There are a few things I need in order to make Christmas morning feel exactly like Christmas morning. Thereโs the smell of my dadโs Christmas church sweater (itโs maroon wool, maybe 20 years old, and he always looks handsome in it). I need a whiff of the perfume my mom sprays on before we go to church on Christmas morning. And I need the smell of something cinnamon-y coming from the oven come early afternoon. Simple, yeah?
This time of year is heavy in its nostalgia and why mess with a good good great thing?
This year for Christmas (aside from all the comforting parental details), Iโm excited to partner with King Arthur Flourโs Holiday Table and making their Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls. Oh just the most decadent, comforting, cinnamon smelling, yeast rolls I could find.
Check our King Arthur Flourโs Holiday Table for other very worthwhile Christmas morning adventures, like Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake or these Christmas Scones! Anyway you work a Christmas morning, let something decadent and special come out of the oven.
What I love about these rolls is that you can assemble, roll and slice them the night before and bake them off fresh the next morning! Your family will think youโre a holiday wizard.
Hereโs what weโll need to bring these rolls to LIFE!
Firstโฆ turn your Christmas tree lights on. It only seems fitting, and it adds good mojo for holiday baking.
Gather your ingredients for the dough:
โข King Arthur Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
โข Granulated sugar + brown sugar
โข Active dry yeast
โข Eggs
โข Warm milk
โข Softened butter
Hereโs the beauty of these cinnamon rolls: theyโre so much easier that you might think.
Weโll start by dumping (technical baking term) all of the dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Must you use a stand mixer for this recipe? Not necessarily. You can also bring all of the ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture starts to take shape, you can place it on a floured work surface and knead until soft and smooth.
I find that using a stand mixer is faster and helps me incorporate the right amount of flour. I notice when I hand-knead I tend to go heavy on the flour just because this dough is rather soft and can be pretty sticky at the beginning.
King Arthur Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour + brown sugar in the bowl.
Add active dry yeast.
Softened butter, too! I cut mine in chunks so it mixes a bit more evenly into the dough.
A good pinch of salt.
Egg and whole milk to top off the dough ingredients.
This is going to be a soft, rich, really luscious dough, and we havenโt even added the cream cheese yet! If you canโt tell, weโre on the track to greatness.
Before turning on the dough hook in the mixer, I mixed the shaggy mixture with a spatula just to give the dough a head start.
After about 8 minutes at low speed, the dough becomes a soft, tacky but not too sticky dough.
Into a greased bowl for resting and rising.
Can I share one of my bakerโs tips with you?
I like to sprinkle the top of my dough with a bit of all-purpose flour before I set it off to rise.
As the dough rests and rises, the flour will begin to crackle across the top of the dough, an indication that the dough is on the move.
With patience weโve let the dough rise to double in size.
Hereโs what weโve got for rolling:
โข Softened cream cheese for layering into the dough.
โข Softened butter + brown sugar + ground cinnamon for filling or Bakerโs Cinnamon Filling!
โข Chopped walnuts and pecans
โข King Arthur Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour for dusting
In a small bowl, mix together the softened butter and brown sugar.
Weโre creating a paste to spread over the dough. The combination of butter and brown sugar will be slightly grainy as we stir it together, thatโs fine! Weโre creating a spread that will evenly distribute delicious filling flavor throughout the rolls.
Add cinnamon. Lots! My absolute favorite is King Arthur Flour Madagascar Cinnamon.
Set aside the paste and itโs time to get our hands in some dough!
Our dough has risen to double. Can you see the fluff? Itโs glorious.
Weโre going to roll and fold the dough several times, incorporating the softened cream cheese.
On a well-floured counter, roll the dough to 14 x 12 inches. (I legit have a kitchen ruler)
Spread softened cream cheese across the rolled dough.
This will be a generous amount of cream cheese, I set aside about three tablespoons of the cream cheese to add to the icing at the end.
Hereโs a helpful trick: To keep the cream cheese filling inside the dough as we fold and roll, fold the bottom and top edges of the corner in 1-inch, creating a sealed envelope weโre roll out again.
