High Altitude Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

A high altitude tested recipe for soft and fluffy gingerbread cinnamon rolls with cozy winter spices, a hint of molasses, and vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. Make the dough in the evening, let it rest overnight, then shape and bake the rolls on Christmas morning for a deliciously sweet breakfast that everyone will love!

You might also love these apple butter cinnamon rolls with maple icing, chocolate cinnamon rolls, and cardamom orange cinnamon rolls.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Cozy Gingerbread Flavors. I’ve based today’s recipe on my original cinnamon rolls recipe, which are always so perfectly fluffy and moist. To turn them into gingerbread cinnamon rolls, I added a little molasses to the dough, as well as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. The sweet cream cheese frosting is the perfect complement to the warm winter spices.

Make at Night, Bake in the Morning. So that you don’t have to get up early to make your dough in the morning and wait for it to rise, my overnight option makes the process much easier. Simply make your dough the day before (up to 24 hours in advance), let it rise, then chill overnight in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to bake your rolls, just roll out the cold dough, fill and roll up into cinnamon rolls. After a quick rest time, the rolls are ready to go into the oven.

Perfect for the Holidays. In our house, cinnamon rolls are for holidays and special occasions, and these are perfect for breakfast on Thanksgiving or Christmas morning.

High Altitude Tested. While this recipe will likely work at lower altitudes, too, mountain bakers can bake with confidence since I test all of my recipes at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Dough

• Butter. Unsalted butter, in both the dough and the filling, adds richness and flavor to your cinnamon rolls.
• Whole Milk or Buttermilk. Adds fat, flavor and moisture for a fluffy, tender roll.
• Yeast. You can use either “active dry” or “instant/rapid rise” yeast. The yeast is what makes the dough rise.
• Sugar. Instead of white granulated sugar, I used brown sugar in the dough, to give the rolls more of that gingerbread flavor.
• Bread Flour. Any bread recipe that calls for yeast should be made with bread flour. Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour, and the protein helps with gluten development. The gluten gives the rolls a soft, chewy texture, rather than cakey or crumbly.
• Spices. Salt balances the sweetness. A blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves adds warmth and spice. And vanilla extract is just delicious.
• Molasses. A little molasses adds more of the gingerbread flavor. If your brown sugar is extremely dark, then you don’t need to add the molasses, but I usually only keep light brown sugar on hand.
• Eggs. This is an “enriched” dough, meaning it has a fairly high fat content from the eggs and butter. The result is a soft, pillowy dough that bakes into a beautifully rich-tasting roll.
• Heavy Whipping Cream. Poured into the pan just before baking the rolls, the cream adds moisture and richness for a soft, fluffy roll.

Filling

• Butter. Use unsalted butter to spread over the dough. This gives the cinnamon and sugar something to stick to.
• Brown Sugar. Either light or dark brown sugar will work for your filling.
• Cinnamon. Adds more spice and warmth to the filling.

Frosting

• Cream Cheese. Let the cream cheese soften for 1-2 hours, so you can easily mix it with the powdered sugar.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the frosting.
• Vanilla Bean Paste or Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Instructions

Dough

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F.
• If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It’s important that you check the temperature – if it’s too cold, it won’t activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast.
• Remove from the heat, and stir in the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until it gets bubbly.

• In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the flour together with the salt and spices. Add the molasses, eggs, vanilla, the warm yeast mixture and the rest of the brown sugar. Stir together into a rough dough.
• Fit your mixer with the dough hook, and knead the dough on medium speed for 10 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl several times. The dough will be soft, loose and sticky, and will not form a firm ball.

• Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick baking spray. Scrape the dough into the bowl, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set the dough in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, which should take anywhere from 45-90 minutes. If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise.
• Once the dough has doubled in size, place the covered bowl in the refrigerator to rest and chill overnight, or up to 24 hours. Since this is a soft dough, chilling the dough also makes it very easy to roll out the cold dough in the morning.

• In the morning when you’re ready to bake your rolls, flour your work surface with 1/4 cup of flour. Turn the chilled dough out and dust with flour. Roll the cold dough out into a rectangle measuring about 15×22 inches.

Note: The next few images demonstrating the dough being rolled out, filled and cut, feature my basic cinnamon roll dough, so the color isn’t as dark as the gingerbread dough, but the process is exactly the same.

Filling

• Melt the butter and use a pastry brush to brush it over the rectangle of dough, all the way to the edges.
• In a bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the buttered dough.
• Roll up the dough into a log, keeping it as tight as you can. Using a gentle sawing motion with a sharp, non-serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 rolls.

Bake

• Grease a standard 12-cup muffin pan with butter or non-stick spray, then divide the cream between the cups, about 2 teaspoons of cream in each one.
• Place the rolls, cut side up, into the muffin pan, right on top of the cream. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and set in a warm place to rest for 20 minutes. (The cream will soak into the cinnamon rolls as they bake, making them more moist, soft and fluffy.)
• If you prefer, you can also bake your rolls in a 9×13 pan. Cinnamon rolls tend to be slightly more moist and gooey baked together in a pan, but baking them in a muffin pan will give them a cute round shape.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
• Bake the rolls for about 18-20 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. (If baking them in a 9×13 pan, bake the rolls for about 22-25 minutes.)

• Immediately remove the hot rolls from the muffin pan, using a spoon to slide underneath the rolls to help lift them out of the pan. Set on a baking sheet while you make the frosting.

Frosting

• In a bowl, beat all the frosting ingredients, either by hand or with an electric mixer, until smooth.

• Spread the frosting on top of the warm rolls, and serve right away.
• This makes a generous amount of frosting, so if you like less, you can cut the frosting recipe in half.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make cinnamon roll dough without a stand mixer and dough hook?

• You can make the dough without a mixer and dough hook, but it will be much more difficult to knead the dough by hand. Since the dough is soft and sticky, it’s tempting to add too much flour, resulting in a drier roll.
• If kneading the dough by hand, you might try using a Danish dough whisk instead of using your hands. You’ll also need to knead the dough by hand for about 20 minutes, compared to 10 minutes with a stand mixer, which is extremely tiring.

Can I bake these gingerbread cinnamon rolls in a 9×13 pan instead of a muffin pan?

Yes, they will take a few minutes longer to bake in a 9×13 pan, about 22-25 minutes.

How do I reheat cinnamon rolls?

• A cinnamon roll is always best when it’s freshly baked, hot from the oven, am I right? But these are still fantastic leftover. Any cinnamon rolls that don’t get eaten right away should be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
• The best way to reheat gingerbread cinnamon rolls is in a toaster oven for about 5 minutes at 300 degrees, or in your microwave for 45 seconds on 50% power.

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