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Baked cinnamon rolls with icing drizzled and a spatula lifting the first one out of the dish.

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Homemade cinnamon rolls. Let the bread machine whip up this cinnamon roll dough for you and follow the easy instructions to bake! Once you’ve made them from scratch, you’ll never go back to canned cinnamon rolls.

Yield: 22 cinnamon rolls 1x
Prep: 2 hoursCook: 17 minutesTotal: 3 hours 17 minutes
Units:
Scale:

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1 1/3 cups lukewarm water (110-115°F is perfect)
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) room temperature butter, cut into small chunks
  • 5 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon quick rise yeast

Filling

  • 1 1/2 cups sugar (brown sugar works great too!)
  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted

Icing

  • 34 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 45 tablespoons milk, plus more if you like it thinner

Note: This recipe was changed slightly in 2021. I removed 1/4 cup powdered milk from the ingredient list.  I made these once when I didn’t have it on hand and couldn’t tell the difference. But, it’s up to you if you use it or not! I also opt for quick rise yeast vs. active yeast now.

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Instructions

  1. Place the ingredients for the dough in your bread machine in the order listed. If your machine doesn’t have a yeast dispenser, just nestle the yeast in on top of the flour (don’t let it touch the wet ingredients). 
  2. Run your machine on a dough cycle.
  3. After dough is done, take it out and split the dough into two mounds.
  4. On a lightly floured surface, roll one mound of your dough out into some sort of a rectangle. 
  5. Spread half of the melted butter over the rolled-out dough.
  6. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar over the melted butter making sure to cover as much surface with the filling as you can.
  7. Starting at one long ends of your rectangle of dough, roll it up.
  8. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into about 1 inch pieces. The result will be a pinwheel shaped form when turned on its side.
  9. Place pinwheels on greased metal baking sheet or in a 9×12 glass baking dish. I like mine slightly touching each other so they all are soft and not too browned on the outside but if you want them not touching, spread them apart on the sheet pan.
  10. Repeat the steps above with the second mound of dough.
  11. Cover assembled rolls with a lightweight hand towel and let rise for 25-30 minutes.
  12. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until lightly brown on top (add a few extra minutes if using a glass dish). Tap the middle of the roll to see if it bounces back. If it does, it’s probably done!
  13. Combine ingredients to make icing and spread over warm rolls so it melts into them.

Notes/Tips

  • Every bread machine is a bit different. The dough setting on mine is 45 minutes. This is the first rise. The second rise will be after you assemble the rolls. 
  • I prefer to use a metal baking sheet but if you are using a glass baking dish, allow for a few extra minutes when baking. 
  • If you don’t have a bread machine, use a stand mixer to combine all of the dough ingredients. Using a dough hook, let it knead the dough for 7-8 minutes. Transfer the sticky dough to a grease-lined bowl. Cover with a towel and let it rise for about 1-1.5 hours (or until twice its size.) It will be sticky so use lots of flour when rolling it out.
© Author: Polly Conner
Cuisine: American Method: Bake