The right side of the dough is folded in one-third. The left side of the dough is folded over top of the first fold, creating an envelope of dough.
Roll and fold again.
If you find that some cream cheese is starting to peek out of the dough, lightly flour that spot and keep rolling if you can.
Finally, roll its final time to 12 x 18 inches.
Spread the rolled, cream-cheese-filled dough with our buttery sugar spread.
Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Add raisins or another dried fruit if youโre so inclined!
Roll tightly and adore.
Slice into 8 or 9 equal pieces.
If youโre drooling at this point, thatโs totally normal. Part of the process.
Arrange, rather cozy, in a greased baking dish.
The rolls will be lightly covered and rested for another hour. They rise slightly and puff together in the most endearing way.
After 30 minutes in the oven the rolls are golden brown and bubbling. They also smell like heaven exactly.
The remaining cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk are whisked into a thick but spreadable glaze.
At this point itโs nearly impossible to wait any longer.
I like to glaze slightly warm rolls. I like the way the glaze melts and soaks into the rolls rather than just sitting on top. Glaze warm. Enjoy warm!
These are easily the most decadent cinnamon rolls to ever emerge from my oven. The cream cheese integrates into the dough, creating the most tender and rich rolls. The cream cheese isnโt necessarily something you can taste with every bite of dough, but it adds a tenderness that is unparalleled. Adding a bit of cream cheese to the glaze brings the flavor to the front.
You know weโre onto something wonderful!
Happy Christmas Morning and be sure to check our King Arthur Flourโs Holiday Table for loads more inspiration!
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King Arthur Flourโs Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 180
- Yield: 8 1x
Ingredients
For the rolls
- 3/4 cup lukewarm milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- ยฝ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 ยผ teaspoons Red Star Platinum, Active Dry or Quick Rise yeast
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- ยพ teaspoon salt
- ยฝ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the filling
- ยผ cup finely chopped walnuts
- ยผ cup finely chopped pecans
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened and divided (3 tablespoons set aside for the icing)
For the icing
- remaining 3 tablespoons of softened cream cheese
- 1 cup confectionersโ sugar or glazing sugar
- 1 ยฝ tablespoons milk
Instructions
- To make the dough, place all of the dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low until the dough begins to come together. You may want to speed up the process by first mixing all of the ingredients together by hand with a spatula before putting the bowl on the stand mixer. This will help the dough hook with its work. The dough will come together into a soft, though not too sticky dough ball after several minutes of hand mixing and stand mixer mixing.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and lightly dust the top of the dough with flour. The flour will help you see that the dough is rising. Let it rise until itโs almost double in size, about 2 hours.
- To make the filling: Combine the nuts in one bowl, and the butter, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon in another. Set aside.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into a 14 x 12 inch rectangle. Spread the softened cream cheese evenly over the surface and fold the bottom and top edges of the dough over 1 inch.
- Fold one short end into the center. Fold the other short end over the first, like you were folding a letter.
- Carefully roll the dough into a 14 x 12 inch rectangle again, being careful not to tear the dough and reveal the cream cheese. Fold it like a letter again.
- Finally, roll the dough into a 12 x 18 inch rectangle. If some cream cheese starts to come through the dough, just flour the dough slightly and keep moving along. Spread the cinnamon filling evenly over the dough, followed by the nuts.
- Beginning with one long edge, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 8 or 9 equal slices. Place the slices in a greased 9 inch square or 10 inch square baking pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1 hour more. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375ยฐF.
- Bake the rolls for 30 to 35 minutes, until theyโre golden brown. Remove the rolls from the oven.
- To ice, whisk together the remaining cream cheese and sugar. Add the milk and whisk. Drizzle icing over the warm buns, and enjoy!
Notes
- To make the rolls the night beforeโฆ follow the recipe through slicing the rolls and placing them in the greased baking dish. Instead of leaving them out to rise, cover with plastic and place the rolls in the refrigerator to slowly rise overnight. When you want to bake them the next day, allow them to come to room temperature on the kitchen counter for about 30 minutes, preheat the oven and bake according to the recipe.
