Use Frozen Bread Dough to Bake Gooey Cinnamon Rolls!
This delicious & easy cinnamon roll recipe has a genius shortcut for cutting down your hands-on time in the kitchen for breakfast.
Love homemade cinnamon rolls, but not a fan of the work involved!?
I enjoy making homemade cinnamon rolls, but the first part of making a yeast dough can be a little time-consuming. Consider utilizing frozen bread dough as a genius starter to bake mouth-watering cinnamon rolls at home!
These turn out AWESOME and are a crowd-pleaser for sure! Ever since my sister-in-law made these for a family gathering, this is how I make cinnamon rolls and they turn out mouthwatering and delicious each time.
This is such a great semi-homemade method.
After your dough thaws out overnight you can go just right into the steps of rolling the dough up with butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar. There is a little bit of rise time before going into the oven, but this is very easy!
In case you haven’t tried Rhodes frozen bread dough, it tastes so much like homemade white bread and is a great starter for cinnamon rolls. I also made a quick cream cheese glaze for the top, but you could use a different icing if desired. This is a great basic recipe that you can easily add to if your family prefers nuts and/or raisins etc.
Cinnamon Rolls from Frozen Bread Dough
yield: 6 SERVINGS
prep time: 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES
cook time: 25 MINUTES
total time: 1 HOUR 35 MINUTES
Delicious easy cinnamon roll recipe with frozen dough bread is quick and tasty! Adapted from allrecipes.com
Ingredients
For the rolls:
- frozen bread loaf, defrosted (such as Rhodes)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream *optional
For the cream cheese glaze:
- 3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
- 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk, or more as needed
- dash of vanilla extract
Directions
1
Sprinkle your work surface area with flour. Roll out the defrosted loaf of bread into a long rectangle shape.
2
Spread the melted butter on top of the dough, followed by brown sugar and cinnamon.
3
Start from the longer end and roll up the dough. Cut the tube into about 12 slices. Place the rolls into a greased cake pan or casserole pan.
4
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover the rolls with a tea towel on the oven and let them rise and get puffy until they double in size for about 30 minutes.
5
Drizzle 1/3 cup heavy cream over top (optional but yummy!) Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
6
Whisk together cream cheese, milk, powdered sugar, and Vanilla until glaze is formed. Add milk to get desired thickness.
7
Spread the glaze over the cinnamon rolls.
Extra tips for baking this easy cinnamon roll recipe:
- The bit of added whipping cream before baking is optional, but it makes them extra delicious and helps them not dry out at all. It’s a great addition in my opinion.
- Be sure you leave enough time for your loaf of bread to thaw. There are instructions on the bag. I typically throw mine in the fridge the night before in a loaf pan. In the morning, I’ll let it continue to rise a bit on the counter before starting this recipe.
- For an even faster idea, check out how I make frozen Rhodes cinnamon rolls by also adding cream to them before baking!
These fluffy cinnamon rolls are so delicious and will disappear fast!
I’ve made them so many times eventually you can just estimate the amounts of sugar, butter, etc, and just measure with your heart. We make them for special occasion brunches, holidays, and sometimes even for tailgating morning games.
I do know that Rhodes now has frozen cinnamon rolls you can just throw in the oven, but I encourage you to give this method a try!
Would they have to be refrigerated?
Hmm…Great question, unsure. They didn’t last past a day in our house, but I would place in fridge if longer than a day. 👍
I store mine UNIced in a airtight container and a small batch of icing in refrigerator. Heat up for 15 seconds in microwave and add icing. Tend to stay fresh about 5 days this way, I always make about 3 dozen at a time or they wouldn’t last one day lol.
Yum…can’t wait to try these!! Love your sugar container….where did you get that??
Thanks! Thrift store find 😀
Bummer…..I was hoping to get one but so glad you were able to find it!
Oh you know what duh I have a white sugar container that’s from a thrift store-My brown sugar container is just a normal clear food storage container found at any big box store with an adhesive chalkboard label on it. 👍
I wish I hadn’t seen this recipe! 😉
I know sorry! So good. 😁
What if the dough already rises before preparation? Can you still roll it out and fill it in and does it go in the oven right away ?
Even easier than this recipe is the Rhodes frozen cinnamon rolls instead of using frozen bread. They are delicious and much less work. Just set them out a few hours or the night before and bake. They even come with their own packets of cream cheese frosting. The ones in the circular metal pan are not as good as the ones in the plastic bag.
