinnamon rolls you’ll ever have!
These cinnamon rolls are SERIOUSLY the easiest, most delicious cinnamon rolls you could ever have! So here’s the thing. If you follow my other blog, Jo Cooks, you know that I’m kind of known for my cinnabon cinnamon roll recipe. And there’s a reason for that, and that reason is that those rolls are outrageous. Hundreds of people have said they’re better than the real Cinnabon rolls. I’m just saying!
They really are! But I got this crazy idea to make them in 1 hour. And as I was starting to think about how to make them in 1 hour, I realized I don’t have my Kitchen Aid Mixer because we’re moving in a month or so and most of my kitchen stuff is already packed and in storage.
Bummer! But then a lightbulb went off in my head and I thought about doing a no knead version. YES! I did the No Knead Hot Cross Buns not too long ago and they turned out incredibly soft and delicious and I thought, why not Cinnamon Rolls?
Sometimes I amaze myself, seriously. Well, it worked!
No knead works!! You seriously end up with super soft cinnamon rolls and so good. Which makes me wonder. All my life I’ve been told by my mom, mother in law, others that in order to get soft fluffy rolls or breads or whatever, you need to mix/knead until you’re blue in the face.
So all my life I’ve followed that rule. Now I wonder if I’ve been fooled, because every time I make something where no kneading is required, the end result is phenomenal!
I had to take a lot of pictures during this process because these pictures make me drool, so I apologize for that.
Come to think of it, I have some more waiting for me in the fridge, so I’m going to go help myself to a cinnamon roll! Hope you give these a try, because they’re outrageous. You’ll thank me!
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #cravinghomecooked on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
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No Knead 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 1/3 cup water warm
- 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (or 1 pkg)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk lukewarm
- 1/2 cup sugar granulated
- 1/3 cup butter unsalted, melted (margarine can be used as well)
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
Filling
- 1 cup brown sugar dark, packed
- 3 tablespoon cinnamon ground
- 1/2 cup butter unsalted, softened (margarine can be used as well)
Cream Cheese Icing
- 8 ounce cream cheese at room temperature, I recommend Philadelphia
- 6 tablespoon butter unsalted, softened (margarine can be used as well)
- 2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl whisk together the water with the instant yeast and 1 tsp of sugar. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs, milk, sugar and melted butter to the yeast mixture and whisk until well combined.
- In a large bowl combine the flour with the salt. Pour the yeast mixture and using a wooden spoon stir until well combined. You should have a thick sticky dough, see video. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes. See notes for tips.
- Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spray some cooking spray over the bottom, this will help the parchment paper stick to the baking pan.
- Roll the dough out onto a well floured surface, until it's approximately 16 inches long by 12 inches wide and about 1/4 inch in thickness.
- In a small bowl whisk together the brown sugar with the cinnamon.
- Spread the 1/2 cup of butter over the entire surface of the dough, then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar evenly over the surface of the dough.
- Starting at the long edge, away from you, roll the dough down to the bottom edge. Cut the dough into 2 inch slices, or use floss as seen in the video. Place the rolls into the prepared baking pan, 3 x 4.
- Let the rolls rest for another 10 minutes and you will notice they will rise until there is no more space between them.
- Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the rolls are baking make, prepare the cream cheese icing. Add the cream cheese and butter to a mixing bowl and mix until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. If the icing is a bit too stiff add 1 tbsp of milk.
- Ice the rolls immediately when they come out of the oven with the cream cheese icing.
Joanna Cismaru says
You can but you can omit the salt. Self rising flour also has some baking powder in it, however I would still add the yeast to this recipe and follow it as instructed.
Helen G says
Thank you for the lovely recipe Joanna. My rolls turned out well, even though they didn’t look quite as neat as yours! After the feedback of other reviewers, I reduced the amount of cinnamon and they were still lovely and spicy. Very impressive.
Joanna Cismaru says
Glad you liked them, Helen!
Helen G says
Thank you for the lovely recipe Joanna. My rolls turned out well, even though they didn’t look quite as neat as yours! I do find it confusing knowing what weight 4 cups of flour is equivalent to in Metric. There are different conversion tables on the internet, some saying a cup of flour (US) is 120g, some saying a cup is 140g (US) and in Australia, a cup is 150g. I had to add a lot more flour after proving as it was way too sticky to handle. Not sure if that affects the texture? Is it possible to include the Metric weight of ingredients in recipes in future? Or could you upload a separate conversion table for those of us who use Metric measurements? After the feedback of other reviewers, I reduced the amount of cinnamon and they were still lovely and spicy. Very impressive.
