30+ Cinnamon Roll Recipes to Make Your Mornings Even Sweeter

Spiced Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze Recipe

Delicata squash is a great choice for dessert recipes. Roasting it intensifies the sweet flavor.

Biscuit Cinnamon Sweet Rolls Recipe

Welcome to the sweet side of the morning alarm buzzer. With these scrumptious sweet rolls, just make sure the butter you spread over the dough is very soft; otherwise, the dough may tear.

Cinnamon-Orange Rolls Recipe

Classic cinnamon rolls get a zingy update with this citrus-glazed twist.

Raspberry-Swirl Sweet Rolls Recipe

In the winter, Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) fruit, like the kind sold by Cascadian Farm, is often a superior alternative to fresh fruit shipped to the US. IQF raspberries are terrific in these soft, puffy yeast rolls—a fun twist on a cinnamon bun.

Apricot-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Frozen biscuits provide an easy shortcut to these breakfast rolls. Save this recipe to your Recipe File for the holidays, when quick, drool-worthy brunch treats are always needed.

Giant Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Warm cinnamon butter melting down the sides of these giant cinnamon rolls and into the grooves makes them a standout.

Cinnamon-Pecan Rolls Recipe

Simple enough for a beginning baker, this easy yeast-roll dough rises in just 30 minutes.

Triple-Play Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Three sugars go into these rolls: Granulated sweetens the dough, brown adds a light molasses flavor to the filling, and powdered sweetens the glaze. Use dental floss to make easy work of cutting the dough.

Glazed Golden Raisin Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

A family-friendly breakfast favorite, cinnamon rolls are best enjoyed with a tall glass of milk or freshly brewed coffee. These sweet yeast rolls only rise once since there is no need for gluten development.

Dutch Oven Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

If anything could get a reluctant camper into the woods, it would be the promise of these oversize sticky rolls. Carolyn Beth Weil, author of Williams-Sonoma's Pie & Tart and a professional baker from Berkeley, California, shared the recipe, which dates back to her days as a Girl Scouts leader.

Grandma Carroll's Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

A friend's grandmother introduced editor Margaret Fox to these delicious cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon-Date-Pecan Rolls with Maple Glaze Recipe

These frosted sweet rolls make a delectable breakfast or holiday brunch offering.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Everything you crave in a cinnamon roll, in a vastly lighter version. Brown sugar sweetens the filling of this breakfast treat, and powdered sugar dissolves into a milky glaze that's drizzled over the top of these delicious and good for you cinnamon rolls. Whole-wheat flour adds a healthy dimension to these tasty rolls.

The Big Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Cinnamon-Pecan Rolls Recipe

Simple enough for a beginning baker, this easy yeast-roll dough rises in just 30 minutes.

Easiest Cinnamon Rolls Ever Recipe

Holiday mornings and chilly afternoons are made complete with warm, gooey cinnamon rolls. If you want to make them for breakfast, you can make the rolls the night before, cover them well, and refrigerate the unbaked rolls overnight. Just let them come to room temperature before baking them as directed. If you prefer a more gooey roll, bake for less time. 

Cinnamon Bun Eclairs Recipe

Planning a morning visit to your neighborhood bakery might fill your mind with puffy cinnamon rolls dripping with tangy cream cheese frosting. But then you arrive and spot those cream-filled eclairs behind the glass—you can’t decide which would be a better choice for your morning sugar rush. Sure, you could buy both and go splitsies with your roommate, but you could also try making a frankenfood. Cinnamon roll eclairs are sweet and creamy interspersed with warm cinnamon and a cream cheese glaze.

These pastries start as choux, which you may also know as the stuff that becomes the outside of cream puffs or profiterole. It’s a delicate batter that’s made partially on the stove and in the mixer (or with a wooden spoon and some arm muscles), piped into logs on a baking sheet, then baked until golden brown. The choux are filled with vanilla pudding—though we’d also recommend chocolate or butterscotch—then dipped in a cream cheese glaze, like a classic cinnamon bun. 

Cinnamon Bun Eclairs

Cream Cheese Glaze

Easy Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Recipe

In the US, cinnamon rolls are the classic pastry of all classic pastries. There’s a reason why Cinnabon exists. You can even scoop up cinnamon rolls at gas stations in Nowhere, Kansas. (Not that I’ve done that before or anything.) Cinnamon rolls are easy to find, but if you want to make your own, here’s the problem: They can be a pain. Yeast? Kneading? Real-life baking? Ugh, the horror. This is exactly why cinnamon roll pancakes can save your morning/day/life.

