Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Buttercream Icing

Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with a Vanilla Buttercream Icing! These sourdough cinnamon rolls are so easy to make. They have the softest and fluffiest dough! The centers are overflowing with gooey cinnamon filling and finished with vanilla buttercream icing. This is the only cinnamon roll recipe I’ll be making from now on. Since entering the world of sourdough, I have made so many recipes, and there are so many I need to share! I’m limited in time lately, but I do plan to catch up on a lot of blogs this coming month! And that means my recipe for my sourdough loaves will be going live! I’ll include all the information on how I make my sourdough loaves, the starter process, and more! 

Until then, I’m sharing my FAVORITE sourdough cinnamon roll recipe that we’ve enjoyed in our house! Plus, you know I never mess with complicated recipes, so it’s easy, fool-proof, and totally forgiving if you mess with a few steps! 

These cinnamon rolls are one of the best recipes on this blog. I promise! 

HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH CINNAMON ROLLS WITH VANILLA BUTTERCREAM ICING VIDEO

How to make Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

In a bowl, mix the melted butter and cold milk. Let that mixture sit for about three minutes.

Mix the eggs, sugar, and weighed sourdough starter in a large bowl. Mix in the butter and milk.

Mix in the flour and salt until it forms a paste-like texture. Cover the bowl for 35 minutes to allow the dough to rest.

Add the dough to an electric mixer with a dough hook. Knead the dough on a low speed for 5-6 minutes. If the dough sticks to the sides, add a tablespoon of flour.

Cover the dough with a damp towel, and allow it to rest again for 30-45 minutes. Once the time is up, do a quick stretch and fold. Cover the dough back up, and let it sit on the counter overnight.

In the morning, your dough should have doubled in size.
Place the dough onto a floured surface, and use a rolling pin to form a rectangular shape.

Make the Cinnamon Sugar Filling

Melt the butter, and mix in the sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and flour.

I love a strong and bold cinnamon flavor. If you like a mild spice, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon to the mixture.

Spread the cinnamon sugar filling as evenly as you can over the dough.  Fold the dough tightly into a large roll. 
Slice the ends off and set them aside. You can cook those separately! Slice each cinnamon roll approximately 2 inches thick.

Place the cinnamon rolls on parchment paper or a greased baking pan.

Cover the cinnamon rolls with a towel, and allow them to rest at room temperature for one hour. 
Bake the cinnamon rolls at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. The outsides of the rolls will be slightly golden. The smell in the house is going to wake everyone up!
 

How to make vanilla buttercream icing

Set the butter out of the refrigerator early in the morning so it’s room temperature for making the buttercream icing. Use an electric mixer, and combine the butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Mix in the milk one tablespoon at a time. The consistency will be like frosting, and once it’s added to the cinnamon rolls, it becomes more of an icing-like texture! If it’s too runny, add in more powdered sugar; if it’s too thick, add more milk.

Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Buttercream Icing

Taralynn McNitt

These sourdough cinnamon rolls are so easy to make. They have the softest and fluffiest dough! The centers are overflowing with gooey cinnamon filling, and finished off with a vanilla buttercream icing.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 14 hours hrs

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Servings 18 Cinnamon Rolls

Equipment

• Electric Mixer with Dough attachment

Ingredients

  

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls Dough

• 1 1/3 Cup Whole Milk
• 8 Tbsps Melted (unsalted) Butter
• 210 Grams Active Sourdough Starter
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 615 Grams King Arthur Organic Bread Flour
• 2 Tsps Sea Salt

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

• 5 Tbsps Melted (unsalted) Butter
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 Tsp Sea Salt
• 2 1/2 Tbsps Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp Flour (bread or all-purpose)

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

• 1 Cup Unsalted Room Temperature Butter
• 4-5 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 4-5 Tbsps Milk
• 2 Tsps Vanilla

Instructions

 

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls Dough

• (night before) In a bowl, mix the melted butter and cold milk. Let that mixture sit for about three minutes.
• Mix the eggs, sugar, and weighed sourdough starter in a large bowl. Mix in the butter and milk. Stir in the flour and salt until it forms a paste-like texture.

