How To Make Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
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You know that deliciously gooey center in cinnamon rolls? With these sourdough cinnamon rolls, you get that in Every. Single. Bite.
Table of contents
Recipe Run Through
Below are all the ingredients and steps, including pictures that might help you make this recipe a success. Make sure to scroll down for the complete recipe, ingredient list, and bakers schedule.
Sweet Levain
Active sourdough starter – An active sourdough starter is a starter that has been fed regularly (every 12 hours) for at least 2-3 days. The starter should double in size within 12 hours.
Milk – I used whole milk directly from the fridge.
Bread flour – I used the same flour for my levain as in the main dough. The flour I used is a strong white flour at 13% protein.
Sugar – To sweeten the levain.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and let it rest in a warm spot for 4 hours. You want the levain to be young and not overly sour or liquid.
Main Dough
Bread flour – Or other high protein flour. I used flour with 13% protein for this recipe.
Sugar – Regular granulated white sugar to sweeten the dough.
Salt – We always need a little bit of salt in our dough for gluten development and flavor.
Cinnamon and nutmeg – I love using spices in the dough when making cinnamon rolls. They are optional, but I highly recommend them.
Milk – I used whole milk at 3,5% fat. Cold, directly from the fridge.
Eggs – You’ll need two medium-sized eggs for this recipe.
Sweet Levain – All of the sweet levain.
Butter – You want to use soft and cubed unsalted butter.
Gather all your ingredients. Add them all, except the butter, to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on medium speed until the dough comes together. Cover, and autolyse/rest for 30 minutes. Start your mixer again and knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you want to slowly add cubed, softened butter, one cube at a time. When you’ve added all the butter, continue kneading at medium speed for 15-25 minutes until your dough passes the window-pane test. Read more about the window-pane test in this post.
Place the dough in a clean bowl and proof it in a warm spot for 2 hours.
After two hours, transfer the dough to the fridge to cold-proof for a minimum of six hours.
Cinnamon Filling
Butter – Soft and at room temperature. I used unsalted butter.
White sugar and brown sugar – I used a 50/50 mixture of white sugar and dark brown sugar. You can use light brown sugar instead if you want to.
Cinnamon – Du-uh.
Add softened butter, sugars, and cinnamon to a bowl. Mix with a fork until you have a spreadable paste. Leave at room temperature until you’re ready to shape the cinnamon rolls.
How to Shape Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. If it’s really cold and hard to roll out, you might want to leave it at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
- With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 19x12in/50x30cm rectangle.
- Evenly spread out the cinnamon filling.
- Roll the dough up as tightly as you can, starting from the longest side of the rectangle. Cut half an inch or so off the edges of the roll. Use a sharp knife or floss to cut the dough into 1.5-inch/4 cm pieces. You should get 12 cinnamon rolls.
- Place the cinnamon rolls in a 10×13-inch/25x34cm baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover and proof at around 78°F/26°C for about 10-12 hours until they’ve doubled in size.
Cream Cheese Frosting
This cream cheese frosting is just the best for cinnamon rolls. It’s not thick and pipable like the frosting you would use for cupcakes – just perfectly creamy with a pleasant tanginess from the cream cheese.
Cream cheese – Full fat.
Butter – Softened and at room temperature.
Powdered sugar – Sifted.
Vanilla extract – Or vanilla beans from one vanilla pod.
Salt – Tiny pinch of salt to balance out the sweetness.
- In a bowl, whisk together cream cheese and butter until smooth and light in color. I find it easiest to use a hand mixer since it’s such a small amount of frosting.
- Add half of the sifted powdered sugar and mix for about two minutes.
- Add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
- Lastly, mix in the vanilla extract or vanilla beans.
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The Best Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
The Best Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Brød & Taylor Proofer Box
- 13×10 inch baking pan
Ingredients
Sweet Levain
- 45 g active sourdough starter
- 45 g whole milk cold from the fridge
- 45 g bread flour
- 10 g sugar
Main Dough
- 550 g bread flour
- 90 g sugar
- 10 g salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 250 g whole milk cold from the fridge
- 100 g eggs two medium-sized eggs
- 145 g sweet levain
- 110 g unsalted butter softened
Cinnamon Filling
- 100 g unsalted butter softened
- 100 g white sugar
- 100 g dark brown sugar
- 15 g cinnamon 2 tbsp
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 200 g cream cheese full fat
- 50 g unsalted butter softened
- 200 g powdered sugar sifted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean pod
- 1 pinch salt
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
Sweet levain
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and rest in a warm spot for 4 hours.
Main Dough
- Start by gathering all your ingredients. Add them all, except the butter, to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on medium speed until the dough comes together. Cover, and autolyse/rest for 30 minutes.
- Start your mixer again and knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, you want to slowly add cubed, softened butter, one cube at a time.
- When all the butter is added, continue kneading at medium speed for 15-25 minutes until your dough passes the window-pane test.
- Place the dough in a clean bowl and proof in a warm spot, ideally at around 78°F/26°C, for two hours.