Pancake batter eliminates the need for actual dough. You can even use the stuff out of the box. No judgement here. It’s all about adding a buttery cinnamon filling to each and every pancake. Extra points for making swirls. The best part is when the cinnamon butter melts. It will literally cook into your pancake, infusing it with flavor. And in true frankenfood style, there’s also a cream cheese frosting. Maple syrup, who?

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Cinnamon Roll Muffins Recipe

Yeasted cinnamon rolls take hours—and they'll set you back 500 calories and 11g saturated fat. Here, we transform the delicacy into a portable muffin that's packed with whole grains, ribboned with nutty streusel, and topped with a tart-sweet yogurt glaze. The best part? It's ready in only half an hour. You can keep any leftovers in an airtight container up to 4 days, or freeze up to 1 month—although we doubt they'll last that long.

Nutella French Toast Rolls with Cinnamon Sugar Recipe

Remove the crusts from the slices of bread. Discard the crusts. Or eat them. Recipe from SteakNPotatoKindaGirl via FoodPorn.com.

Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Make sure your butter is very soft when you spread it on the rolled dough so the dough doesn't tear.

Grapefruit-Pistachio Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

These gooey and gorgeous homemade cinnamon rolls are a vibrant uptake on those classic canned orange rolls Mom would break out for special occasion breakfasts. Never made sweet rolls from scratch before? Trust us, the dough is far easier to make and work with than you might think. And with a soft pink colored grapefruit-cream cheese glaze and a decadent filling featuring pistachios, dark brown sugar, fresh ginger, cardamon, and cinnamon, these morning glories are sure to steal the show at any brunch gathering. If you want to prep them ahead, simply follow the recipe through step 6 the night before and pop your rolls into the fridge; just be sure to bring them to room temperature the following day before baking and glazing.

Sticky Cinnamon Roll Babka Buns Recipe

If you're looking for decadence, you're in the right place. Though the dough requires multiple steps, the result is a bun that is sweeter, stickier, and more gooey than any bun you've had before. Our chefs joke about wanting to take a nap after experiencing the richness of this dessert. Saigon cinnamon is recommended for a stronger spicy-sweet flavor, but regular cinnamon can be easily substituted. Serve with coffee at brunch or as an afternoon treat. 

Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie Recipe

Real talk: Pie crust is the most difficult part of making a pie. Achieving a buttery, flaky consistency without going too far past golden brown is not always easy. And there are times when you simply don’t have the time or patience to make a crust from scratch—that’s why store-bought pie crust is a godsend. So why not go a step further by using another type of ready-to-bake tube for your apple pie crust? You can probably see where we're going with this. Store-bought refrigerated cinnamon rolls are the perfect crust for this most American of desserts. Think that's a little too weird? You add cinnamon to your apple pie, don't you? It’s not that out there.  

Halving and rolling out the cinnamon buns ensures that they’ll stay thin and crisp like a pie crust would, rather than rising into actual cinnamon buns. Don't have a rolling pin? No problem. You can flatten the cinnamon buns using a glass. Just make sure to properly flour the surface. We saved some extra pieces of dough to create a lattice on top of the apple pie (because what’s apple pie without a lattice top, right?). Right before serving, drizzle the icing that’s included in your cinnamon roll tube overtop the pie. Mhm. That's the way to roll.

Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie

Sticky Toffee Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Cinnamon rolls were in regular rotation when I was growing up. There was no clearer sign of Sunday morning than the hollow clink of the cake tin hitting the stove and the assertive pop of a vacuum-packed canister of cinnamon rolls being split open. Arranged casually in a baking dish, they would swell and snuggle in the oven, their giraffe-like pattern of flaky cinnamon topping melting to cover the rolls in a layer of perfectly-engineered sweet spice. They were really more like biscuits than “rolls”—with a questionable ingredient list and wartime-appropriate expiration date—but these were the cinnamon rolls of my youth. And I loved them. 

I’ll admit I dabbled with the ‘Bons, their irresistible scent luring my tween posse toward a random alcove of the mall next to the Mrs. Fields. While most of my pals preferred the cinnamon-soaked interior, I liked the drier outer layers drizzled with gooey frosting. But as I grew older I started to find these industrialized rolls unappealing, the icing too sweet, the size intimidating. But that aroma, even after all these years, is still wholly intoxicating. 

I wanted to create a more sophisticated cinnamon roll, something more reasonable, appropriately-sized, dare I say, adult. A sweet treat that would still make the house smell like a food court without sending me into an extended sugar coma. 

But where’s the fun in that? 

