Prep Time: 1 hour
Rise Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Yield: 12 rolls
Category: breakfast
Method: oven
Cuisine: american
Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
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Has a more delicious, cozy morning treat ever existed? I think not. These banana bread cinnamon rolls are made with ripe bananas, a buttery brown sugar cinnamon swirl and topped with a tangy cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
Meet your weekend plans: banana bread cinnamon rolls. These pillowy soft homemade rolls are made with ripe bananas that keep the dough super moist and tender and are swirled with a buttery brown sugar cinnamon filling. Top them off with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and you’re in heaven.
Ingredients for banana bread cinnamon rolls
These banana cinnamon rolls call for all the usual cinnamon roll ingredients like yeast, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon, with the flavorful addition of ripe banana! Make sure the bananas you are using are nice and brown so you get the most banana flavor into your rolls!
Here’s what you’ll need:
- All Purpose Flour: All purpose flour is perfect for creating a pillowy soft, tender, slightly bready dough. I’ve also had success making these with bread flour, but I find bread flour makes them a bit chewier!
- Granulated Sugar: You’ll need a little granulated sugar to active the yeast and also to sweeten your dough slightly!
- Instant Yeast: We usually use Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise for these homemade cinnamon rolls, but any rapid instant yeast will work here! You can also use regular active yeast and double the rise times!
- Butter: You’ll need butter for both the cinnamon roll dough and the cream cheese frosting. We prefer using unsalted butter so you can control how much salty is going into your baked goods! That being said, if all you have on hand is salted butter that will work totally fine too! In the dough you’ll use melted butter and in the cinnamon sugar filling you’ll need room temperature butter, so be sure to leave some butter out on the counter for an hour or so to get it nice and soft!
- Bananas: Well OF COURSE! Grab your rotten bananas and mash them up before measuring out 2/3 of a cup for these rolls!
- Milk: Any kind of milk will work in this recipe, but for a super soft, buttery dough we recommend using whole milk!
- Eggs: These homemade cinnamon rolls are an enriched dough, meaning the recipe calls for eggs. The eggs will give your dough a soft structure!
- Cinnamon: UH DUH. You’ll need cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar filling! Sometimes when I’m feeling spicy, I put 1 teaspoon in the dough too!
- Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is the perfect, caramel-y, soft sugar to use for your cinnamon sugar filling. You can feel free to use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, but you we do not recommend subbing it out for granulated sugar–it won’t melt in the same way!
- Pure Vanilla Extract: The amount of vanilla extract in this recipe may be small, but she is mighty! A few teaspoons will take your rolls from good to great!
- Cream Cheese: In my opinion it’s not a cinnamon roll if its not absolutely smothered in cream cheese frosting. It’s imperative that you use room temperature cream cheese to get that nice creamy, smooth consistency.
- Powdered Sugar: You’ll need powdered sugar to sweeten and thicken your cream cheese frosting.
Our tips for making the perfect banana bread cinnamon rolls
Don’t be scared of making homemade cinnamon rolls–they’re really not that hard it just requires a little time kneading (made a breeze if you have a stand mixer!) and rolling and shaping! Follow our top tricks for foolproof banana cinnamon rolls!
Use high quality ingredients: You saw the shopping list–cinnamon rolls use just a few, basic ingredients, so their quality will really shine through in the finished product. Use good butter, real cream cheese and high quality cinnamon!
Don’t over bake them: I think we can all agree that the best part of a cinnamon roll is the gooey, slightly under baked center. It’s a fine line between over baked and too doughy, so keep an eye on them in the last 10 minutes of baking and remember that they will continue to bake as they cool!
Eat them warm: Cinnamon rolls are best hot from the oven (duh.), but don’t worry if you have leftovers that you want to enjoy later. Simply pop your cinnamon roll in the microwave for 20 seconds to get it gooey and warm again!
How to make these banana bread cinnamon rolls ahead of time
If you’re looking to have fresh cinnamon rolls in the morning, but don’t want to wake up at the crack of dawn, don’t worry. You can make these rolls the night before and let them proof in the fridge overnight. Simply follow the recipe through Step 11, but instead of letting the rolls rise at room temperature for their second rise, cover them and pop them in the fridge to proof. In the morning take the rolls out of the oven and let them sit on the counter to warm up for 30 minutes before baking as directed! Enjoy!
Happy baking, my friends!
XXX
Units:
Ingredients
For the dough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons Rapid Rise yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup mashed overripe banana
For the cinnamon sugar filling
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
For the cinnamon cream cheese frosting
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine 2 cups of the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl. Mix to combine.
- In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the milk and butter for 30 seconds until warm and the butter is mostly melted. The mixture should be warm, but not hot. If it is too hot, make sure to let it cool before adding to the yeast to prevent killing the yeast. Add the warm milk and butter to the flour mixture.
- Beat on low speed, gradually increasing to high until completely combined, about 2 minutes.
- Scrape down the bowl and add 1 more cup of flour, beating until combined. Add the remaining cup of flour in a little at a time until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a ball.
- Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and you can stretch a piece of dough out between your fingers without it breaking. This means the gluten has developed!
- Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
- While the dough rises, make the filling. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.
- Once the dough has risen, roll it out into a long rectangle about 18 x 12 inches on a well floured surface.
- Spread the butter for the filling all the way to the edge of the dough. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the butter, pressing it down to stick to the butter.
- From the long end, roll the dough away from you into a tight roll, sealing the bottom edge down by pinching the dough together.
- Use floss or a very sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 even rolls. Place the rolls in a 9 x 13 inch pan lined with parchment paper. Cover loosely with a dish cloth and allow to rise for another hour until doubled in size and puffed up.
- Bake the cinnamon rolls at 350°F for 30 minutes or until they are golden brown and no longer doughy. Allow to cool.
- While the rolls cool, make the cream cheese frosting. In a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment combine the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla extract.Beat on low speed, gradually increasing to high until light and fluffy. Spread the icing evenly over the 12 rolls. Enjoy warm!
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