- After two hours, transfer the dough to the fridge to cold-proof for a minimum of six hours.
Cinnamon Filling
- Add softened butter, sugars, and cinnamon to a bowl. Mix with a fork until you have a spreadable paste. Leave at room temperature until you're ready to shape.
Shape
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. You might want to leave it at room temperature for 10-15 minutes if it's really cold and hard to roll out.
- With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 19x12in/50x30cm rectangle.
- Evenly spread out the cinnamon filling.
- Roll the dough up as tightly as you can, starting from the longest side of the rectangle. Cut half an inch or so off the edges of the roll. Use a sharp knife or floss to cut the dough into 1,5-inch/4 cm pieces. You should get 12 cinnamon rolls.
- Place the cinnamon rolls in a 10×13-inch/25x34cm baking pan lined with parchment paper. Cover and proof at around 78°F/26°C for about 10-12 hours until they've doubled in size. Please don't focus too much on the time, but more on how they look and feel.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 355°F/180°C.
- Lightly brush the cinnamon rolls with egg wash and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a bowl, whisk together cream cheese and butter until smooth and light in color. I find it easiest to use a hand mixer since it's such a small amount of frosting.
- Add in half of the powdered sugar and mix for about two minutes.
- Add in the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
- Lastly, mix in the vanilla extract.
- Generously spread frosting over the baked cinnamon rolls, and enjoy!
I tried this recie and the cinnamon rolls were massive and delicious! I have a question though, to get a more sour flavor I was thinking of trying a regular levain. Have you ever tried that? I’m wondering if I do try it if I need to make adjustments to the milk and sugar in the main dough since it won’t be in the levain.
“Cover and proof at around 78°F/26°C for about 10-12 hours until they’ve doubled in size.”.. I’m confused : 10-12hrs, fridge or oven?
You want to let them proof for 10-12 hours at a warm room temp, 78°F/26°C, or until they have doubled in size.
Hi Elise, I’m from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I just made this recipe, I just had to reduce the hydration because of the weak flour I used. They were wonderful. Thank you for sharing your work.
Whoa! Just ate my first one and OH MY GOODNESS!! drool-worthy, soft, tender, ooey-gooey delicious-ness! I baked them a little longer–28 min and kneaded in mixer 10min less than the directions and I used regular all purpose unvleached flour and they still came out soo good!!
Hi Elise! I love the recipe, super well explained and with enough detail to know what to do. I was wondering for the cool proof, do you think there’s a limit in time for that? Or should it be like sourdough max 12-18h?
Thanks
Susana =)
Hi Susana! Thank you so much for your kind words and the five-star rating. The longest I’ve kept this dough in the fridge was 15 hrs, and they turned out great! I probably wouldn’t leave it for much longer than that, though.
I made these yesterday and they are amazing! As there are only 2 of us I had to freeze the rest in case I eat them all at once. Going to make the discard banana bread next!
By far the best cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted. Love the process of making them and I am making my second batch now.
I’m just at the stage where I’ve added the butter and kneaded for another 25 minutes it still looks very loose and weak and stringy. Keep going or have I over worked it?
Thank you so much for such a generous clear great sourdough recipe. Thanks for sharing
I tried lthis recipe many times,, the taste was so delicious, very soft and not to sweet. But i have problem with the shaping. Why my dough was so weak not firm to be ablle to roll? It made my cinn roll shape was not so good . What is your advice thank you?
Thank you! You can try adding a little less milk next time, and make sure to properly knead the dough as described in the recipe. Happy baking!
Im so thank you for those lovely recepies all is so understanable.İts my firsth cinnomon roll❤️❤️
Amazing!!! So incredibly fluffy, I was having a hard time staying away after the third! I used oat milk and replaced the eggs with reduced aquafaba to make the dough vegan.
This is the third recipe im trying and loving it!!!
thanks again for all your effort put in the recipes.
will be trying others very soon!
This was so good! I had an issue with the cold proof where the top of my dough dried out, despite having plastic wrap over the bowl. Idk why, but I still tried to salvage it and it ultimately still rolled out and turned out yummy!
These rolls are my favorite from your recipes!❤ They are delicious! Thank you very much, Elise, for your fantastic job, for your very detailed recipes, I appreciate most, as details sometimes can be even more important than the recipe itself. Thank you for sharing your secrets with the world!❤
Hi, in the instructions it says to let sit on counter for 2 hours. And, in the comments section I see 10-12 hours until it doubles in size. Should the dough be left to bulk ferment until it doubles in size? Can you clarify?
Thank you!
I made this cinnamon rolls and they are delicious, super delicious. This is my new favourite recipe
So yummy! I used part whole wheat pastry flour and a tiny bit of rye as well since I use a rye starter. The only problem is that kneading the dough made my Kitchenaid HOT from the effort… I think next time I’ll have to try my old bread machine’s kneading cycle instead. I wanted to make a double batch next time, but I don’t want to blow up my mixer!
