I’ve gotta just let you know now, there’s an obscene amount of butter going on here. These brown butter cinnamon rolls are not for the faint of heart. I came up with this recipe in hopes you’d make it part of a special event. Don’t eat these every day. Christmas brunch would be fabulous. Birthday’s, parties, etc. Do that, but don’t do every day. Sinful doesn’t even begin to conceptualize this level of decadence. I’m conflicted, because I want you to make these…but I know you’ll become addicted. And therefore end up eating them more than you should. What a tangled weave…
Ok, so boom. Gather your crew of ingredients prior to making these. Make sure there’s plenty of butter in your fridge, or go buy some. I’m talking real butter, not that tub of “unbelievable”, or “crock of butter-like product” stuff. Any old packets of dried up yeast older than Methuselah have got to go. Get some fresh yeast. I only buy whole milk for baking purposes, personally — so if you don’t drink it, get a small container for this recipe.
How to make cinnamon roll dough
Ok, I’ve posted quite a few cinnamon roll recipes. The process is still the same, so I’m not going to go into great detail. You can check out previous posts, or this video from three years ago to see exactly how the process goes.
- Latte Glazed Mocha-Almond Cinnamon Rolls – Video Tutorial
- Lemon Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls
- Maple Glazed Apple Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
- Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls
With that said, let’s get into it. I highly recommend a stand mixer for this recipe. You could do this by hand, but it would be a messy mess and one hell of an upper body workout.
I’ve posted a lot of cinnamon roll recipes, so I’m not going to show too many of the same kinda pics here. But if you’re new, here I am adding the yeast/milk mixture to the dry mixture. I’m using the dough hook on my stand mixer.
Because this is a brioche dough, I’m adding room temperature butter (not mushy and greasy) in 10 second increments so that it properly blends into the dough.
Keep kneading, this should take about 7 minutes, up to 10. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl and shouldn’t be too sticky. There may be some slight stick’age to the bowl at the very bottom and that’s fine. The goal here is to develop some gluten. If you don’t let this knead long enough, it can be impossible to work with and not rise very well when baked. Also, you may need to add more flour during this process, so add it in 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together, but wait to do this after 7 minutes if needed.
So here’s our ball of dough. I kneaded it by hand for about 3 minutes, adding just a kiss of extra flour until it’s in a taut ball. You’re gonna spray the inside of a large bowl with nonstick cooking or baking spray, plop this baby in the center, and cover it with plastic wrap. Place the dough in a turned off oven with the light on, or a warm spot in your house and let it proof for 2 hours.
Blend it all together, breaking up any large clumps with your fingers or a fork.
Brown some butter over medium heat until you see those golden brown bits at the bottom. Don’t burn it!
Pour the brown butter over a little cold butter to cool it down and prevent it from burning even further.
It will foam up immediately like this, so be warned.
Mix that around to blend it all together. Let this mixture cool for a while your dough is proofing.
The dough has proofed, and now it’s time to roll it out.
Roll the dough out into a large 18-inch rectangle.
Spread it around with the back of a spoon, leaving about a 1-inch border.
Pressing the sugar mixture into the brown butter will allow it to stick a little better and prevent it from falling out when you slice them into rolls.
Gently roll the dough into a tightly packed log.
Pinch the seams together very tightly to prevent them from opening during the second proof.
With a very sharp knife, cut the log down the middle. Then slice each half in half, and so on, until you have 12 rolls. Also, cut off the butt-ends — it’s just extra dough you don’t need.
12 rolls. Butt ends cut off. Ready for proofing.
I crumpled a piece of parchment paper to make it fit inside the baking dish easier, and spritzed it with nonstick baking spray (very lightly).
Place the rolls down, with about an inch of space between each. They will proof and expand. Cover them with plastic wrap for an hour back in the same warm spot you first proofed the dough.
Brown some more butter, and as soon as the bits start to turn golden, pour it over the powdered sugar.
Like so.
Start to whisk it together, then add some heavy cream in 1/4 cup increments. Whisk, adjust consistency by adding more cream if needed.
Mix mix mix, confectioners sugar is funny. Make sure you mix it thoroughly before adding more moisture. You often need less than you’d think.
When you’re happy with the consistency, whisk in the vanilla extract and a nice pinch of salt.
Optional! Add one tablespoon of corn syrup. The corn syrup helps keep the glaze from turning into a rock, but it’s not a make-or-break ingredient. Leave it out if you don’t have it.
Let this hang out.
Our rolls have proofed. It’s finally time to bake.
Mine baked for 30 minutes.