Good to know! Never tried those 👍😀
They are delicious
Honest question – how are these better than the refeigerated tubes? Some things are better homemade or mostly-homemade but for a lot of things I find that getting a natural/simple/organic/high-ish quality version of a boxed/canned item (like soup, muffins, brownies, mac&cheese, cinnamon rolls) and adding a couple ingredients is as good or better than what I could make and at half the cost and effort…
Interesting. I actually usually make the tubes as a once in a while treat. These definitely tasted better and “homemade” to us. So if you’re in the mood to bake something special, celebrate an occasion, make as a gift, potluck, or simply want to customize it with your own topping or nuts than this method is a plus. 👍😀
so many of the tubed bread products taste like variations of biscuits
I agree
These taste more like regular cinnamon rolls. The tube obes have a funny, odd (maybe preservative?) flavor to me.
Because it is more of a biscuit dough instead of a traditional yeast dough.
we had to stop using the tube ones cause they add a ton of dye in them. My son cant have red dye #40 and he always had issues when we made them until I finally realized all the additives that pilsbury puts in their rolls. I am sure other whole foods stores or trader joes has ones with more natural ingredients
Oh interesting! Thanks michelle
I made homemade yeast rolls tonight with my daughter. ÷)
Awesome!
My husband loves cinnamon rolls. This a great recipe for us to make over the holiday weekend. Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Sure and thanks Kandyce! Enjoy. happy holidays!
Great recipe for Christmas morning breakfast. Thank you!!
Great Ashley – thanks for reading!
If you really wanna get crazy, brush the dough with Nutella that’s been microwaved for a few seconds. Use half the icing in the recipe and replace with Nutella (again that’s been warmed in the microwave to soften the consistency).
My family loves them and they don’t last long….
This is amazing! Will do that. Thanks Jenn! 😋
Stop it!
😄😄😄
Slightly off topic…but this post reminded me of a Christmas a few years ago. I woke up before everyone else and decided to make coffee and cinnamon rolls from the can. I had the vision of the kids and my husband waking up on Christmas morning to yummy smells and a toasty warm house. Except everyone slept in! The kids were exhausted from the day before and my husband was just happy to have a day off. I drank all the coffee and my cinnamon rolls got hard and cold. By the time they all rolled out of bed I was ready to go back to sleep. I started giggling as soon as i saw this! post.
Oh too funny! 😀
Haha…great post
Can I prepare the night before and then refrigerate to bake the next morning? If so, how would I go about it?
Ya I haven’t tried yet but I may for this Christmas. Everything I’ve read says you can roll out cinnamon rolls, place in pan covered and refrigerated overnight. Then in the morning take them out and let them rise for an hour or so on the counter and bake.
Yes it works, although I’ve found it may take them longer to rise after being refrigerated, so maybe allow a little extra time.
Thanks Polly!
A tip to help with the rising is once you have your rolls ready and jn the pan for rising sit you pan on a heating pad. I always set it to high abd it works great for me. I do this woth breads and pretzel dough anything that needs to rise. I do a lot of baking and this speeds it up.
Great tip, I usually sit mine one washer top and turn on dryer ( with wet clothing in) to help get a warm area.
I have been making these 20 years and love adding raisins and dried cranberries
I make homemade cinnamon rolls (Pioneer Woman recipe is fantastic!) and do this. I use this method from Alton Brown and it works perfect:
Preheat oven to 200. Put cinnamon rolls in straight from fridge and turn the oven off. Leave them to rise in the warm oven for 30 minutes. Keep them in and turn oven to 375. Set the timer for 15 minutes and take them out. I also freeze pans of the rolls before baking and move them from freezer to fridge about 24 hours before I want to bake, then follow the above. Yum!
You can take the frozen pan of rolls out of the freezer the night before and leave them on the counter and they will be thawed and raised and ready for the oven in the morning. I have been doing it that way for decades.
I do this too but I actually just leave overnight in the oven(not on) and then turn the oven on when I wake up.
Thank you ladies for all the advice. It’s so helpful, I would never know you can do all this. I’ve never made cinnamon rolls expect from a can.
These look so good and sounds easy! Will have to give it a try, my boys will love these! Thank you!
Sure Lolie!
Ooh I bet you could do some version of this with pillsbury crescent rolls or grands biscuits…I’m going to have to do some playing!