Joanna Cismaru says
Under all the ingredients, there are 2 links, one says metric, if you click on that, it will convert all ingredients to metric equivalent. 🙂
Helen G says
Thanks Joanna. So sorry about my confusion. How embarrassing! Of course I noticed the metric conversion link just after my first comment was posted. That’s great so I have reprinted the recipe with the correct metric quantities. I’m going to try them again to see if I can improve my technique. Your photo steps are really appreciated. I need to try the hot cross buns recipe now too. Cheers. Helen.
Joanna Cismaru says
No problem, Helen! Good luck with the cinnamon rolls. 🙂
Linda Jennings says
Can you make theses into 16 rolls? Will they turn out decent? Also, my filling was a bit gritty also, any way to remedy it , to make it a smoother filling? I use C&H
Joanna Cismaru says
I suppose you could, they’d be a bit smaller though. The filling is probably gritty from the brown sugar, other than melting the brown sugar with the butter, not sure how to make it smoother.
Tina says
I have made these twice but both times they were very gooey and didn’t bake up as individual rolls. Should I increase the amount of flour?
Joanna Cismaru says
Yes, if you find the dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour.
Sandra Loesel says
My husband raved about these rolls so I will definitely make them again. The cream cheese frosting is the best!
Joanna Cismaru says
I’m so happy to hear this!
Linda jennings says
Is there a way to get a smoother cinnamon filling within the rolls themselves? They are wonderful, but filling seems to be a bit grainy, did I do something wrong?
Joanna Cismaru says
I can’t imagine why it would be grainy. Perhaps from the brown sugar, it’s the only thing I can think of.
Phyllis says
My buns didn’t rise so were very heavy. I’m trying to figure out why. I checked and the yeast wasn’t outdated and it was ‘instant’ BUT I added the salt to the liquid that contained the yeast instead of adding it to the flour by mistake. Does salt kill yeast?
Joanna Cismaru says
Salt can kill yeast, but you can still test your instant yeast in a bit of warm water with a bit of sugar. If you see it start to foam it’s good.
John Minkin says
Going to try these today, they look amazing! One question, if you roll out the dough to 12×16 and cut them 2 inches thick how do you end up with 12 rolls?
Joanna Cismaru says
Hi John! As you roll out the dough it will actually stretch a bit and it’s quite a bit wider than 16 inches. I don’t usually measure out the dough, what I do is cut it in half first, then each half in half, then each quarter in thirds, this way you end up with 12 even rolls.
Mh says
Great recipe, super easy and tasty cinnamon rolls, however agree with John. Cut as you had said but at 16″ long and 2″ cuts doesn’t make 12 rolls and you can’t go back once they’re cut. Should change the instructions to something like cut into 12 even rolls to prevent confusion.
Patricia Finch says
Could you add pumpkin puree to make pumpkin rolls? How much would you add? What adjustments would be needed?
Joanna Cismaru says
Yes, you could probably add about 1/2 cup of pumpkin. Without experimenting with it I couldn’t tell you exactly, but I would probably add a bit more flour instead of cutting from the butter or milk.
Rose says
Baking right now in my convection oven in my motor home. Can’t wait to see how they turn out! Just took them out and frosted them! Of course I am tasting one and it is so delicious!! Thank you for a great recipe!!
YD says
I made these cinnamon rolls yesterday and they were delicious! They are so soft and delicious! I wanted a recipe that I can make in a short time and the “no knead” part also came in handy because I was making it early in the morning so I didn’t have to wake everyone up with my stand mixer.
Thank you for sharing!
Nicole Beaulieu says
That’s fantastic to hear! It’s much better to be woken up with the smell of fresh cinnamon buns, that’s for sure 🙂
Lynn says
The dough that was exposed to the heat in the oven made the rolls hard and crunchy on the outside not fluffy like normal cinnabon.. Is that how it’s supposed to be or am I doing something wrong? When I baked the rolls in the oven I used a baking sheet pan.
Nicole Beaulieu says
I wouldn’t recommend using a sheet pan for this recipe- the exterior of the rolls will dry out quite a lot. If you use a pan with 2-2.5″ walls like the one in the video, they should turn out much better.
Carol says
Have not tried these yet but would like to use some whole wheat flour. Suggested variations to recipe ?
Nicole Beaulieu says
If you use whole wheat flour, use 3/4 cup whole wheat flour for every cup of all purpose called for in the recipe.
Granisuzq says
Lol, my family’s very, very happy! The cinnamon rolls are delicious. I had to add an additional cup of flour, but who cares? The comments did come in handy, kept me from going into panic mode. I’ll definitely be making these again! :))