The first three times I made them they turned out perfectly! Now the last two times they were a total flop. They got dried out overnight and didn’t rise…. I haven’t changed anything I’ve been doing and I’ve been really happy with the dough and my rolling techniques only for them to end up in the trash. Super frustrating but I don’t think that’s a fault of the recipe. Do you have any tips?
Oh no! That is so strange. I haven’t changed anything in the recipe. Perhaps they weren’t covered properly?
How healthy is your starter lately? Did you change brands of ingredients?
The cold proof – you stte a min of 6 hours.. do you have a recommendation of the MAX time of proofing?
Thanks
Kelly
Longest I’ve done is around 15 hours. I wouldn’t recommend leaving it in the fridge for much longer than that. 6-8 hours is ideal. Happy baking!
Helll Elise! What is the maximum time I can leave the dough in the fridge? Would 24h be too much?
Hi Rapha! The dough will probably turn a little sour after 24 hours in the fridge, depending on fridge temp and your sourdough starter.
Delicious! I made 4 batches of sourdough cinnamon rolls back to back, all from recipes for “the best”, and they were all excellent. The crumb of these differed slightly from the others. These are very soft and moist, but a bit bready, and lack the slight chew that the other cinnamon rolls had. The dough was easy to work with and the baked rolls are picture perfect. Instead of cold proofing in the fridge, I let the dough bulk ferment at cool room temperature overnight until it had almost doubled. It rolled easily into a tight log. The final proof was 5 1/2 hours. The rolls took 27 minutes to bake. Instead of the egg wash and cream cheese frosting I brushed the baked rolls with melted butter and covered them with a caramel frosting while they were still warm so that the frosting would melt down into all the nooks and crannies. A keeper!
I love this recipe! This is the best sourdough cinnamon roll recipe . Flavor and smoothness is incomparable. However, I have a question, I have used King Arthur Bread Flour, but the dough feels sticky, do is it necessary to add more flour? Or beat more? Thank you!
Thanks for your kind words, Pam! This is difficult for me to answer without seeing your dough. I’m not familiar with King Arthur bread flour, but you could try adding a little less milk next time if you find the dough difficult to handle.
Hi! I am so keen on making these ASAP. However, I was wondering what you mean by active starter in step 1. My starter lives in the fridge as I bake only once or twice a week. When I feed it (straight out from the fridge) it takes approx. 4 hours to be baking ready. Should I first do this, and then mix it with milk etc. and leave
for another 4 hours? Or should I basically switch out my regular feeding routine (water and flour) with milk etc. for this specific dough.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts and go about making these mouth watering deliciousnesses! <3
I tried these for the first time yesterday, making 2 seperate batches. The instructions were spot on and they were delicious!!!! The only tip I could offer, is the cinnamon filling was tricky for me to spread evenly because it’s so thick going onto a sticky-type dough, so on the second one, I dabbed little bits all around and it spread more easily. And like one comment above, my kitchenaid got very HOT mixing for 15 minutes lol. Time to get a big bread mixer!!!! 🙂
It’s a process for sure, took me two days (my house is cold) but these were absolutely the best cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten. Divine! I’m taking the recipe up to my son’s house for him to try. Sweet Levain where have you been all my life.
Literally THE BEST! This will be my go to recipe from here out. The dough was a dream to work with. Thank you!
Hands down the best Cinammon rolls I’ve ever made! Received many compliments from friends and family. Thanks Elise for the wonderful recipe 🙂
i just made these for my fiancé and me and they were INCREDIBLE. i’m just getting started on my little sourdough journey so this was very encouraging and so so yummy!!
I’d love to try your recipe, but I’m not familiar with measuring in grams. Would you be able to convert it to cups for me? They look amazing!
Hi Libby! Measuring in grams is the most accurate and reliable way of baking. I highly recommend investing in a scale – it’s also extremely easy to use 🙂
Hi, how did you manage to get the filling to spread so consistently? Even at room temp mine was quite lumpy and grainy, and I certainly couldn’t have managed to produce the even spread that you had in the photo…
Thanks!
Hi! Sorry, but I’m not quite sure why your filling turned out like that. Hopefully, you enjoyed the cinnamon rolls anyway!
Hallo Elise,
Ich hab die gestern gebacken aber eine Frage hatte ich bitte dazu: Nachdem die gebacken sind und heiß sind, was soll ich auf die drauf tun?
Meine wurden nämlich sehr schnell hart und trocken. Was habe ich falsch gemacht? Danke für das Rezept!!
Definitely the best cinnamon rolls I’ve had. Chewy and pillowy. I reduced sugar in fillings for my taste and it came out perfect. It’s going to be my master rolls recipe.
Hi! I really want to give this a try but don’t have a strand mixer, only a handheld one and my trust hands themselves! Can you hand mix and hand knead this recipe?
Hi Anna! While hand kneading is possible in theory, I don’t recommend it for this recipe. The dough requires a lot of kneading to develop the proper gluten structure, which can be challenging to achieve by hand. However, if you choose to try hand kneading, be prepared for a good workout, and make sure to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
By far the BEST cinnamon rolls I’ve both eaten and baked! 💯