Same Day Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
on May 04, 2020, Updated Nov 13, 2024
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These fluffy Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls are a delectable breakfast treat served up with a buttercream frosting! For those of you with a sourdough starter wondering what else you can make than loaves of bread, here’s one (seriously good) recipe! These Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Cinnamon Babka Recipe and Lemon Blueberry Muffins are also some tasty breakfast treats to check out!
They’re here! The long-awaited sourdough cinnamon rolls I’ve been teasing you about on Instagram have finally dropped and I can’t wait to see you make these, too. Just like sourdough bread, it’s a recipe that takes some patience as you make the dough and let it rise, but man oh man, are they worth the wait. This recipe uses a sourdough starter; read my whole post here about easily making your own sourdough starter! The starter should be at its peak in height when you use it, and bubbly and active. Feed it 2 to 4 hours before using, depending on its habits, so that it’s at its peak when you are using it.
This recipe was developed with a sourdough starter that is kept at 100% hydration (it’s fed an equal amount of flour and water), which you can find in my tutorial. It was also tested with Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour. I recommend trying to avoid flour that has been bleached for best results. The rising times can vary a lot depending on your schedule and how warm your kitchen is. Feel free to let the recipe work in your favor. Know that the longer it rises each time, the more sour flavor it will have. I also used a buttercream frosting, but if you prefer a cream cheese frosting for your cinnamon rolls, feel free to use one instead.
Table of Contents
🍞 18 Easy Sourdough Recipes!
Ingredients
- Milk: Milk is the liquid that activates your starter and adds some creaminess to the dough.
- Sugar: To sweeten the dough slightly, sugar is incorporated.
- Butter: Butter adds a nice richness and golden color to the dough.
- Active & bubble sourdough starter: Find my tutorial here to make your own sourdough starter!
- Salt: Salt elevates and balances all the other flavors.
- Eggs: Eggs bind everything together.
- All-purpose flour: Flour is what makes the dough into a bread-like texture. I recommend using all-purpose and unbleached for the best results!
For the Filling
- Brown Sugar
- Cinnamon
- Butter
For the Frosting
- Butter
- Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla
- Milk
See recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
Tips to Make The Best Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls:
- Use unbleached flour: Unbleached flour creates the best consistency and rise for sourdough cinnamon rolls.
- Soften the butter for the filling: You want softened but not melted butter for the filling. Microwave it in short increments until it’s easy to spread with a butter knife. Melted butter will leak out of the rolls when baking.
- Pay attention to rise time: You may have to let your dough rise longer depending on the temperature of the room. Also, the longer the rise, the more sourdough flavor they’ll have. If you like strong sourdough, make the dough and prepare the raw rolls in a baking dish before covering and refrigerating overnight. Bake the next morning.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Store leftover, cooled cinnamon rolls in one layer in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can also freeze them for up to 4 months.
If your dough isn’t rising, try placing it in a sunnier or warmer area of your house. Sometimes a chilly room keeps it from activating and rising. Another issue could be the sourdough starter itself. Mixing it with too hot liquid can kill the natural yeast in the starter, so just make sure you use warm liquid, not hot. You also want it to be at its peak in height when you use it, and bubbly and active. Feed it 2 to 4 hours before using, depending on its habits.
Yes! Prepare the dough and the raw rolls in the baking dish, but instead of baking immediately, refrigerate overnight and bake them in the morning. It makes them extra fluffy and they’ll have a stronger sourdough flavor!
Other Sourdough Breads To Try
These are some of my other dare-I-say amazing sourdough recipes that have become family favorites!
- Sourdough Cinnamon Swirl Bread – A Perfect Breakfast Loaf
- No Knead Sourdough Bread {Easy Beginner’s Recipe}
- Soft Sandwich Loaf Sourdough Bread
- Fluffy Sourdough Rolls
Baked Breakfast Recipes to Consider
Muffin Recipes
Spice Up Your Morning With Gingerbread Muffins
Muffin Recipes
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Muffin Recipes
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Muffin Recipes
Banana Nut Muffins
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
Same Day Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
For the Rolls:
- 1/4 cup milk, whole or 2%
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter, cut into 4 pieces
- 2/3 cup active bubbly sourdough starter*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/3 to 2 2/3 cups quality all-purpose flour
For the Icing:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Heat the milk, sugar, and butter in a small saucepan or microwave-safe container just until the milk is warm and the butter is melted. If it gets overly hot, let it cool before using. You’ll want it to be only warm to the touch when adding it to your sourdough starter. If it’s too hot, it’ll kill your natural yeast, and your rolls won’t rise.
- Add the milk mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer, add the sourdough starter, salt, 2 eggs, and 2 cups of flour.
- Mix with the dough hook on low speed until the mixture forms a very wet dough, and then mix on medium-low speed to knead very well for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Let the dough rest for 5 minutes in the bowl with the mixer turned off.
- After 5 minutes have passed add a little more flour to the mixture, about 1/3 cup, and let the machine knead the mixture for another 4 to 5 minutes.
- Turn the very soft dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead by hand until the dough is no longer sticky, but is still very tender, adding a little flour as needed as you knead. You may add up to another 1/3 cup of flour. Form the dough into a smooth ball.
- Lightly grease the mixing bowl and return the dough to the bowl.
- Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel, and let it rise for 3 to 6 hours at room temperature.