  Cover the bowl for 35 minutes to allow the dough to rest.
• Add the dough to an electric mixer with a dough hook. Knead the dough on a low speed for 5-6 minutes. (Add a tablespoon of flour if the dough sticks to the sides.)

  Cover the dough with a damp towel, and allow it to rest again for 30-45 minutes.

  Once the time is up, do a quick stretch and fold. Cover the dough back up, and let it sit on the counter overnight.

  Your dough should have doubled in size.
• (morning) Place the dough onto a floured surface, and use a rolling pin to form a rectangular shape.
• Spread the cinnamon sugar filling as evenly as you can over the dough. 
• Fold the dough into a long and tight roll, and slice down the roll every two inches to form individual cinnamon rolls.
• Place the cinnamon rolls onto parchment paper or a greased baking pan. They can be placed side by side or can be placed apart.
• Cover the cinnamon rolls, and let them rise for 1 to 2 hours.
• Bake the cinnamon rolls after they have risen for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Let the rolls cool in the pan for 20-30 minutes before applying the buttercream icing. They can still be slightly warm.

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

• Melt the butter, and mix the sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and flour.

  I love a strong and bold cinnamon flavor. If you like a mild spice, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon to the mixture. Spread the cinnamon sugar filling as evenly as you can over the dough. 

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

• Use an electric mixer, and combine the butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Mix in the milk one tablespoon at a time.

  The consistency will be like frosting, and once it's added to the cinnamon rolls, it becomes more of an icing-like texture! If it's too runny, add in more powdered sugar, and if it's too thick, add more milk.

Keyword cinnamon rolls, sourdough, sourdough cinnamon rolls, buttercream icing, soft cinnamon rolls, breakfast, dessert, easy recipe, the best sourdough cinnamon rolls

Once the cinnamon rolls have cooled down for about twenty minutes (but are still warm), add a generous amount of icing to each roll. Don’t worry about frosting the sides because some of the icing will melt. I am in love with the buttercream cinnamon rolls, especially with sourdough. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, I’m not a big fan of cream cheese frosting. Sourdough cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting are too “sour” for one recipe.

These cinnamon rolls have so much flavor that you don’t even need icing, although I’m the type of person that will eat icing straight out of the bowl. When I was a kid, I would beg my mom to buy cinnamon rolls in the can so that I could eat the frosting cup.  With this recipe, you can make the rolls smaller or larger. And if you wanted to make cinnamon rolls twists with the dough, you could do that! I plan to make a pumpkin roll and a Christmas tree roll during the holiday season. I may even do some cute easter bunny shapes with these next month. And are the 100 photos of these cinnamon rolls necessary? Yes. They are perfection, and food is an art to me.  I plan to have a garden brunch outside this summer once all of my plants fully bloom! I’ll most definitely be adding these sourdough cinnamon rolls to that menu. I’m planting a section with edible flowers, and how cute would these be decorated with a few delicate flowers on top? I’m so excited about the fresh produce this year.

These cinnamon rolls can be stored in a container on the countertop or in the refrigerator. They can be frozen, too! We kept ours in a container in the freezer and popped it into the microwave for a few seconds before enjoying it. Kyle and I had one after dessert a few nights last week.

There’s nothing better than finding a cinnamon roll recipe that hits the spot and compliments everything you love about a cinnamon roll. I love a cinnamon roll with a thick cinnamon sugar filling, buttercream icing, and gooey centers with a flaky (almost issant-like) crust.

The centers of these cinnamon rolls are fluffy and light.
 And you know I have to say it…They are PERFECT in the morning with a cup of coffee.  As a kid, I LOVED waking up to the smell of cinnamon rolls. It’s a bit nostalgic for me. I have always dreamed of having the perfect cinnamon roll recipe and waking my children up with the baking aroma on the weekends, and I know this is the recipe I’ll be making!  Sourdough cinnamon rolls are definitely a big glow-up to the average yeast-based cinnamon roll. And like a good neighbor, I boxed a few up for porch drop-offs!

Questions for you!

1. Are you team cream cheese frosting or buttercream?
2. Have you ever used a sourdough starter?
3. Are you interested in learning how to make sourdough bread?