It is reallllly hard to beat an ooooey goooey cinnamon roll, still warm from the oven. These ones are topped with cream cheese frosting, making them even harder to resist – but at only 52 mg sodium per roll, you don’t have to.
I love baking, so homemade goodies on the weekend are pretty common in our house. I have used several different recipes for cinnamon rolls, but I always come back to a version of the recipe here. For the dough, I adapted a recipe from my good old Betty Crocker cookbook. For the filling, I keep it simple, but I like to use a lot (more cinnamon & sugar = more ooey gooey, right?). To top it off, I make a classic cream cheese frosting, but I go a little heavy on the milk so that the frosting is very soft. It is not soft enough to be considered a glaze, but it is definitely not a super firm frosting.
I don’t have any secrets that I use to make cinnamon rolls. If you want to see my tips about making a good yeast bread, check out the Favorite White Bread – I follow those same tips for the cinnamon roll dough here.
Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
SODIUM COUNT: 52 mg per serving; 628 mg in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
Dough:
- ¼ cup warm water ((110°F to 115°F))
- 1 package quick rise yeast* ((2 ¼ teaspoons))
- ¾ cup lukewarm milk ((I microwave for 30–40 seconds))
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup soft shortening or butter
- 3 ½ to 3 ¾ cups all purpose flour
Filling:
- ½ cup brown sugar ((packed))
- 2 Tbsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
Frosting:
- 4 ounces cream cheese ((at room temperature))
- ¼ cup butter ((at room temperature))
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp milk
Instructions
Dough:
- In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the milk, sugar, egg, and shortening to the bowl and whisk. It is okay if your shortening is a little lumpy in the mixture at this point.
- Whisk in about half the flour, or until the dough is easy to handle. Continue to work in the flour by hand, kneading the dough for a about 5-8 minutes. (If you prefer you can use a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment instead of your hands.)
- Place the dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover with a light towel and place in a warm place. Let the dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
- When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and let rest for a minute or two. Place the dough on a floured surface and roll out until it measures about 18” x 22”.
Filling & Baking:
- Prepare the filling by stirring together the brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Spread the melted butter across the dough. Spread the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly across the dough. (There will be a lot of cinnamon and sugar.)
- Starting on a long edge, roll the dough into a log. Using a sharp knife or string, cut the log into 12 even slices (about 1 -1 ½” each). Place the cinnamon rolls into a 9”x13” baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
- Cover the rolls and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- When the rolls are finished rising, bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. While the cinnamon rolls are baking, make the frosting.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before topping with frosting. You can move the cinnamon rolls to a cooling rack or leave them in the pant to frost.
Frosting:
- Combine the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl. Using a mixer, beat until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and continue to beat until incorporated. Add the milk 1 Tablespoon at a time, until the frosting reaches a very soft consistency.
- Spread the frosting evenly on the cinnamon rolls and serve!
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 12 servings
Sodium: 52.4 mg, Calories: 345.0 Total Fat: 14.0 g, Saturated Fat: 7.7 g, Cholesterol: 44.3 mg, Carbohydrates: 48.3 g, Fiber: 1.1 g, Sugar: 18.8 g, Protein: 5.9 g.
*You can use regular active dry yeast instead, but it will take 1 1/2 to two hours to double in size.
Can these be made the day before? Any tips?
I have made them and eaten them leftover, and they hold up okay. They hold up a bit better if you wait to frost them until right before you are going to eat them. One thing that would also work is to mix the dough up the day before and refrigerate it (make sure it is in a large bowl because it will continue to rise until it cools down quite a bit). Then just pull the dough out of the fridge and let it warm at room temp for at least 15 minutes (an hour would be awesome if you have the time). Then you will just roll out the dough and make the cinnamon rolls like normal.
Any tips for the best way to store these? Making them the day before and I want to hold up as best as they can until tomorrow am.
There is one method that I have not tested myself, but I have read works pretty well. Prepare the cinnamon rolls through the step where you’ve rolled and cut them and placed them on the pan. Instead of allowing them to rise, cover them with plastic wrap (coat it with cooking spray or shortening to prevent sticking). Place them in the fridge until you’re ready to bake them. When you are ready to bake, pull them out of the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. This may take 2-3 hours, so if you don’t have that much time you can bake them before they are fully at room temp. They probably won’t be quite as fluffy as they would be if you let them come to room temp, but should still be tasty. Good luck!
My family really enjoyed these, Kathy! Thanks for taking the time to figure out great recipes for those needing to cut down on their sodium intake. You rock!
★★★★★
It’s my pleasure. Now I just need to get those crescent rolls 🥐 posted. 🙃
Good recipes my first time making these I need a bit more practice before I show a picture.
I was so looking forward to these. I confess that cooking from scratch is pretty new to me. Mine didn’t do the rising to double size thing. It rose a little. I put it in oven just with light on. And I gave it an extra half hour for the rising since it didn’t appear to be working. I also used a thermometer to make sure water was at proper heat. They didn’t rise anymore after I rolled and put in pan either. Any advice on what I may have done wrong?
Oh I’m so sorry to hear that! The first thing that comes to mind is that perhaps your yeast needs to be replaced. You may want to test (prove) your yeast. You do this by mixing one package of yeast, about a teaspoon of sugar, and a cup of warm water in a bowl. Then set the bowl aside for 5-10 minutes. If the yeast is still active, the mixture will get foamy. If it does not get foamy then the yeast is probably not active and you’ll need to replace it. You don’t typically prove quick rise, because it won’t get as foamy as active dry yeast. But even if all you have is quick rise yeast, it might be worth the 5-10 minutes to see if it’s still active before you begin baking.
The yeast bread recipe link (favorite white bread) mentions using a bread machine. Have you tried using a bread machine for the cinnamon rolls, using the dough only function?
I have not. Sorry!
Really enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
You’re welcome! I’m glad you like the recipe.
I would love to make this recipe, but generally people who need to watch their sodium are unable to have alcohol. According to the USDA alcohol burn-off chart, food needs to bake for 2.5 hours to only retain 5% of the alcohol content. Do you have any suggestions for a substitute for the beer.
Thank you
Sorry, I meant to comment Tom the goat cheese, chive, and honey. The cinnamon rolls look great
Hi there. I haven’t tested it with anything besides beer, but I would suggest that you try something else with carbonation, which is probably helping the bread rise a bit. Some options would be non-alcoholic beer or seltzer water (unsweetened, like LaCroix). Make sure to check the sodium in those (soda waters are high in sodium, but seltzer waters usually are not). If you can’t find anything carbonated that suits your taste, you can sub in another liquid (water, broth, milk), but it may not get quite the same rise. Best of luck!
I followed the recipe to the letter; yeast was not out of date; water temp was exact but dough did not double in size. I rolled up with filling, cut them and now they’re rising in the pan. I HOPE THEY RISE this time!
★★★★
Just got done making these. OMG!!! They are DELICIOUS!
Just when I thought baked treats were off the table.
Thank you!
★★★★★
The sodium content you state is WITH the icing? Any idea with no icing since I would like to decrease the sodium even more and maybe drizzle sugar icing
Yes the nutritional information includes icing. The cream cheese is where most of the sodium in the recipe comes from. Without it, you’d be cutting the sodium roughly in half. (That’s a guess without going and looking at my nutrition calculator.)