I do the crescent rolls all the time. They are delicious!!!
Grands make wonderful cinnamon rolls. I lay them out overlapping and just roll them with the rolling pin into one big sheet of dough.
FYI – don’t cut dough with a knife. I always use dental floss when I need to cut through dough! Just tie once and it cuts right through the dough without smashing it.
That is genius! Thanks for the tip Cheryl ✅
Make sure you’re using plain waxed floss, nothing flavored when working with food.
Thank you. I’m going to try this trick this weekend.
These look delicious and since I’ve only ever baked cinnamon rolls from a tube, I’d like to try it. Where is the best price to be found on frozen dough? TIA
They can usually be found in the grocery or Walmart type stores in freezer section. We enjoy the dinner rolls and also the loaf bread.
Will the Rhodes dinner roll dough work??
Yes I think you can do that but may be easier to roll them like this idea:
https://www.rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/featured-recipe-simple-cinnamon-rolls
Oh ok … u think I could still use the heavy cream this way too?
There are good recipes online for cinnamon rolls in the slow cooker which I’m sure this recipe would be great for! Thank you for all your recipes, crafts and everything you do😊
These sound so good. Thanks for sharing! I love semi homemade stuff, makes life easier.
I just buy the frozen Rhodes cinnamon rolls, pre made. They are great! Then you can make your own cream cheese frosting or caramel topping (if doing caramel rolls) with those.
Great suggestion!
These are so amazingly delicious! After making some for family, I have continued to make them and gave to friends as gifts over the holidays. Just made 4 pans tonight for my coworkers. Thanks for the great recipe.
Oh how nice! Thanks for sharing with me 😉
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I used to make these years ago, and my kids loved them, but I lost the recipe.
I couldn’t get the dough to roll out any suggestions
Hmmm that’s odd. Did you thaw it out? I think the more you let it thaw and become room temp it becomes more workable. If it’s sticky then maybe add some flour to your surface first. 👍
Can I use Rhodes rolls instead of the bread? …that is what I have in my freezer.
https://www.rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/featured-recipe-simple-cinnamon-rolls/
Ya I found a recipe that does that!
This might be a silly question. Is that a regular loaf of bread, just frozen, then defrosted? Thank you
Great tip, I usually sit mine one washer top and turn on dryer ( with wet clothing in) to help get a warm area.
I have been making these 20 years and love adding raisins and dried cranberries
How big should the rolled out dough be?
Can you freeze them and bake later?
Hi Lori! For these rolls, the dough is already frozen and you’ll need to defrost/let rise according to the packaging directions in order to follow the remaining steps. When searching if this brand’s dough can be thawed and re-froze, it seems that the yeast in these can get damaged and you may not get the best results from the product. Hope this helps! ❤️
Just bake them first, then freeze.
Interesting take on cinnamon rolls, just bought some bread dough on clearance so will try these. Here’s a hint for cutting them, use dental floss, you’ll breeze right thru the dough.
I can’t be the only one with this question….here goes….after i open the brown sugar it always gets rock hard on me….what is the secret to keeping it soft?
This happens to me too, Kim! When I go to get the brown sugar, I typically try to measure out the approximate amount I need and place in the microwave for 15-20 seconds at a time to soften. Another alternative is one of these cute brown sugar keepers in your container! Hoping these suggestions are helpful! 🤗💕
How about using half and half instead of whipping cream? I just made a trip to the store, I’m not going back!
Hey there, Pat! The heavy whipping cream is optional, but you could try using half and half instead or just leave it out completely! Let us know how they turn out if you decide to give it a try! 💞
You reason like I do! Spooky!
I have no idea where I went wrong but my cinnamon “rolls” looked so bad and there was so much butter left in the pan. I ended up clipping the rolls and turning it into monkey bread instead. This ended up soaking up all the buttery goodness so next time I’m going to save some time and just cut up the dough and cook it this way to begin with. It was amazing and I may or may not have eaten it instead of my dinner. Thanks for the recipe!
Wellllll I just realized why there was so much butter left. I doubled and a halved it, I used a whole stick…oops! Maybe that’s why they were extra delicious and not quite rolls! But I’m still going to continue to make them this way again. So bad but SOOOOOO good!
Oops! 🙃 Sounds like that extra butter made them even more delicious! 😋🧈 Sometimes the best “mistakes” turn into new favorites! Thanks for sharing – so glad you’re loving them! 💖