Quick & Easy Cinnamon Buns
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Make delicious, soft cinnamon buns in no time with this easy, no-yeast recipe! Perfect for a last-minute breakfast treat—no rising time required.
I love traditional cinnamon rolls and sticky buns, but they require advanced planning and hours of rising time. I don’t know about your family, but when my kids request cinnamon buns for breakfast, they want them five minutes ago—not later in the day! That’s where this quick and easy cinnamon bun recipe comes in. Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, it uses a fast buttermilk biscuit dough leavened with baking powder rather than yeast, so there’s no need to wait for the dough to rise. The result? Tender, golden, caramelized cinnamon buns that are as easy as they are delicious!
What You’ll Need To Make Quick & Easy Cinnamon Buns
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Make the Filling
Combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of melted butter and mix until the mixture resembles wet sand. Set aside.
Step 2: Make the Dough
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients for the dough. Note that it’s very important to measure the flour using the spoon and level method: spoon it into a measuring cup and level it off with the back edge of a knife. If you scoop it into the measuring cup, you will have too much flour and dry cinnamon buns.
Add the buttermilk and melted butter and stir with a wooden spoon until the liquid is absorbed and the dough looks shaggy.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Dust the dough lightly with flour and knead until the dough is almost smooth.
Step 3: Roll the Dough
Pat the dough into a small rectangle, then roll into a larger 12-inch x 9-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter, and then sprinkle the brown sugar topping evenly over top. Press the filling firmly into the dough.
Starting at the long end, roll the dough into a log and pinch the seam. Then cut the log into nine even pieces.
Lightly flatten the rolls with your hand to pack the filling in place.
Arrange the rolls in a 9-inch cake pan lined with buttered aluminum foil, then brush the rolls with the remaining melted butter.
Step 4: Bake
Bake the cinnamon buns for about 25 minutes, until the rolls are golden brown.
Use the foil overhang to transfer the rolls to a cooling rack. Let them sit about 5 minutes, then pull them apart.
Step 5: Glaze
Make the buttermilk glaze by whisking the buttermilk, cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar together in a small bowl.
Drizzle the glaze liberally over the buns and enjoy warm. (These cinnamon buns are best fresh out of the oven, but they can also be stored in an air tight container and reheated with excellent results.)
Note: As mentioned, this recipe is tweaked from Cook’s Illustrated. I found their recipe to be good but tooth-achingly sweet, so I reduced the sugar significantly. I also increased the salt to balance things out a bit. This version also calls for a bit more flour than the original, making the dough easier to work with.
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Quick & Easy Cinnamon Buns
Make delicious, soft cinnamon buns in no time with this easy, no-yeast recipe! Perfect for a last-minute breakfast treat—no rising time required.
Ingredients
For the Cinnamon Buns
For the Brown Sugar Filling
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
For the dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off with knife, plus more for dusting work surface
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cups low fat buttermilk
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
For the Glaze
- 1½ tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk or milk
- ¾ cup confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Line a 9-inch square cake pan with aluminum foil and brush with one tablespoon butter.
- Combine the brown sugar, 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, cloves and ⅛ teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Add one tablespoon of the melted butter and stir with a fork or fingers until the mixture resembles wet sand. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining tablespoon granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the buttermilk and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until the liquid is absorbed; the dough will be sticky and shaggy. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead, lightly dusting more flour as necessary, until just smooth and no longer shaggy, about 1 minute.
- Lightly dust the surface again. Pat the dough into a small rectangle, then roll into a 12x9-inch rectangle, dusting more flour sparingly if necessary so the dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the brown sugar filling, leaving a ½-inch border. Using your hand, press the filling firmly into the dough. Starting at the long side, roll the dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log. (If the dough sticks to the surface, use a sharp knife or dough scraper to release it.) Pinch the seam to seal. Roll the log seam-side down and, using a sharp knife, cut it evenly into 9 pieces. Turn the pieces over on their flat sides, and slightly flatten each piece with your hand to seal the open edges and keep the filling in place. Place the rolls in the prepared pan and brush with the remaining butter. Bake until the edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese and buttermilk until thick and smooth (the mixture will look like cottage cheese at first). Add the confectioners' sugar and whisk until smooth glaze forms.
