This sweet twist on a classic breakfast pastry will have your mouth watering, and you will wonder why you never tried this before!
When I was in high school I had to get up really early for seminary, and then school. I ran track and cross country, so I would have practice after school. When I would get home, I’d be dead to the world tired. Like. Every. Day. I swear I went to bed by like 9 every night. Unless I was AOL chatting (Who remembers AIM? Raise your hands!) with a boy! Then fatigue did not matter.
I now make up for all those early mornings and nights by sleeping in as much as I possibly can. And I rarely go to bed before midnight. I need some time without little people who rule my life, so I get that by staying up late. This makes me a fairly grouchy mommy in the mornings because let’s face it, the kids do not care at all what time I went to bed, when they are hungry, they are hungry.
I try to make up for my grouchy morning demeanor by occasionally spoiling my kids with a tasty breakfast like cinnamon rolls!
My favorite cinnamon rolls to make are these Easy Overnight Rolls because…well they are easy peazy, and you make them overnight. But from time to time I like to indulge and spend a little longer making “fancy” cinnamon rolls. And these are well worth the effort. I think they may be my new favorite.
I was on FB and found a lovely Cinnabon Copy Cat Recipe from Lauren’s Latest, where she found their list of ingredients and tested and tested to recreate their famous cinnamon rolls. They are amazing, but because I can’t leave any recipe alone, I played with it some. But mostly I just added cookie butter, lots of it. I’m obsessed with the stuff, so I like adding it to anything and everything I can. But feel free to visit Lauren’s Latest for her recipe which is a traditional cinnamon roll and glaze.
Then try this cookie butter version because it is phenomenal. I cross my heart!
Cookie Butter Frosted Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast {use the fast acting kind!}
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 4 1/2-5 cups all purpose unbleached flour
Filling
- 2/3 cup softened margarine
- 1/4 cup cookie butter
- 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Frosting
- 4 ozs. cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup cookie butter
- 2 Tbs softened margarine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tbs corn syrup
Instructions
The Dough
- Using a stand mixer bowl, add water, yeast, and 1 Tbs of the sugar.
- Stir and let the yeast proof for 4-5 minutes. It will get bubbly and frothy, if this does not happen then start over. You need your yeast to work.
- Then add in the rest of your sugar and your salt. Stir it all up.
- In a separate bowl whisk together buttermilk, oil, and egg.
- Pour into yeast mixture. Stir for about 20 seconds in the mixer.
- Add flour, starting with 2 cups. Mix on low using hook until incorporated, then slowly add the rest by sprinkling it in in 1/4 cup increments, paying attention to your dough. Once it hits the stage where it does not stick to the sides or bottom of the bowl, and is sticky, not enough to stick to your hands when touched, you can be done adding flour.
- At that point, turn on your mixer with hook attachment and knead for 5 minutes.
- Remove dough from bowl, grease and replace in bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel and let rise 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.
Filling
- In a bowl, stir brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch together until combined and set aside.
- Go to your dough and punch it down, then roll it out on a well floured, large surface. You want to roll it out to be about 20 by 30 inches. Make it as even as possible. Move it around so you know it is not sticking to your work surface.
- In a small bowl, mix together half the softened margarine and all the cookie butter, and using a hand mixer, mix in the sugar mixture.
- Use the rest of margarine, and spread it over the dough, but be sure to leave about an inch on one of the long sides so you can seal the dough together after you roll it out.
- Dump the cookie butter, cinnamon and brown sugar mixture onto the middle of the dough, and spread it out evenly using a spatula or your hands.
- Using a rolling pin, lightly press the mixture into the cookie butter and margarine.
- Roll it up into a tight log, and use that one inch edge to seal it together
- To get prettier rolls, cut off uneven ends, then measure and score for where to cut your rolls. The BakeitFun #baking mat has a great measured edge you can use as a guide.
- Place into baking mat (or parchment paper and margarine greased) lined, pans, you can put 12 on a 9x13, but may have a few remaining, just put them in a smaller pan, or loaf pan.
- Cover pans with plastic wrap and dish towels and let rise 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes, until tops start to brown, but not burn, keep an eye on them!
Frosting
- While the rolls are baking, whip cream cheese, cookie butter, and margarine together.
- Stir in vanilla, lemon juice, and corn syrup.
- Add powdered sugar and stir until incorporated.
- Mix with a hand mixer set to a high speed for 5 minutes, scraping sides periodically.
- Remove rolls from oven and immediately frost using half the frosting.
- Let cool about 10 minutes, then frost with the other half and enjoy warm!
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
These cinnamon rolls are amazing, and ridiculously tasty, although very sticky, so trust me when I say you do not want to bake without this awesome baking mat!
