Small-Batch No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

Hope you guys are making it through the week alright out there! I’ve been enjoying a lot of baking over these last few weeks, and luckily you guys are loving the small-batch recipes! My freezer is full of the full-batch leftovers already. Today we’re doing No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls, and we’re only making four so we can make the family happy without ya know, eating a whole pan of cinnamon rolls.

I know that yeast is hard to come by right now, so while I first started developing a small-batch yeasted recipe, I decided to switch to something without yeast this time around. It’s not exactly like a typical cinnamon roll, but it’s about as close as you can get without yeast, and I think you’ll really love the results of this one. I’ve also got a few options to keep the ingredients flexible for you guys.

How to Make Small-Batch No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

This recipe comes together super quickly, and it’s definitely the easiest cinnamon roll recipe I’ve worked on. You start by simply mixing together the dry ingredients, and then adding the wet ingredients to it. In this case, we’re using flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. For the wet ingredients, we’re using buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.

Stir these together with a spatula until you get a shaggy dough that looks like this:

And then take knead the dough with your hands for just 2-3 turns until it forms a cohesive ball. The dough will be on the wet side at this point, though it should be dry enough to hold it’s shape. Don’t worry- we’ll dust the surface with flour before rolling. You want to roll the dough into about a 6-8 inch square, patting and turning as you go to form straight edges.

For the filling, we’re doing a mixture of dark brown sugar (or sub light brown sugar if you have it), cinnamon, and a pinch salt, all sprinkled on top of a thin layer of softened butter. Roll it up, and cut it into four even rolls. It’s important to have fairly straight edges before filling and rolling because then you won’t have any weird edges to trim off at this point.

I’m baking mine in little ramekin dishes, but a cupcake tin is a great baking alternative for this one. You want to bake them in a small contained pan because it helps keep the filling on the inside, and helps to create that pretty puffed spiral.

For the icing, you just whisk everything together, simple as that. If you don’t have any cream cheese, I’d go for a simple water-powdered sugar icing instead! It’ll be wonderful either way. Enjoy guys, be well, and try to get some smiles in today!

5 from 3 votes

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Small-Batch No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

Servings 4 cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling)
• 1 tbs. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/3 cup + 1 tbs buttermilk, separated
• 2 tbs. melted butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 1 tbs. very soft butter
• 3 tbs. dark brown sugar (or light brown)
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. salt

For the frosting:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 tbs. soft butter
• 1 tbs. soft cream cheese
• 1-2 tsp. milk

Instructions

For the dough:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, and grease 4 small ramekins or 4 cups of a cupcake tin. Set aside. 

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add in 1/3 cup buttermilk (reserving the extra 1 tbs. for later), melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir together until a shaggy dough forms. Then, knead the dough with your hands for one-two turns so the dough just comes together. 

3. Note- the dough will be on the more wet side, so you don't want to over-knead. Just let it come together. 

4. Sprinkle flour on a clean, flat surface. Roll the dough out, dusting with flour as needed, until it's about a 6-8 inch square. Turn and shape the dough as you go to create fairly straight edges. 

For the filling:

1. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. 

2. Gently spread the butter into a very thin layer all the way to edges on your rolled-out dough. It will be a very thin layer of butter, so it might take some working. Evenly sprinkle all of the filling over the butter, and gently press it down with your hands to help hold it in place. 

3. Roll the dough tightly into a log. Cut it into 4 even pieces, and place into your prepared ramekins or pan. Bake in your preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. 

For the frosting:

1. While the cinnamon rolls are baking, make the frosting. Whisk the powdered sugar, salt, butter, cream cheese, and 1 tsp of milk together. If it's too thick, add in another tsp. of milk. Whisk until smooth.

2. Let the rolls cool for about 5 minutes before topping generously with the frosting. Enjoy warm! 

Dough-Eyed

Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!