Homemade Cinnamon Rolls With Cream Cheese Icing

Cinnabon has nothing on these cinnamon rolls. These gooey made from scratch cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting are a Christmas morning tradition at our house.

We make these fluffy cinnamon rolls every Christmas.

But these perfectly soft and cinnamon-y rolls of deliciousness don't have to be just for the holidays.

How about just happy Saturday cinnamon rolls! Or brunch cinnamon rolls? Everyone loves a lazy weekend brunch. Who can say no to sticky cinnamon rolls smothered with cream cheese icing?

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At our house, Christmas Eve dinner was usually the big holiday dinner.

Christmas Eve dinner always included a big batch of my Aunt Donna's Dinner Rolls.

These rolls are famous in our family - and in a little town in Illinois where another one of my aunts, My Aunt Marilyn, is the owner of several restaurants where these rolls are proudly featured.

Why am I talking about these dinner rolls in a cinnamon roll post?

Stay with me. It'll all make sense in a minute.

For Christmas Eve dinner my mom always makes a batch of my Aunt Donna's dinner rolls. The recipe makes about 16 rolls. She would use half of the recipe for dinner rolls.

Then mom would take half of the dough and make Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. These are the kind of overnight cinnamon rolls that you stick in the fridge and then bake the next morning.

Making homemade cinnamon rolls from dough that you have already made for some dinner rolls is a serious pro move.

It only takes a few extra minutes to roll out some dough and add the butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Then just cut them into 8 rolls and put them into a greased baking pan.

Cover the pre-prepped cinnamon rolls with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Don't forget to whip up that cinnamon roll icing.

In the morning while we were all opening presents, my mom would take the rolls out of the fridge and preheat the oven.

While the oven was preheating, the rolls would have a chance to rise (this usually takes about 40 minutes).

PRO-TIP: Set the baking dish with the rolls in them on a baking sheet. Cover the rolls with a towel and set the whole thing on top of the stove as your oven preheats. This gives the rolls a little warmth so that they can rise faster. OR if you have a proof setting on your oven, like I do on my Breville Toaster Oven, you can use that.

My brother and I would scarf down these sweet rolls in the afterglow of tearing through all of our presents. What a special holiday memory.

Moms are great!

Now that I am one myself I realize how much work and effort goes into all of these special holiday memories. They don't just make themselves!

Thankfully these rolls can be an easy addition to your holiday plans. Maybe they will even be part of your family's special memories as well.

Just imagine the cinnamon-y baked goodness of these babies baking in the oven. 

Cinnamon rolls before frosting. You can also add chopped pecans to the cinnamon and sugar mixture inside.

I baked a half batch of cinnamon rolls for this post.

This worked out perfectly since I was also working on the post for my Aunt Donna's Dinner Rolls.

Much like my mother does on Christmas Eve, I made a full batch of rolls and then took half of the dough to create some dinner rolls. For our small family, on a non-holiday weekend, this left the perfect amount of dough for the cinnamon rolls above.

What is a gooey cinnamon roll without cream cheese icing?

This perfect cream cheese icing is delicious! It's rich and creamy without being too sweet.

I use this same cream cheese icing for everything that calls for it. It's delicious on my Gluten-Free Carrot Cake, and on the Glass Shard Cupcakes that I make at Halloween. Not to mention Kit's Banana Cake.

I may have put a little too much icing on the rolls in the photo above, but who's complaining?

The cinnamon rolls above were still warm when I photographed them, so the icing kept melting off. [That's my excuse for using so much - and I'm sticking to it!]

Feel free to use as much or as little cinnamon roll icing as you want. If you only like a little bit of icing you could easily halve the amounts noted in the recipe.

Also keep in mind that this recipe gives the measurements for a full batch of cinnamon rolls, which is sixteen.

I know you will enjoy these easy gooey cinnamon rolls made from scratch. The best part is, both elements of this recipe are true keepers. The cream cheese icing is one I pull out all the time. And of course, the basic dinner roll recipe is a family favorite.