Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls Copycat Recipe

Calling Cinnabon fans...I'm SO excited to share this cinnamon bun recipe with you! If you love Cinnabon's cinnamon buns but want to make a home made version then you have to try these cinnamon buns (which I think are actually better! ;) ). These enormous, fluffy and delicious buns are filled with plenty of cinnamon sugar butter filling. There are no dry bits in these cinnamon rolls, just delicious glaze plus the famous cream cheese frosting on top! These come with a warning-don't blame me if you eat 2 or 3 of these in a row! ;) This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

I tested this cinnamon bun recipe so many times just to get these juuuuust right! I was obsessed with making these cinnamon buns as close to the Cinnabon cinnamon buns as possible. They each weigh around 260g or 9ozs so it's a giant cinnamon roll just like the Cinnabon ones are. And I even watched the montage on Better Call Saul where Saul or Gene works at a Cinnabon franchise haha! These have the most gorgeous caramelised bottom and the cream cheese glaze on top means that every bite is utter deliciousness. When I gave a batch to Laura she loved them and she gave them to her bestie Angus who described them as "the best thing I've ever eaten".

5 Tips For Making These Cinnabon Copycat Cinnamon Buns

1 The main key to making these as fluffy and light as possible is by making a tangzhong roux at the beginning. This only takes 2 minutes and just involves cooking flour and water to make a roux but this is the key to making these out of the world delicious - trust me!! My hot cross buns have gone viral many times over for this exact reason.

2 Make sure to roll the dough out to the dimensions specified. That will ensure that the rolls are the right size. You want around 180-200g/6-7ozs of rolled up cinnamon bun before baking. Rolling it out to these dimensions takes a bit of time, around 5 minutes of rolling and stretching.

3 Each bun has around 60g/2ozs of the cream cheese glaze on top. You can also make a batch of this beforehand and then heat it up in the microwave for 20 seconds and then spoon the glaze on top of the hot bun.

4 Once the buns are baked, don't worry if there's cinnamon butter pooled around them. Let them rest for 15 minutes and they will absorb up all of this delicious goodness. That's what makes them so good for every single bite!

5 You can freeze the baked, uniced cinnamon buns for up to 3 months and also freeze the frosting (which honestly never sets that hard). Then warm up the defrosted buns in the oven and then heat up the frosting until spoonable in texture and spoon it over.

I was really excited to make these and I even had some favourite buns. You know the prettiest buns out of the batch that you just know will turn out beautifully. Since it was a bit of a cold and wet day I had to do the second prove in a warm oven. I switched on the oven to 70C and then turned it off. I slid all of the buns in the oven and left them for 10 minutes. They puffed up enormously so I left the oven ajar just so they wouldn't over proof too quickly. I went to say hello to Mr NQN in the front of the house and came back a few minutes later. I looked at the oven and screamed, horrified as I saw an entire cinnamon bun had gone missing. Milo was standing by the oven licking his lips and then ran off as soon as I screamed. And he had also eaten the bun that I had earmarked as the best looking bun!

"Milo has eaten an entire cinnamon bun - unbaked!!!!" I told Mr NQN. I quickly googled to see if it was an issue and it turns out it is. I rang the 24 hour vet at Sydney University. They were very helpful and asked us if the cinnamon buns contained raisins (no, phew!) and then Milo started heaving up the dough. He ended up regurgitating about half of the dough but Mr NQN brought him in just in case. I told them that he'd be there in 20 minutes.

As soon as Mr NQN and Milo arrived at Sydney Uni Vet Hospital they greeted him with "It's 'dough dog'!" as all of the staff knew he was coming. By now Milo had heaved up all over the car but they induced the last bits of dough and explained that the most dangerous part of him ingesting a raw cinnamon bun was the yeast that can turn into alcohol poisoning. Before they even left the vet hospital Milo was back to his bouncy self. We call Milo Moo Deng after the pygmy hippo that has taken the world by storm just because he is so bouncy. And when he arrived back home Milo ran straight to the oven - I think hoping for some more of these cinnamon buns!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like cinnamon buns? With or without frosting?

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls Copycat Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Prep time: 30 minutes plus 1 hour 45 minutes rising time

Cooking time: 23 minutes per batch

Makes 6 XL cinnamon buns

• 20g/0.7ozs bread flour
• 1/2 cup/125ml/4floz water
• 50g/1.7ozs butter, softened
• 210ml/7flozs cream or milk
• 60g/2ozs brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 500g/1.1lbs bread flour
• 1 tablespoon/8.5g instant dried yeast

Cinnamon sugar

• 200g/7ozs butter, softened
• 200g/7ozs brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice mixture (or ground cinnamon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 125g/4ozs cream cheese, softened
• 80g/2.8ozs butter, very soft but not melted
• 330g/11.6ozs icing or powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Step 1 - Make the tangzhong roux mixture. Whisk 20g/0.7ozs of flour and half cup of water in a small saucepan and heat until it becomes a smooth roux (around 65C/149F). Whisk in the butter, cream or milk, brown sugar, egg, vanilla and salt until there are no lumps.

Step 2 - In a mixer bowl whisk the 500g/1.1lb bread flour and the yeast together to distribute the yeast in the flour. Mix the tangzhong roux into the flour until you get a shaggy mixture and knead with a dough hook for 10-12 minutes until you get the windowpane effect (where you can pull apart the dough without it breaking).

Step 3 - Place in a greased bowl (I use the mixer bowl) and cover and allow to rise to triple the size, around 1-1.5 hours. In the meantime mix the softened butter, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt together in a large bowl to form a cohesive mixture.

Step 4 - Punch down the dough and flour a large surface. Line 2 large baking trays with parchment. Roll out the dough to a large rectangle 80x28cms or 32x11inches. Spread all of the cinnamon filling generously across the entire dough. Mark the dough at both ends in 5cm/2 inch increments and using a pizza cutter slice long ribbons of dough that are 5cm/2inches wide. Roll up the dough from one end. Use a little water to seal the end piece well to the roll. Place three rolls per tray. Allow to rise to double the size in a warm area (and don't let your dog eat the dough!) for 30 minutes.

Step 5 - Preheat oven to 170C/340F and bake each tray of buns for 23-25 minutes. While the cinnamon buns are baking make the cream cheese glaze. In a mixer beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Then on low speed add the sifted icing sugar, milk and vanilla and beat until combined. It should be soft and spoonable. Thermomix directions: place the icing sugar in the TM bowl and set to 15 seconds speed #10. Add the cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla and set to 20 seconds, speed #6.

Step 6 - When the buns are out of the oven, let them rest on the tray for 15 minutes to absorb all of the caramel butter. Then spoon 60g/2ozs of cream cheese frosting on each bun. Serve warm.