Cinnamon Rolls made in the Thermomix® are our go-to when we have guests and want to impress with something that tastes straight out of an American baking book. The critical moment is not the baking itself, but the second the cream cheese frosting hits the warm rolls.
If you tip the frosting onto a roll that is still steaming hot, you end up with a thin sugar puddle running onto the baking tray. If you wait four minutes until the rolls are just hand-warm, you get exactly the thick, lightly set cream cheese layer that American Cinnamon Rolls are famous for. We have been making this recipe for years and have made both mistakes ourselves. We now know precisely when the glaze goes on.
Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting, Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 15 ✓
- 1/2 cube fresh yeast
- 180 g milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 600 g flour
- 90 g water
- 60 g sugar
- 50 g rapeseed oil
- 130 g butter
- 200 g sugar
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
- 110 g icing sugar
- 60 g butter
- 130 g full-fat cream cheese
- 5 drops butter vanilla flavouring optional: 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
Instructions 0 / 13
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1
Dissolve the yeast.
Add the yeast, milk and salt to the mixing bowl and warm for 3 min / 37°C / speed 1.
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2
Knead the yeast dough.
Add the eggs, flour, water, sugar and oil and knead for 3 min / kneading mode.
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3
Prove the dough.
Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
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4
Rinse the mixing bowl.
Rinse the mixing bowl.
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5
Line the baking tray.
Line a baking tray with baking paper.
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6
Melt the butter.
Cut the butter into pieces, add to the mixing bowl and melt for 3 min / 60°C / speed 1.
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7
Mix the sugar and cinnamon.
Add the sugar and cinnamon and mix for 10 sec / speed 4.
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8
Roll out the dough.
Dust the work surface with flour, roll out the dough to about 4 mm thick and spread the filling evenly over it.
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9
Roll up the dough.
Roll up the dough, cut into slices about 3 cm thick with a sharp knife, place cut-side down on the baking tray and leave to prove for 20 minutes.
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10
Bake the cinnamon rolls.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the Cinnamon Rolls for 15 to 20 minutes until golden.
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11
Rinse the mixing bowl.
Meanwhile, rinse the mixing bowl.
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12
Mix the frosting.
Cut the butter into pieces and add to the mixing bowl together with the icing sugar, cream cheese and flavouring. Mix for 40 sec / speed 4.
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13
Spread the frosting and serve.
Spread the frosting over the Cinnamon Rolls immediately after baking and enjoy while still warm.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why the American original with cream cheese glaze works
Classic German cinnamon rolls get a thin glaze of icing sugar and water. It is sweet, but one-dimensional. The American version uses a frosting of 110 g icing sugar, 60 g butter and 130 g full-fat cream cheese instead. The acidity of the cream cheese cuts the sweetness, the fat gives the glaze body, and the flavouring brings the cinnamon forward. In the mixing bowl we need just 30 to 40 seconds at speed 4 for this. The result is a creamy layer that sits on the warm roll like a thin slice of cheesecake.
The dough is a sweet yeast dough made with 600 g flour, 180 g milk, 90 g water, 2 eggs, 50 g rapeseed oil and only 60 g sugar. The lower sugar content is intentional, as the sweetness from the filling carries through every layer when you roll it up. The dough goes on kneading mode for three minutes, then rests covered in a warm place for two hours. We would rather let it prove a little longer than cut it short. A dough that has not proved enough will bake up dense instead of fluffy.
The right rolling technique: roll thick, cut clean
We roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to about 4 mm thick. Any thinner and the spiral gets lost when you roll it up, leaving the baked roll looking flat. Over the dough goes the filling of melted butter (130 g), sugar (200 g) and ground cinnamon (3 tsp), which we first melted in the Thermomix® for 3 min / 60°C / speed 1, then mixed for 10 seconds at speed 4.
When rolling up, we do not stretch the dough lengthways but roll it in firmly from the long side. The roll should end up roughly three to four centimetres in diameter. We then cut it into 3 cm thick slices with a sharp knife. If you have unflavoured dental floss, you can use that instead of a knife to avoid squashing the dough. We place the slices cut-side down on the baking-paper-lined tray and leave them to prove for a further 20 minutes. This second prove is not optional. It is what creates the soft, fluffy centre that real Cinnamon Rolls are known for.
The three points where Cinnamon Rolls most often go wrong
Frosting on a piping-hot roll
This is the most costly mistake. Cream cheese and butter melt above roughly 35 degrees into a liquid that will not hold together. Our fix: take the rolls out of the oven, leave them on the tray for four to five minutes, then spread the frosting with a spatula. It should still melt slightly and run into the crevices, but not flow straight through them.
Yeast in milk that is too hot
Fresh yeast dies above roughly 40 degrees. In the Thermomix® we work at 3 min / 37°C / speed 1, which is body temperature and exactly right. Anyone who goes to 50 or 60 degrees because a little warmer cannot hurt will end up with a dough that does not rise. Our fix: keep strictly to 37°C and warm the milk together with the yeast and salt from the start.
Dough rolled too thin
Rolling the dough down to 2 mm to get more rolls sacrifices the spiral. The dough rises upwards during baking but without any visible layers. Our fix: 4 mm is the minimum. Slightly thicker is fine, giving you wider rolls that press up against each other as they prove.
Variations we have tried
With pecans. Scatter 80 g of roughly chopped pecans over the filling before rolling up the dough. This makes the rolls crunchier and adds a caramel note.
With apple pieces. Spread one small, finely diced apple over the filling. The apple cooks through during baking and keeps the filling moist. Allow an extra three minutes of baking time.
Without frosting, with an egg yolk glaze. If you want to bake the rolls the evening before and serve them at breakfast, brush them with an egg yolk and milk mixture and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Leave out the frosting entirely. This tip is also noted in the recipe card.
With vanilla in the frosting. Instead of 5 drops of butter vanilla flavouring, add a sachet of real vanilla sugar or the seeds of half a vanilla pod. This gives a slightly different, rounder-tasting glaze.
What we serve alongside
We usually serve the rolls at the weekend for a late breakfast with filter coffee or a flat white. Anyone who fancies something more substantial can add a dish of Thermomix® rice pudding or a spoonful of quark with fresh berries. A marble cake made in the Thermomix® or fluffy pancakes also make a great addition to a larger brunch spread. When we have leftovers from the day before, we cut the Cinnamon Rolls into cubes and fold them through warm rice pudding for a kind of bread-and-butter pudding. It gives the recipe a second life.
Baking ahead, freezing and reheating
Cinnamon Rolls are excellent for preparing in advance. We bake them at 180°C for 15 to 20 minutes until golden, leave them to cool completely on a rack and then freeze them without frosting in an airtight container. They keep for four to six weeks. When guests arrive, we take them out and warm them through at 100°C for ten minutes until soft and warm again. Only then do we mix a fresh batch of frosting and spread it on. Pre-made frozen frosting does not work. The cream cheese separates on thawing and turns grainy.
Also works well with: cream cheese, coffee cream and vanilla ice cream.
Freshly baked rolls with frosting keep in the fridge for about two days. Before serving, warm them briefly in a low oven so the glaze softens again. In the microwave, 20 to 25 seconds on a medium setting is enough. Anything longer makes the dough tough.
Find more sweet classics made in the Thermomix® in our egg liqueur sheet cake, our quick plum cake and our Thermomix® rice pudding.
