Easy Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls – Overnight Recipe (Video)

Sharing is caring!

These easy sourdough cinnamon rolls will be your favorite cinnamon rolls in no time!  They can be made the night before so you can quickly bake them fresh for breakfast in the morning, or you can bake them right away for a quick dessert.  You can mix them up in a mixer, or just do some quick stretch and folds by hand.  They can also be made with discard or active sourdough starter and they will turn out just fine.  This is a very flexible recipe for soft and fluffy cinnamon rolls that you and your family are going to love!  The best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted have been made with sourdough.  There’s something about the slight tang of the sourdough combined with the sweet ribbons of brown sugar filling that makes these the absolute best cinnamon rolls you’ll ever eat!

There’s nothing quite like a delicious batch of sourdough cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, for a family brunch or even for a Sunday morning breakfast.  They are delicious with a warm cup of coffee or tea for a special occasion, or even with a bowl of chili for a comforting supper.  Because they can be made the night before, you can easily have them ready for a yummy breakfast anytime during the year, even during the busy summer months.  Sourdough sweet rolls and coffee in the garden make for a delicious breakfast.

You can easily make this sourdough cinnamon roll recipe into sourdough sticky buns by adding a simple caramel sauce, or top them with maple cream cheese frosting, or a traditional powdered sugar frosting.  There are several variations for these cinnamon rolls listed in the printable recipe below and shown in the video.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion.  Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well.  When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest.  A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.   

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

For more of our favorite sourdough recipes, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

FAQ

Why are my sourdough cinnamon rolls not fluffy?

If you add too much flour to your dough, they won’t be as fluffy.  You don’t want a sticky dough, but not a super dry dough either.  Make sure you give them enough time to rise, I prefer to raise them overnight.  You can make quick cinnamon rolls with baking powder and baking soda as the leavening, but they won’t be as fluffy as the rolls you allow to rise overnight.

Are cinnamon rolls and cinnamon buns the same thing?

Cinnamon rolls and cinnamon buns are basically the same thing, except that cinnamon buns typically have a caramel topping with nuts like pecans or chopped walnuts.

How do you make sourdough rolls less dense?

Allow them to rise until they are fluffy.  Make them with active sourdough starter.

What kind of flour is best for cinnamon rolls?

Bread flour will give you the fluffiest and softest cinnamon rolls, but you can make cinnamon rolls with a variety of flours including whole grain or all purpose.

Tips

• To gain all of the health benefits from making these with long-fermented sourdough, be sure to allow them to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight.  This will ensure that most of the phytic acid and gluten in the flour are consumed by the sourdough starter making these much easier to digest especially if you are gluten intolerant.
• If your sourdough starter is really thin, you may need to add a little more flour to this recipe.  I always mix them until they dough pulls away from the sides of my mixer bowl, or until it’s not super sticky if mixing up by hand.
• You can mix these in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of kneading or stretch and folds every few minutes for about an hour to develop the gluten in these rolls.  Then just roll them out, shape and allow to rise until double and then bake.
• You can use string to cut the cinnamon rolls if you’d like, but I find that cutting them with a knife works just fine for my family.
• It is perfectly safe to add the eggs to this dough and still allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight because the good active bacteria in the sourdough starter will prevent any bad bacteria from forming on the eggs.

Dough Ingredients

Water or milk

You can use milk or buttermilk in this cinnamon roll recipe.  Basically any kind of liquid will be fine.

Sourdough starter

Active sourdough starter is preferred, but sourdough discard works just fine too providing you are rising them overnight if you’re not adding the baking soda and baking powder into the recipe. Learn how to make your own sourdough starter here.

Butter

Homemade butter is my favorite fat to put into these rolls, but you can also use melted beef tallow or coconut oil.

Sweetener

Sugar is what I use most often, but you can make these with honey or cane sugar as well.

Salt

Redmond real salt from Azure Standard is my favorite, but any kind of salt will do.

Eggs

Farm fresh eggs are always best.

Flour

Bread flour will make the fluffiest rolls, but I’ve made these cinnamon rolls many times with all purpose flour.  You could also make them with whole grain flour, but they wouldn’t be quite as fluffy.  

Baking powder & baking soda

Optional – only needed if baking right away with no rise time.

Cinnamon Sugar Filling Ingredients

• Butter
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon

​Frosting Options

Caramel Sourdough Sticky Bun Filling

• Butter
• Brown Sugar
• Water

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cream cheese – I like to make my own cream cheese by straining out plain yogurt
• Heavy cream – I use the cream from my Jersey milk cows, but use whatever kind of cream you have
• Maple Syrup
• Vanilla extract-

Classic Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cream cheese
• Butter
• Milk
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Leftover coffee (optional) – this will give the frosting the best flavor.

Tools You May Need

• Stand mixer. You can mix these rolls up by hand, but I usually use my favorite Bosch mixer and just mix up the dough while I’m cleaning up supper dishes in the evening.  This makes the rolls fast and easy to make.
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Rolling pin
• Sharp knife
• Cast iron skillet
• Saucepan (for making the sticky bun caramel or cream cheese frosting)
• Immersion blender (for mixing the maple cream cheese frosting)

How To Make Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine first five ingredients.

If using a mixer, start mixing on low and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl and knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball.  Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple hours.  This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.

Combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to ¼” thick in the shape of a rectangle.

Spread the filling ingredients on the dough (see video).

Roll dough up beginning with the long side of the rectangle.

Using a sharp serrated knife, cut rolls into approximately 1 ½” lengths.

Place in a greased cast iron skillet or baking dish.

Cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise on the counter overnight.  If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish raising a couple of hours before baking.

You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls at this point, and take them out of the freezer to raise and bake later on.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees (350 degrees is better if you’re making caramel rolls as they take a little longer to bake).

For caramel sticky buns, pour the cooled caramel over the rolls before baking.  For cream cheese frosted cinnamon rolls, just bake them as they are.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  Caramel rolls usually need to bake an extra 5-10 minutes to be done in the middle.

While the rolls are baking mix up the cream cheese frosting.

Remove from the oven and spread frosting over warm rolls.  If making the caramel rolls, flip them upside down on a platter so the caramel is on the top.  Can add nuts if desired.

Serve warm with a cup of coffee or tea from Farmhouse Teas.

Savor every bite!  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21