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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!
No Knead 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls
Video
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.
Best cinnamon roll recipe. I make them all the time now.
These are delicious! My family and friends love these. I follow the recipe and they come out perfect every time.
ever since my mother in law passed away ive always tried to make recipes from her cards.shes been gone since 2006 and i recently made her cinnamon roll recipe the other day and of course like always they did not taste like hers. they were too dry. i found your recipe online and took the time this am to make them.they are baking now but i hope they turn out. how can they not.they look amazing.thank you for your recipe and video.
My pleasure!
I have been craving Cinnabon for THE longest. I even tried a place that was known for their cinnamon rolls. Let me tell you they were nasty. So I said let me look up a recipe. Found one but didn’t have the dough hook to my mixer. Then I found this one. I’m so in love!! And everyone else loves them too. I’m about to make another batch tomorrow!!
That’s wonderful! Enjoy your cinnamon rolls 🙂
Wow, these are actually incredible. I was trying to replicate Cinnabon (which I don’t have nearby) but they turned out better.
The only things I changed:
More flour. I started with 4 cups by weight (so 480g) but it wasn’t enough. It was sticking to everything so I had to knead in quite a bit more before rolling out. I’m guessing I got to between 550g to 600g by the end. But as others said, humidity might effect this.
Less butter smeared on the roll before the filling. I used closer to a quarter cup rather than the half cup in the recipe. It was already generously coated so I saved the rest for the icing.
I also took some general advice that I’ve read many places that says to brush or pour a bit of milk or heavy cream (I used a quarter cup of warmed heavy cream) on the rolls before baking to help keep them gooey. The 20 minute bake time was perfect. The tops slightly browned, the centres cooked (checked with toothpick) but still soft enough to be considered gooey or chewy.
I used the icing recipe from her other Cinnamon Roll recipe (the Cinnabon copycat) as I felt this was going to be too much cream cheese for my liking.
This is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten and it was my first attempt at a cinnamon bun.
I made these this morning and they turned out Perfect. So easy, My husband likes raisins, so I added them to half of the Roll. I live in Calgary and our baking times usually need to be longer, I added 5 minutes , next time I will add 10 minutes to the baking time, I also only made up half of the cream cheese mixture and it was plenty for our liking.
What a small world! We live in Calgary as well 🙂 Different ovens can make a difference as well. We’re glad you love the recipe! Enjoy your rolls.
I was really happy with how these turned out. I haven’t made cinnamon rolls since my bread machine broke, because I didn’t want to knead by hand. This was so easy! The texture of the dough was nice and way easier to roll than my other recipes. I did have to add a little more flour, because of the stickiness, but not much. II rolled it out a little bigger and noticed the center was a little thin, so I ripped some off of the edge and pressed it onto to thin areas. I was really thinking that was going to be way too much filling, but I kept going. A little fell out when cutting (with floss), so I scooped it up and sprinkled it on top before baking. I got 12, 2 inch rolls. I never felt like my rolls rose as much as they were supposed to, they didn’t touch on the pan, but I trusted the recipe and stuck them in the oven. They got bigger in the oven, and were perfectly cooked. I will keep this recipe as my go to. I do prefer my icing to be sweeter and less cream cheese. This one was slightly sour to me so I looked up my old icing recipe. It’ because this icing recipe has more cream cheese that I am used to. My recipe is 6 oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 cups powdered sugar with the same amount of vanilla. That is just my personal preference. This whole recipe gets 5 stars. My old recipe took all day. This was great to have them done so fast! Thanks for the recipe!!
Glad you liked them!
very easy. Everyone enjoyed the texture and flavor. Would only make 1/2 recipe for the frosting. Unless you like oodles.
These were a huge hit with the family. I added pecans to the tops before baking. We love pecans.
cant wait to make this may do it tonight hahahaaaaha
I have made these four times now. Each time they came out perfectly. I made three batches for a recent party and everyone raved about them. My pregnant friend even said she wanted them when she gave birth. Frosting is great, not sickingly sweet. 10/10 would bake again.
So glad you enjoyed these!
Hi Jo! I only saw this recipe after making your Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and wonder why we don’t need to knead for this. Also this seems to have more butter, cream cheese (like 4 times more) and powdered sugar. Can you advise why these are so? Thanks!
Yep, the recipe is a little bit different, but the technique is totally different here. The reason I made these is because many times people ask me how to make cinnamon rolls without a mixer, so here’s a no knead version that’s incredibly easy and pretty much fool proof.
I’m in Georgia I found that 4 cups was way to little flour I had to add nearly 1.5 more cups to get it to form a ball of dough at all and it was still very sticky. I hope these turn out They’re proofing now so here’s hoping!
Humidity can play a big roll in how much flour you’ll need in dough- we’re from a very dry climate. Let us know how they turn out!
Katie,
I’m in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California and also find that 4 cups is not enough flour. I’ve attempted this recipe 3 times. I also find that 350 deg F is not hot enough, need closer to 400 deg F to get them done.
My artisan breads come out just right, so it doesn’t seem to be the stove.
Best regards, -D
Made them yesterday and all I can say is omg they are so good. They are soft full of cinnamon flavor and the icing is outrageously good.
Can I use this recipe to make one giant cinnamon roll? I want to make it as a birthday “cake” for my husband.
I don’t see why not!