Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

With just 8 ingredients, which you probably already have on hand, these sourdough cinnamon rolls are easy enough for beginners and one of the best things you can make with a sourdough starter. Very fluffy and soft for sourdough, sweet, and simpler than you think. This recipe uses more butter than is typical and it makes for an exceptional texture!

We first shared this recipe in 2023. It’s been retested and updated with a vastly improved recipe, more helpful instructions, and new photos reflecting the new version of the recipe.

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Recipe Rundown: Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Prep Time
20 minutes

Bake Time
35 minutes

Rise Time
12 hours

Servings
8 rolls

Difficulty
Intermediate

Calories
336 kcal*

Primary Ingredients
Sourdough starter, all-purpose flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, and eggs.

*Calories are an estimation.

How This Recipe Works

Sourdough cinnamon rolls will almost always need an overnight rise, and any recipe that says otherwise is relying on perfect conditions that most home bakers won't have. The second rise is between 1.5 and 3 hours so you can plan to serve them for brunch. We've made these many times over the years and have compiled lots of tips and notes here.

I recently fully retested this recipe and ended up changing the amounts pretty significantly. The new cinnamon rolls are much easier to work with, have a better texture, and are baked in a standard round dish. It's an enriched dough, but it can actually be easier to work with than a basic sourdough - it's not sticky at all! There's no need to chill the dough and chilling will essentially stop your rise entirely due to the butter hardening (more on this below).

If you'd like a quicker recipe, ready in a few hours, try our sourdough discard cinnamon rolls. They have a fluffier, typical yeast texture if you prefer that and need a much shorter rise time.

Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.

How to Make Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

My preference is to use a stand mixer to knead the dough rather than waiting long periods between stretches and folds, so that's shown in these step-by-step photos, but we've outlined multiple methods below.

Step 1: heat the milk, then mix in the butter to let it melt. Add the remaining dough ingredients and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon to form a shaggy dough. Be sure to test the milk temperature - it should feel just warm to the touch and not be hot.

Step 2: knead the dough until soft and smooth, about 12 minutes with a dough hook on low speed. You can do stretches and folds, which we've also outlined, but the dough texture is superior when kneaded.

Step 3: let the dough rise overnight, until doubled in size. It needs to rise in a fairly warm place, like the oven with the light on (at least for the first couple of hours, you can turn it off overnight) or the butter will solidify and prevent the dough from rising.

Step 4: roll the dough out and add the filling. A strip on the edge should be kept free from the cinnamon sugar mixture so that it can act as a seal when you roll it up.

Step 5: cut into rolls with a sharp knife or dental floss. If rolled tightly enough and sealed at the end, the rolls should hold very well when cut. It's a very easy dough to work with when it's fermented properly.

Step 6: place the rolls into a greased tin and set aside to rise, covered. This might take a longer time than you expect because the dough is highly enriched, with a lot of butter. Again, the oven with the light on is the best place for this as a little heat will help the dough to rise.

Step 6: once the rolls are just touching each other, they're fully proved and ready to bake. If you're using a differently-sized baking dish you'll have to do a poke test instead.

Step 8: bake until just lightly golden and the interior temperature is about 93°C (200°F). Brush the tops with more butter as soon as they come out to soften and add a nice shine.

Expert Tips for the Best Cinnamon Rolls

• Give it time: sourdough takes time, and enriched dough even longer. The dough needs to double in size for the first rise, and a warm place is best for that. Don't use a hot spot, like too near a heater, which will cause problems in the rise - somewhere around 21°C (70°F) for about 12 hours is perfect.
• Use warm ingredients: most of the issues we see from readers with enriched sourdough recipes result from ingredients being cold when they're added. Like any enriched dough, and virtually any cake, all ingredients should be at room temperature. If they're cold, it will slow the sourdough, and it'll take ages to rise.
• Keep it at room temperature: don't place the rolls in a very warm place for the second rise, because all the butter will melt out. Room temperature is perfectly fine, or an oven with the light on.
• Use dental floss: use unflavoured or cinnamon dental floss to cut the rolls for the most precision. A very sharp knife is fine too.
• Cut the ends off: you can see in the first photo that a couple of the rolls are a little off-kilter, and that's because they're the end pieces. If you want all the rolls to be perfectly straight, cut off the slightly wonky ends at the end of the roll. I hate food waste so I never do this but it does mean that they don't turn out as picture perfect!
• Some filling will bubble out: as the butter and sugar melt in the oven, a little of the filling from the rolls will leak out the bottom and bubble during baking. This is normal and makes the bottoms of the rolls softer and adds a nice sticky-roll vibe.

Make This Without a Mixer

If you don't have a stand mixer, don't worry. You can either choose to do a few rounds of stretches and folds, knead by hand, or even use a hand mixer with the dough attachments. We've done all of the above and the cinnamon rolls turn out well every time.

No matter which method you use, though, be conscious of how the dough looks and feels before doing the bulk ferment. It should be stretchy, soft, and no longer sticky. It won't be quite the same as dough made with commercial yeast but should have developed gluten to the degree that it no longer sticks to your hands and can be easily shaped into a ball.

If you're not sure what these terms refer to, please look at our post on how to stretch and fold sourdough. It's a good guide for this method of gluten activation and will help if you need some step-by-step photos. For this recipe, we recommend 6 rounds of stretches and folds over the course of 3 hours, once every 30 minutes.

Optimal Rise at Room Temperature

Your dough should double in size overnight. If it hasn't, either cold ingredients were used or the starter was too weak. A non-enriched dough would increase in size by more than half after this long of a fermentation period at room temperature, but enriched dough rises more slowly. The dough should have doubled, feel soft, smooth, and not sticky, and have visible bubbles forming on it. It can be a little tricky for beginners to know when sourdough is properly fermented but for this recipe it's safe to look for that increase in size.

The second rise is shorter, but it's very important to look for growth in the dough. The rolls should be just touching once they're ready to bake. This can take as little as an hour but more typically will need about 3 hours at around 20°C (68°F). If they haven't risen to that point, you must wait until they do, or the rolls will be doughy after baking. This is a big part of why we retested this recipe to use a standard round dish to bake in, so that this would be an easier visual to use.

Some of you may express some concern with eggs and milk being present in the dough while it proves at room temperature. This isn't an issue, and it isn't any different from any other enriched dough rising at room temperature or in a proving drawer. The dough simply takes too long to prove in the refrigerator due to the high amount of butter. If you're uncomfortable using milk and eggs in a long-fermented sourdough recipe, we recommend using commercial yeast and sourdough discard recipes instead.

More Sourdough Recipes

If you make this Sourdough Cinnamon Roll recipe or any other sourdough recipes on the Baked Collective, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more baking, follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.