The Best Homemade Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
These are the best sourdough cinnamon rolls with their light and tender crumb that melts in your mouth. The sweet cinnamon filling compliments the tangy cream cheese frosting for the ultimate decadent breakfast treat. With a soft texture, these sourdough cinnamon rolls have a faint sourdough tang produced by a long ferment using a sourdough starter.
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Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 9x13 pan or large cast iron skillet
- 1 Danish dough whisk
- 1 Digital thermometer
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 100 g active sourdough starter ½ cup
- 184 g whole milk ¾ cup
- 4 large eggs
- 50 g sugar ¼ cup
- 142 g unsalted butter 10 tbsp
Dry Ingredients
- 540 g all-purpose flour 4½ cups
- 10 g sea salt 2 tsp
Cinnamon Roll Filling
- 29 g salted butter 2 tbsp
- 100 g brown sugar ½ cup
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
Mixing the Dough
- Feed the sourdough starter and allow it to come to its peak 6-8 hours before mixing the sourdough cinnamon roll dough.
- Add the milk, sugar, and butter to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted and then remove from the heat. Do not let the milk mixture boil.
- Crack the eggs into a large bowl.
- Temper the eggs by slowly ladling small amounts of the warm milk mixture over the eggs, whisking constantly as you add the milk. Continue to add the milk until roughly half of the milk mixture is combined with the eggs. This brings the temperature of the eggs up without cooking or scrambling the eggs. Pour the remaining milk mixture in.
- The milk and egg mixture must be at the right temperature before adding the sourdough starter. If it's too hot, it'll kill the yeast. If it's too cool, it delays the dough from rising as quickly as it could. You want it to be right around 100-110 degrees, similar to the temperature of drawing a bath for a baby. (Since your wrist is sensitive with its thin skin, it's the ideal way to check the water temperature. Use this as your gauge.)
- Whisk in the active sourdough starter and then incorporate the flour and salt completely.
- The top of the dough will look shaggy at this stage. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Stretch and Folds
- After the dough has been allowed to rest remove the towel and do a series of stretch and folds. Grab the edge of the dough and lift it straight up, folding in onto itself in the middle. Rotate the bowl a quarter of a turn and repeat. Continue to stretch and fold the dough, working your way around the bowl until the dough starts to feel firm and resistant to being worked, generally 10-15 stretch and folds. This completes one set of stretch and folds.
- Cover the bowl and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. Repeat with another set of stretch and folds. Do a total of 3 sets of stretch and folds. By the last set of stretch and folds the dough will transform to being smooth and elastic.
- Because the dough has a high hydration level, it will be slack and slightly tacky. This is normal.
Bulk Fermentation
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a plate and let the dough rise in a warm place. Because the enriched dough is filled with butter, milk, and eggs, it will take longer than traditional sourdough bread dough to rise.
- Allow plenty of time for the dough to rise, up to 8-12 hours. The rise time will vary depending on the warmth of your kitchen and the age and strength of your starter. If your kitchen is cool, place the bowl in the oven with the light on to create a warm environment for the bulk ferment.(I like to snap a photo of the dough on my phone for a visual reminder of how big the dough was before the bulk ferment stage to compare how it has grown.)The dough will look puffy and have grown in height, but not double in size like traditional cinnamon roll dough.
Shape
- Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside until ready to use.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and sprinkle the surface of the dough with a bit of flour. Gently stretch the dough to flatten it out into an even layer of dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle shape roughly 12 x 16 inches, making sure that the dough is even in its thickness. If the dough shrinks back while rolling out, just let it rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the gluten to relax and then resume rolling.
- Spread softened butter over the dough all the way to the edges. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling over the butter, pressing into the butter to help it to stick. Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife and cut the dough into 8, 10, or 12 strips. The fewer strips you cut, the taller the rolls will be.
- Roll each strip of the dough, starting from the end closest to you, until you come to the end of the strip. Don't roll the dough too tightly, otherwise the middle of the rolls will pop out as they bake. The dough is sticky and may stick to the work surface as you roll each strip. Take your time and roll slowly, loosening the dough from the work surface as it's rolled. You can leave the ends of the rolls right by the sides of the rolls, or you can stretch the ends a bit and tuck them under the roll.
- Arrange the rolls in a greased large cast iron skillet or 9x13 pan. I like to line the pan with a piece of parchment paper.
Second Rise
- Cover the pan of rolls with plastic wrap or a large cutting board and place in a warm spot for the rolls final rise. They will become light and fluffy and fill the gaps between the rolls. How long this takes will largely depend on the temperature of your kitchen. If it's cold, place them in an oven with the light on to create a warm environment. Be patient at this stage. If you rush this part and they don't rise enough, you'll end up with dense rolls.
- Once the rolls have risen, you can bake them right away or cover them and place the unbaked rolls in the refrigerator overnight to bake the next day. They won't rise much further in the refrigerator.
Bake
- The following morning remove the sourdough cinnamon rolls from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle position.
- Bake for 27-32 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The tops of the sourdough rolls won't brown much, so make sure that you don't over bake them.
- I use a digital thermometer to check that the rolls are completely done. The internal temperature in the middle of the pan of rolls will read 200 degrees when they're done baking. This may seem like an extra tool, but its worth buying as you learn how baked good behave and what they look like when they're done. You can buy a simple, inexpensive thermometer that will work well for this type of application.
- Remove the rolls from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool. If you want them to cool quickly, lift the rolls, using the parchment paper as handles, out of the pan and onto the rack.
Frost
- I like to frost the rolls while they're still warm so that the frosting melts into all of the nooks and crevices of the rolls. If you prefer the frosting to stand tall on the rolls, wait until the rolls are cool to frost.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Nutrition
Calories: 348.4kcalCarbohydrates: 48gProtein: 7.4gFat: 14.1gSaturated Fat: 8.2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3.8gTrans Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 94.5mgSodium: 372.7mgPotassium: 111.7mgFiber: 1.6gSugar: 13.2gVitamin A: 472.9IUVitamin C: 0.02mgCalcium: 52.2mgIron: 2.5mg
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