- When the buns are done, use the foil overhang to lift them out of the baking pan and onto a wire rack. Let cool for 5 minutes, then carefully separate the buns, using a knife if necessary. If you find the buns are sticking a bit to the foil, transfer them to a wire rack. Drizzle the glaze evenly over the buns. The buns are best served warm; leftovers may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (9 servings)
- Serving size: 1 bun
- Calories: 389
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated fat: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 66 g
- Sugar: 33 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 6 g
- Sodium: 296 mg
- Cholesterol: 31 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I tried them and they are the best
Whipped up a batch before work, much to the delight of my coworkers. Easy to follow recipe and the end result was absolutely delicious. Left out the glaze as I found them to be sweet and moist enough already. Will definitely be making these again – with a bit more practice, I hope they will one day look like the ones in the picture as mine definitely turned out a little messy… but they were gone in a flash so nobody even noticed 😉
Made these today, and like so many of your recipes that I’ve tried, I was happy with the results. One suggestion I have, however, is that the ingredients list could be modified to indicate that, like the salt, both the butter and the sugar quantities have a divided use. The division of the melted butter became clear after I read through the recipe, but even after reading the recipe, I missed the fact that, although 1/4 cup of sugar was listed, only 3 tablespoons of that quantity was used with the brown sugar. The remaining 1 tablespoon had to be added to the flour mixture. Other than that, the recipe worked well. Warning…you’ll be tempted to eat two of these. Don’t do it!
Good point, Pat — I just updated the recipe to indicate that. And glad to hear you enjoyed them! 🙂
Fabulous recipe! Easy to follow and all ingredients were in my kitchen. I was a little concerned about the amount of sugar but the taste was just right. Bravo!
Jenn…you are my new superhero! From a woman who struggles with making anything decent using yeast, your recipe is perfect because it is quick and simple (and requires no yeast to mess up). My picky family devoured these and commented how amazing they thought I was. Thank you for making me look good 🙂 I LOVE your recipes. They are for real people with real families.
🙂
Great cinnamon buns! Easy to make and not too sweet! Love them. Monika
5 stars for taste, 3 stars for appearance / ease of recipe, so averages to 4 stars. I measured the ingredients by weight and the dough looked just like the picture. I was very careful about not overworking the dough and dusted the surface with about the same amount as in the photos. But when it came time to rolling these into spirals, the dough was wet and there was a lot of filling. It tore and stuck to itself and the filling spilled out. I cobbled them into roundish shapes and they baked up kind of misshapen, not pretty like the photo.
That said, these tasted wonderful. The biscuit dough bakes up very tender, as good as the yeasted rolls in my opinion, and a lot less work! I also added some orange zest and juice to the icing. Next time I will use less filling and be a bit more generous on the flour to try to prevent sticking.
Hello! I live in Australia and we don’t have buttermilk readily available. Is there a substitute you could reccommend for this recipe? Hope your loved ones are happy and healthy during this tricky time.
Hi Viv, If you have milk and lemon juice or vinegar, you can make your own buttermilk. See how here. Hope you’re well too! 🙂
Hi Viv, I live in Australia also. Check in Woolies or Coles in the milk section. Paul’s and Dairy Farmers both makes decent versions that I regularly use. I believe it can be frozen also so if supply is irregular pick some extra up and freeze.
Hi Jen, I love all your recipes and always recommend your blog and cookbook to friends. I have sourdough starter and was wondering if I can omit the baking soda and powder and replace with the sourdough starter in the cinnamon rolls recipe?
So glad you like the recipes Eileen! I don’t know enough about sourdough starter to say confidently whether or not it would work here – I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful!
So delicious. Family loves them. Clear and easy instructions. Will make again for sure
Hi Jennifer, first of all my mom and I have been making your recipes for years and haven’t found a four star recipe yet! Thank you for sharing them! Regarding this recipe, I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I’ve made it twice and both times when it came time to knead the dough, the dough was so wet I had to add almost an extra half cup of flour, just to get it to come together. Then once the rolls were finished baking, the dough seemed tough, not soft and melt-in-your-mouth. Do you have any ideas as to what I might be doing wrong? Would over kneading make the dough tough?
Hi Jessica, sorry you’ve had a problem with these! What brand of flour are you using? Sometimes with all other things equal, the flour can make a difference. And, yes, overkneading would have contributed to the tough texture of the finished buns.