My Easy No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls are thickly iced and ready to eat in under an hour! This soft and fluffy cinnamon bun recipe is no knead, no rise, and insanely delicious ~ I’ve never met anyone who can resist.
Do one hour cinnamon buns sound too good to be true?
Sink your teeth into one warm from the oven…you’ll get it. I love to bake and I’m a sucker for those mall Cinnabons just like everybody else, but honestly, I’m never tempted to fuss with the full on yeasted recipe, no matter how strong my craving, it’s just not worth the effort. But these almost-too-easy cinnamon rolls made with lightly sweetened biscuit dough are a game changer, I literally can’t stop thinking about other flavors to make next. Fresh raspberry, anyone? Apple butter? Pumpkin?? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they all come your way!
A warm pan of freshly made cinnamon buns is just what we all need right now.
And this recipe delivers, without adding any stress to your life in the form of “is my yeast fresh?” or “wait do I even have yeast?” or “HOW long do I have to wait for these cinnamon rolls to be ready??” They’re pretty much instant cinnamon bun gratification.
The secret to amazing no-yeast cinnamon rolls: a buttery biscuit dough.
It’s the perfect alternative to a traditional yeasted bun recipe, and, I’m not kidding, I like it even better because it’s so soft and cushiony. I’ll never do them any other way! And don’t worry, I didn’t forget the thick creamy frosting, it’s half the fun, for sure. Slather it on while the rolls are still hot for the best effect.
I first played with this idea as a cobbler topping in my Peach Cobbler with Cinnamon Swirl Biscuits. For that recipe I slice the rolls thinner and use them as a topping for fruit. It was only a matter of time before they went solo.
This recipe makes 12 rolls that fit perfectly in my 11 inch oval baking dish from Staub. No need to even grease the pan, so it’s easy peasy. If you want to use a different pan, just find one with a similar capacity. The rolls should fit loosely together to allow for expanding in the oven.
Cinnamon rolls are welcome any time of the year, but would be great for a cozy Easter morning or Mother’s Day brunch. If you’re at home with kids, it’s a perfect baking project to do together because you’ve got the fun of rolling up the spiral of dough, and the slathering on of all that frosting, but none of the boring waiting bits.
More cinnamon sugar deliciousness ~
- Super Easy Cinnamon Coffee Cake
- Apple Cider Doughnut Muffins
- Chocolate Dipped Churro Shortbread Cookies
- Easy Oat Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar
Easy No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Cinnamon filling
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Rolls
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
- 2/3 cup milk, (or half-and-half, or buttermilk)
Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 Tbsp milk or cream to thin
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F and butter an 11 inch oval baker. See notes for alternatives.
- To make the filling, melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and the cinnamon and mix together. You should have a sandy, clumpy mixture. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and butter. Pulse until the mixture is evenly crumbly. You can also do this by hand using a pastry cutter to combine the butter with the dry ingredients.
- Add the milk to the food processor (or by hand to to the flour mixture), and continue to mix until a soft dough forms.
- Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and briefly knead it. It should feel soft and pliable, but not too sticky.
- Divide the dough in half, and roll out one half into a rectangle about 9 x 12 inches (or just a little larger than a sheet of paper). Add more flour if needed to keep the dough from sticking.
- Sprinkle one half of the cinnamon sugar filling over the entire rectangle, and pat it down lightly. Sprinkle it as evenly as you can but don't worry about perfectly covering every square millimeter–it will be fine.
- Roll up the dough from one of the short sides of the rectangle to form a log. Using a sharp knife or a piece of clean dental floss, cut the dough into 6 rolls about 1 1/2 inches long. Place them into your prepared baker.
- Repeat for the 2nd half of the dough.
- Decrease the oven temperature to 375F, and place the rolls in the oven.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until starting to turn golden brown on top and cooked through.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze by whisking the powdered sugar with the melted butter, salt, vanilla extract and milk, until smooth.
- Remove the rolls from the oven, and while still warm, brush or spoon the glaze over them.
Notes
Nutrition
Just made these today exactly as written and they were super easy and delicious! These will be my go-to cinnamon rolls from now on, thank you.
Yay! Thanks for your review Laura.
Thank you, these are amazing.
I was wondering how many carbs are in each approximately? I am wondering for a diabetic.!
I’m excited to try this recipe, just wondered what you thought of substituting brown sugar for the granulated in the filling? If you don’t think that would work I’ll make them as written. Thank you
I only have self-rising flour – can I replace the all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda with an equivalent amount of self-rising flour by itself?
Thanks in advance
For the life of me, I am finding it difficult to get two (2) 9 x 12-inch rectangles out of this amount of dough. What am I doing wrong?
If your dough is coming up short, just reduce the size of the rectangles, no worries.
Hi, I would like to know if I could make these Cinnamon Rolls the night before and bake them in the morning. I would like to serve them on Christmas Morning. I really enjoy all your recipes. Thank you!!
Lisa
With yeasted cinnamon rolls you can do this, but I haven’t done it with these Lisa, so I can’t say for sure. I think you should be fine, though.
I’m so excited to try this recipe!! My Mama & Grammy Always made their cinnamon rolls using a sweet dough recipe & this one looks almost identical to it 🙂 I’m not a fan of the yeast or cake one’s, I just find they are to much & they don’t hold a candle next to these one’s!! Thank you so much for the recipe & for bringing back some Awesome childhood memory’s 🙂 I will be making these with my GK’s this week-end & will post an update on how they went (y)
These were delicious! I’m usually a traditional sticky bun maker, but on a hot July day these were perfect to make. I only used about 1/2 of the glaze and it was still plenty. Will definitely be making again and again.
That’s just what I love about them, they’re not the fussy traditional types, so easy!
Made these as written the first time. Fantastic!
Second time around, I didn’t thin the glaze quite as much (our preference), substituted maple whiskey for the vanilla and used 1/2 cream and 1/2 maple syrup (we are Canadian, after all!) for the milk. Also fantastic.
Thanks for another keeper!
Maple whiskey….:)