So I split the difference. Yes, I came up with cinnamon rolls of a more manageable size and I swapped some of the sugar for maple syrup and sticky sweet dates which offer a complexity that none of the big-box brands can offer. I lost the icing but went instead with a layer of nutty upside-down-cake-inspired brown sugar and butter topping. Make no mistake, these cinnamon rolls are indulgent, but they’re homemade so it’s cool, right? These aren’t necessarily good for you, but they’re good for you. 

Note: For extra credit you can make your own dough for these, but a couple of balls of prepared pizza dough work just fine.

Sticky Toffee Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Sausage Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

I have a primal weakness for the combination of sweet and salty flavors. I still remember the first time I combined some of my granddad’s spicy breakfast sausage with pancakes and Karo syrup on my fork and took them down in one bite. I was a very young child, but I became a devout believer in the combination, immediately. Cinnamon rolls have been a special that has floated in and out of our repertoire for years, and one day it dawned on me that adding sausage to them might induce the same euphoric reaction I remember as a youngster. Guess what? Damn right they do! These sausage cinnamon rolls require a commitment, but you can bet your sweet ass they are worth all of the work.

Sausage Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Reprinted with permission from Big Bad Breakfast by John Currence, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Danish Cinnamon Buns Recipe

Danish model, TV presenter, and mother of three Caroline Fleming knows a thing about hygge, that Nordic philosophy of living well. As she writes in the introduction of her first English-language cookbook Cook Yourself Happy: The Danish Way, the Danish word encapsulates more than just a feeling of being warm and fuzzy by the fire. “For us Danes,” she explains, hygge, “means being in a warm and cozy environment, being safe and secure as a child, knowing you are loved and supported unconditionally, never working too hard or too many hours, thereby never sacrificing time with your family, which comes first in our world.” And what better way to ring in the change in seasons and revel in all that hygge has to offer than with a recipe from Fleming’s childhood: cinnamon buns, also known as kanelsnegle in Danish.

This recipe is inspired by Fleming’s grandmother, who would make a big batch of buns when she visited. “My sister and I would eat these every day when we got back from school, and also—if we were lucky—for breakfast,” she writes in her cookbook. “Granny baked these again just before she left and froze them in smaller batches, which is such a good idea as these buns truly are the most heavenly snack for children, both big and small.”

Freezing these cinnamon buns is an easy way to have a little dose of coziness anytime you want. “I usually freeze them in bags of eight and take them out the evening before, when using them for a weekend breakfast or in the morning if using them for an after-school snack,” explains Fleming in an email, noting that she warms them in the oven at about 350°F.

But really, she explains, “For me the buns are best when you really spend time on kneading the dough, feeling with your hands all the love you have in your heart. The butter sugar and cinnamon mixture is easy to spread using your fingers or a rubber spatula.” Though Fleming loves eating these buns at Christmas, “because of the cinnamon and the scent they fill the house with,” there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying these easy-to-make cinnamon buns all year-round—or anytime you want to feel a little bit cozier or closer to family.

Kanelsnegle, or Cinnamon Buns

Pistachio Tahini Cinnamon Rolls  Recipe

Delicious and not too sweet, the flavors of tahini, pistachios, and cardamom combine beautifully in a fluffy, light roll. These cinnamon rolls take a little extra time, but they’re so worth the effort—especially since most of the work is hands-off. Working with yeast is nothing to be afraid of. If you’re worried about your water being too warm or cool, use a thermometer to keep the temperature in check. These rolls would be fantastic at breakfast or brunch, but they’re also perfect for a snack or treat with a cup of coffee or hot tea. 

Skillet Cinnamon Roll With Cranberry Glaze   Recipe

Why make a batch of cinnamon rolls for a crowd when you can make one giant roll that everyone can share? This big roll looks impressive, but it’s not a difficult task—if you’ve made cinnamon rolls before, this isn’t much different. You can use up any leftover cranberry sauce from holiday dinners in the pink glaze, which isn’t so fruity it denotes that classic cinnamon roll flavor. If you need to make part of this ahead of time, let the dough rise ahead of time, then transfer to the fridge to chill overnight. In the morning, remove it from the fridge and let stand 15 minutes before continuing with the rest of the recipe. 

Best-Ever Sticky Buns Recipe

These ooey-gooey, pecan-topped cinnamon rolls live up to their name. Paige and her mother prepare the dough on Christmas Eve and bake the sticky buns first thing in the morning. Bonus: Everyone enjoys waking up to the sweet smell of cinnamon and brown sugar on Christmas Day.

Cinnamon Roll Swirl Cake Recipe