Allow the rolls to cool for 10 minutes before glazing. Apply as much or as little as you’d like. I didn’t end up using all of my glaze, and you probably won’t either.
Drool.
Whew! Make these.
Again. Gratuitous amounts of butter. Hella butter. All the butter. But still, these slap. Make them and enjoy them. After all, it’s spandex season.
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Brown Butter Cinnamon Rolls
- Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 rolls
Description
Nutty brown butter lends a gorgeous caramel-toffee flavor to the filling and glaze for these super luscious, gooey, brioche cinnamon rolls.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 3/4 cup whole milk, heated to 110 degrees
- 1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/4 cup more if needed
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces — room temperature
For the filling
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the brown butter glaze
- 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more if needed
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup (optional)
- Pinch of sea salt
Instructions
To prep
Line the bottom of a 13- by 9-inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper. Grease foil or parchment paper and sides of the pan with baking spray. Also, grease a medium bowl to hold the dough when it’s completed.
For the dough
- Whisk warm 110 degree milk and yeast in liquid measuring cup until yeast dissolves. Then whisk in eggs, and vanilla extract. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt until combined. With mixer on low, add warm milk mixture in steady stream and mix until dough comes together, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and add butter, one piece at a time in 10-second intervals until incorporated.
- Continue to mix until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, about 10 minutes. If after mixing for 10 minutes the dough is still wet and sticky, add up to 1/4 cup flour (one tablespoon at a time) until the dough releases from the bowl. Turn dough out onto clean surface and knead to form a smooth, round ball.
- Transfer dough to prepared bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in turned off oven with oven light on (it allows enough gentle warmth). Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
For the filling
- In a medium stainless steel saucepan, melt 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium-low heat until it starts to brown, about 4-6 minutes. Don’t walk away from this. As soon as it browns nicely, turn off the heat and add in 2 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter. Mix it around until the mixture cools down. Set aside and cool while the dough rises.
- Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in small bowl using a fork or your fingers to break up any large lumps. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Roll dough into 18-inch square. Leaving a 1-inch border, drizzle the brown butter all over the surface (you may not need all of it), and sprinkle evenly with filling. Lightly press the filling into the brown butter.
- Starting with the widest edge nearest you, roll dough into tight cylinder, pinch lightly to seal seam, and cut into 12 pieces using either a serrated knife or bench scraper. It’s easier to cut the dough in half, then cut each side in half until you have 12 rolls. You could also make 8 super large rolls, if you prefer.
- Transfer pieces, cut-side up, to prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a turned off oven or warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
For the glaze and to bake
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium stainless steel saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium-low heat until it starts to brown, about 4-6 minutes.
- Pour the hot brown butter over the powdered sugar, including as many brown bits as possible. Whisk brown butter and sugar together, then pour in the heavy cream in 1/4 cup increments until you reach a desired consistency. Add the vanilla, pinch of salt, and corn syrup (if using). Give it a final whisk and set aside.
- Discard plastic wrap and bake buns until deep golden brown and filling is melted, 30-35 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes then pour over some of the glaze. You may not have to use all of the glaze, I didn’t. I stored the rest of the glaze in the freezer for later use.
- Serve.
Notes
You may notice some slight butter separation once the glaze sets, and that’s normal and fine. Just eat it.
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: brunch, sweets, desserts
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: cinnamon rolls, brown butter cinnamon rolls, brown butter, sweets, brunch, desserts
OH. MY. GOD!!! This is the first recipe of yours I made and it absolutely will NOT be the last. You are magic! I followed the recipe to a T (except I had half & half not heavy cream for the glaze) and they are FANTASTIC! I’m not a cinnamon roll person. Never really cared for the canned Pillsbury ones, never really liked Cinnabon; I never really understood the hype. I DO NOW! If this is the recipe, I’m a cinnamon roll FEEN! I made these today for a Sunday brunch with a few friends tomorrow and I can already tell they won’t last long.
I was able to get 10 fully formed cinnamon rolls from the recipe. I baked the two ends were supposed to cut off since they had a little filling and I wanted to try one today.
I’ll be making these once a month. The brioche dough is outrageous and the brown butter glaze is FIRE! I’m restraining myself from eating another one. You are a BEAST Chef Resha!
★★★★★
Any tips on doing these the day before to bake first thing in the morning?
To make ahead, place the prepared rolls in your baking dish and wrap with plastic wrap so they can be chilled in your fridge for up to 24 hours. When you’re ready to bake, take them out a few hours prior so they come to room temperature completely, then bake as directed.