Cinnamon Rolls – both Freezer and Overnight

Cinnamon Rolls After my last “woe-is-me-I am-sick-and-discouraged” post, I will endeavor to stop coughing long enough to write something a little more encouraging! 🙂

(And a special thank you for all the kind words and offers to take my children! They are good kids – but they do eat a lot!)

Okay – on to something encouraging – what about comfort food? And what’s more comforting than fresh hot cinnamon rolls!

My family loves these for Sunday breakfast – but I don’t love getting up before dawn to make them fresh.

I figured if  you could buy frozen cinnamon  rolls and thaw them to bake – surely there was a way to make them homemade? So we experimented.

First – here’s the basic recipe:

Cinnamon Rolls

2 cup lukewarm water
2 packages dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup cooking oil
2 teaspoons salt
7 cups flour
softened butter or margarine
brown sugar
cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes. The yeast should be bubbly.  Add the sugar, oil, and salt. Mix well.

Mix in the flour until a soft dough forms. Knead 4-6minutes. (I absolutely LOVE my Bosch Mixer for this – and all yeast breads. It’s paid for itself many times over!)

Put the dough in a large lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise one hour.

Divide the dough into half and roll each half into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.  Spread with softened butter, layer thickly with brown sugar and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon. (I don’t have exact measurements for these – just pile on to taste!)

Roll the dough from the long side and cut into 1 inch rolls with a serrated knife.

Place the rolls in a greased baking dish. Each of the dough halves should fill one 9 x 13 inch pan – or 2 – 9 inch rounds. (So the recipe will make 2 – 9 x 13 pans or 4 – 9 inch rounds). Cover with a clean dry towel and let rise till double – about 1 hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20- 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Let the rolls cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Invert the hot rolls onto a serving plate and smother with frosting!

Overnight Version:

Make the rolls out and put in the baking dish the night before.  Do not let them rise! Just cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, let them sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven. Bake them and serve as usual.

Freezer version:

Make the rolls up and put them in a baking dish (metal cake pans or aluminum foil pans work very well). Do not let them rise! Just cover and freeze for up to one month. Remove from the freezer the night before and let thaw and raise on the counter. In the morning, preheat the oven and bake as normal.

The longer the rolls are in the freezer, the less the yeast works. Ideally – we try to use them up within 2 weeks. The ones we kept in the freezer for 3 months were hard and flat when we finally baked them!

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post up over at Beauty and Bedlam for Tasty Tuesday and Blessed With Grace’s Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

17 thoughts on “Cinnamon Rolls – both Freezer and Overnight”

  3. This is a great way to plan ahead. I should fill my freezer with a bunch of these for those lazy Saturday mornings when I want to sleep in but my kids want breakfast! Thanks.

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  6. Wooooooow…….Drooooool…..

    These look soooo good! And I love the idea of freezing in advance! Thank you for sharing this.

    Now I have to find something sweet…

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  7. Oh dear, I’m afraid these look way too delicious so I’m having to back away slowly. Why are the things we love to eat usually the things that aren’t good for us? And why are some of the best tasting foods ones that are so easy to make? No, seriously thanks for the recipe – I’ll have to make these!

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  13. Yum-Oh!! I think I might have to give these a try! We love cinnamon rolls and I have a recipe I use often however I’m always open to something new!

    Hope that you are feeling much better! :o)

    Mendi

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  16. What some of my favorite comfort food. Great recipe and I love the overnight version there are so many times I want something already happening in the morning when I get up. Thank you.

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