- Prepare a baking dish by greasing it well. You can use a 9×13-inch or an 11×7-inch baking dish or even two 8-inch round pie plates. I prefer to use an 11×7-inch pan so that they cook close together.
- Gently remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface.
- Roll out the dough into a rectangle that is roughly 14 inches by 18 inches.
- If the butter you are working with isn’t not very soft, microwave it for just a few seconds so that it’s semi-solid but very, very soft.
- Spread the soft butter evenly over the entire rectangle of rolled out dough.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over the brown sugar.
- Starting along the edge that is 14 inches long, roll the dough up against itself.
- Roll the dough into a log. Make a small mark in the dough about halfway, in the middle, of the rolled up dough. Make a small mark on the dough in the center of each half (you’ve now roughly marked your dough into 4 sections).
- With a serrated knife cut each section you marked into 3 pieces, cutting the entire log into 12 even pieces.
- Place them flat side down evenly in the pan (they fit in a 3-by-4 pattern well in the rectangle pans).
- Cover the rolls with a damp towel, and allow to rise at room temperature for an additional 1 to 3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F., and then bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops are golden-brown.
- While the rolls are cooking, make the icing. To make the icing, add the butter to a microwave safe bowl, and microwave until melted.
- Add the vanilla and the powdered sugar to the warm butter, and stir with a whisk to combine.
- Add the milk a tablespoon at a time, and stir to combine. It’s ok if the icing gets a little thick; just whisk it until there are no lumps and it’s smooth. The icing will melt over the warm rolls to the perfect consistency.
- When the rolls are done cooking remove them from the oven. Allow them to rest for 5 minutes.
- Spread the warm rolls gently with the icing to cover well. Serve warm.
Notes
- *Your sourdough starter should be at its peak in height when you use it, and bubbly and active. Feed it 2-4 hours before using, depending on its habits, so that it’s at its peak when you are using it.
- This recipe was developed with a sourdough starter that is kept at 100% hydration (it’s fed an equal amount of flour and water).
- This recipe was tested with Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour; try to avoid flour that has been bleached for best results.
- The rising times can vary a lot depending on your schedule and how warm your kitchen is. Feel free to let the recipe work in your favor. Know that the longer it rises each time, the more sour flavor it will have.
- If you prefer a cream cheese frosting for your cinnamon rolls, feel free to use one instead.
- You can make the dough and prepare the rolled dough the night before, and then cover them tightly with plastic wrap and let them rise overnight in the fridge after you’ve cut and shaped them. Bring them to room temperature before baking in the morning. This adds quite a bit of sour flavor.
This sounds great!y starter is not fed at 100% hydration. Can I use it? Will it still work? Should I do anything differently because of that? Thanks!!
It should work fine!
Tried a different recipe that had weights, just for anyone that lives in a cooler climate. These were my times once my dough was able to pass the window pane test I put it in the fridge to retard for 48 hours then took it out shaped and put it in my silicone pan. It took another 5.5 hours for me to proof. It was my first attempt I went a little light on the filling used Coconut sugar, I needed more Cinnamon in my mixture. Would love to try your recipe to see which I like better if you have weight measurements. Thank you.
Any chance you can give us weight measurements, assuming your cups are American and it’s not the same in Canada.
What is an ideal temperature for the milk mixture to be before adding the sourdough starter when making the dough? I have made these a couple times, and they taste great! I am just wondering if my milk mixture should be a little cooler, so the rolls will rise better.
Around 90 degrees is ideal. Sourdough can vary a lot, so if they aren’t rising well you could always just allow for a longer rising time!
These are the best darn cinnamon rolls we’ve ever had (homemade)! The only variation we made was I add our yeast in the recipe, not our sourdough starter. Been using the Quick-Rise yeast. It’s all the grocery had at the time due to everyone becoming bakers during quarantine. Hehe. Just follow the yeasts directions and add it to the mixture. Thanks for this recipe! It’s a keeper!!
I made these for the first time, and they were very tasty! I’ll need to let them rise longer next time (learning is part of the fun of trying new things!), but they still turned out great!
These are AMAZING! I’ve made them 3 times now, and they’ve always tasted great, but this 3rd time they were absolutely perfect. My starter has improved so much over the few months since my first attempt, and a nice bubbly starter definitely makes a difference. I do a cream cheese and mascarpone frosting with orange zest since I don’t like buttercream. No chance I’ll ever make another cinnamon roll recipe!
Ummmm your frosting sounds AMAZING!! And I’m so glad you are finding success, and yes, a mature starter is really magical! Happy baking Michelle!
4 hours and the dough hasn’t grown 🙁
Use this as a learning experience! Sourdough with it’s wild yeast will vary highly, this isn’t a traditional recipe! Keep letting it rise or put it somewhere warmer or learn that your dough likes to sit a solid 12 hours. Once we learn some about how your individual starter acts in the current conditions you’ll be able to get a better feel for the recipe.
Dough takes way too long to rise
It’s sourdough, it’s supposed to take a long time to rise, natural yeast is a much slower rise than other yeasts.
These were so delicious! I followed Melissa’s recipe for making my own sourdough starter and I was so excited to see what I could make with it. In terms of the recipe, for some reason (maybe my kitchen was too cold) my dough didn’t rise after 6 hours (step 8), I ended up leaving it on the counter overnight expecting to throw it out in the morning, but what do you know it rose overnight! The cinnamon buns came out so delicious, and the icing was even better! I will definitely be making these again!