Have you ever seen these Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mats? They are food-grade silicone, and they sit in the bottom of your baking tray. And they keep it nice and clean, and the food does not stick to them. With something like a sticky bun, or cookies, this is perfect! It is FDA approved, BPA free, and totally reusable.
What I love
Easy to use
- It has custom designed fitting corners so that it will fit perfectly into a 13″x8″ pan.
- Toaster oven and Freezer safe
- Great for cookies, macarons and pastry sheets.
- Certified FDA Approved
Easy to clean
- The non-stick surface means you don’t have to scrub, everything cleans off easily. You just rinse it off, let it dry, roll it up to put it away. My kitchen has a lot of stuff in it, so I love how small it is for storing.
No extra oil
- It doesn’t require any grease or oil, so you can get rid of the extra fat or shortenings
What I Don’t Like
That I can’t put it in my dishwasher. But that is because I am lazy.
In all truth there is not a thing I don’t like about the mat itself. I have used it several times now, and have had no problem. It is very easy to clean, I just wish I could toss it in with the rest. It works great, fits my cookie sheets perfectly, has nice little round spots to show how to space things, as well as a measuring tool on the side. I only wish I had gotten one sooner.
Where to Get it
Get it by clicking on the link: Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat with measurements – 420mm x 280mm (16-1/2″ x 11″) with Free Recipe eBook.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
Jessica @ Sprinkle Some Sugar says
Mmmm! I’ve been looking for a reason to use my cookie butter and I think I found it! 🙂
Rachael says
You won’t regret it. These are seriously yummy
Samantha Angell says
These sound and look amazing! I would love to be able to try them out. So hard to find the correct ingredients over here in Sweden though!
Rachael says
Samantha, you can pick up Speculoos, or Biscoff spread, I know both are widely available in Europe, that is where i first found cookie butter!
Pricilla -SpokesGoat says
Cookie butter? I don’t know what cookie butter is. I will have to go and google it. Your cookie butter buns look amazing.
Rachael says
It is awesome. It is also called Speculous! THanks
aimee fauci says
These turned out beautiful! I bet the house smelled divine and your belly was happy.
Lavende & Lemonade says
You did great, those look wonderful! I’m curious if you see a difference in the results with or without the pad?
Rachael says
Without the mat they stick to the bottom more, or I have to use cooking spray or oil to keep them from sticking. The mat is awesome.
Touristmeetstraveler says
These looks amazing, I want to go and make myself a batch of them right now!
Rachael says
You should, they are awesome!
realarmyofmoms says
I don’t know what cookie butter is but I am now obsessed with finding out. I need me some silicon non stick mats too.
Rachael says
In Europe they call it Speculous! It is amazing. I buy it at Target, but Trader Joe’s has it too.
anglemoine says
These look amazing!!! and that mat sounds like it would really come in handy!!! thanks for sharing!
Catherine S says
Those look amazing. I love cinnamon rolls and I can’t wait to try them out.
Kaufmans Kavalkade says
These look so good.
rochkirstin says
Oh gosh. I just had breakfast but these pictures of the cinnamon rolls are seriously tempting! They look so good.
FamiGami (@famigami) says
We love making cinnamon rolls and this is a different take on it. We’re going to try it ASAP!
Tessa Smith says
these look so good!
Michelle F. says
Those look so good! I love the look of that baking mat.
Rebecca Swenor says
I am for sure going to be making these Cookie butter cinnamon rolls. I don’t know where to get the cookie butter though. Hoping you maybe able to help me figure that one out. I hope I can get it at Walmart. Thanks for sharing.
Bonnie @ wemake7 says
Yes I remember AIM lol. I also remember having to wait for Aol to manually sign on instead of DSL lol. Anyway… These look very good. I love the recipes you come up with. =)
Rachael says
Oh the waiting…it was the worst! Hahah. Thanks Bonnie! You are always so sweet.
TheMommyAvenger says
Those look incredible. We start seminary this week and I had forgotten what it was like to do early morning seminary. 12 years of this ahead of me! I need good recipes like this so my son will eat something before he leaves. Thanks!
Asia Models (@asiamodels) says
omg! RIP diet hahaha i love cinnamon rolls and butter will bake this soon
Melissa Smith says
These sound so good! But I’ve never heard of cookie butter before. I think I’ll have to look into it & get some, along with one of those mats. Thanks for sharing!
Rachael says
You can get it in the states are Target and Trader Joe’s. I am sure there are other places that sell cookie butter, but those two I know for sure.
Deanna Ritz says
These look fantastic! We love homemade breads in our house and I will have to ad this one to our list. Thanks for the great recipe. 🙂