55 Responses
The temperature and time were too much and not enough cinnamon flavor.
These are my go to Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. They are perfect every time!
Just made these and everyone is RAVING about them. So decadent and delicious. This is my brunch dish for sure. Thanks for another awesome recipe!
Once again Joy comes through. Have mad this recipe probably 10 times and it never fails. Usually make em Friday night and bake in the am for a great start to Saturday!
These rolls were my iso-bake for this week and Iโm so glad I made them. So delicious! So tender! So hard to stop myself from eating another one even though I just ate one. For me this made 12 rolls (must have cut them smaller) so I took 6 over to friend who is in quarantine. Thanks Joy for a great recipe!
What a beautiful way to spend our precious flour and yeast! Iโve made these this week and they were everything we nedded! Fluffy, sweet, rich and full of comfort. The perfect antidote to stress in this uncertain times.
The method of layering the dough with cream cheeseโฆ genius! Thank you, Joy, for sharing this recipe with us :-)
Iโm very proud to report that Iโve made these twice nowโ my first attempt at making cinnamon rolls (or anything with yeast at all!). They are SO GOOD and now I canโt remember why I thought it was intimidating :) Thank you for being awesome!!
I needed a quality cinnamon roll recipe for Christmas, and I knew I could count on you, Joy! These turned out so delicious, very decadent and reminiscent of those beloved mall cinnamon rolls. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I am always on the hunt for the โbestโ cinnamon roll recipe. Iโve made so many variations, but this recipe is the best that I have found. The cream cheese layered into the dough itself is genius- I LOVE the tender texture it gave the rolls! I made these on Christmas Eve, let the rolls rise overnight in the fridge, and baked them on Christmas morning. My family adored them. This recipe is one Iโll be making again, for sure. Thank you!
Can you modify the sugar in the filling with coconut sugar instead of brown sugar?
Thatโs a good question. I thiiiiink yes, but I havenโt tested the recipe with this substitution, so Iโm really not sure.
This was my first time working with a yeasted dough and it was a great introduction. Kudos on the detailed instructions, clear photos for stepwise progression, and delicious outcome! Three cheers for New Years Day brunch tastiness.
Joy, These were the best cinnamon rolls I have had or made! Thank you!!!
This makes me so happy!
Made these yesterday so we could open our Christmas presents and then eat something amazing โ these cinnamon rolls were *more* than amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
While Iโm normally one-track mind about food, I was highly distracted while viewing this by your beautiful top/dress. Do tell, where is that from?
Itโs an old frock from BCBG
Hi Joy! Iโm making these for Christmas morning (super excited) but Iโm kind of terrified of yeast! This will be my first baking adventure using it. Do you need to proof it first or can you just add it in dry? Thank you!!
This recipe doesnโt require proofing. Just add it all in! You got this.
Thank you! The dough was absolute fluffy HEAVEN!
Hi Joy! Iโm making these rolls right now โ in the โgather your ingredientsโ section it says weโll need granulated sugar. But in the instructions it just calls for brown sugar. Is there really no sugar in this dough besides the brown sugar? Thanks!
Youโre absolutely right! I think we just need brown sugar!
This is exactly the most right thing to have on Christmas morning!!!
Hi Joy! Quick question about yeast. The recipe calls for active dry yeast but the link is to instant yeast. Which should I use? Itโs my understanding that they are different things. My store didnโt have SAF so I actually ended up buying both yeasts pictured in this Kitchn post: https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-active-dry-yeast-and-instant-yeast-54252
(They must have gone to the same store as me!)
Many thanks.
Use Active Dry Yeast as it calls for in the recipe!
Yay, thank you! Made these last night/this morning and they turned out GREAT.
i lolโd at granulated sugar + brown bugar for a while. i hope you leave it there! :) iโm always on the hunt for ze best cinnamon roll recipe for christmas mornโฆima try me this one this year. thanks, joy!!
I probably will.
Yum! My mom & I are making cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve!
Kari
https://sweetteasweetie.com
Can you rise/bake them in a muffin pan?
So yummy! This was my first time making cinnamon rolls and the directions were super clear and easy. For some reason my dough didnโt rise after 2 hours so I left it over night and did the rest in the morning. Came out fine and my fam was thrilled with the results. We had one round for breakfast and then ate the rest later that night for dessert (with ice cream :-) Thank you!!
Can I make these gluten free (my mum has gluten intolerance) by substituting with gluten free all purpose flour? I would love to make these on Christmas morning.
Sheila, I made these gluten free by using Trader Joes all purpose gluten free flour and adding 2 tsp. xanthan gum. They came out perfect and I was told they are the best cinnamon rolls ever! :)
Thanks Kristine!
These rolls look so yummy with a cup of coffee! I have never commented on your site before but I wanted to say how I love your sassy but elegant style and writing! Have a wonderful holiday,
Could you make these a couple days before and freeze them unbaked? If so would you thaw in the fridge the night before baking? Or just thaw on counter an hour before?
Yes, thaw in the refrigerator the day before baking.
Itโs amazing
Thank you, Joy! This recipe came at the perfect time. Cinnamon rolls are a Christmas tradition for my family. Iโve been searching for a recipe to make this weekendโฆthis is the one! I know I can trust your recipes and I appreciate your detailed instructions and photos. Iโll report back after giving these a try. Sending you good holiday vibes and much aloha!
These are the BEST cinnamon rolls I have ever made and possibly the best I have ever tasted!!! I made them last night, let them rise in the fridge overnight and baked them up this morning. The cream cheese makes them so tender. The dough was incredibly easy to work withโฆeven after one too many glasses of wine at our Noche Buena party! I used just pecans and added cardamom and nutmeg to the filling. I put a pinch of orange zest in the icing. So delightful for Christmas morning! Thank you for another wonderful recipe, Joy. Merry Christmas!
These look so incredible!
Two EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THINGS: 1) whatโs the procedure (yes, procedure) for making these the day/night before and baking them off in the morning? 2) I need to know all about that dress in those pictures. Adorbs!
Hi Katie! Ok yes two very important things:
1. To make the rolls the night beforeโฆ follow the recipe through slicing the rolls and placing them in the greased baking dish. Instead of leaving them out to rise, cover with plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator to slowly rise overnight. When you want to bake them the next day, allow them to come to room temperature on the kitchen counter for about 30 minutes, preheat the oven and bake according to the recipe.
2. The dress? Itโs an old BCBG frock.
LOVE! Thank you. :)
Hey Joy! I love your recipes, love your easy-goinโ spirit, love Nola! Anyways, any tips if I wanted to make these gorgeous rolls ahead of time! Can you leave them constructed and covered overnight in the fridge and bake in the AM?
Joy, both the rolls and the strusel(sp) are on my list of things to make. Thank you for both of these recipes, they look soooooo gooood!!
Christmas morning breakfast goals! These may even beat my dadโs epic bacon rolls!
https://victoriaspongepeasepudding.com/
Nothing beats bacon!
simple instructions.
My fav!! And these photos are super awesome too!
Ahhhh, thank you for posting theseโฆIโm making cinnamon buns for the first time for Christmas Eve brunch and this recipe came in the nick of time!!
Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning is our family tradition! Christmas morning cinnamon rolls, but Christmas eve night, a big bubbly pot of homemade beanies and weenies while watching Christmas Vacation. Itโs my most favorite thing in our little family of 2.
If you were to make these the day before, would you complete through step 8, then put the rolls in the fridge, and bake in the morning? These look incredible!
I have the same question!
To make the rolls the night beforeโฆ follow the recipe through slicing the rolls and placing them in the greased baking dish. Instead of leaving them out to rise, cover with plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator to slowly rise overnight. When you want to bake them the next day, allow them to come to room temperature on the kitchen counter for about 30 minutes, preheat the oven and bake according to the recipe.