Alright people, I’m about to let you in on a huge secret! These rolls are coveted in my community… people pay gazillions of dollars for these little honeys (ok that’s an exaggeration, but I do sell a TON of them thru the holidays). And, the truth is, they are easy. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! All it takes is a bread machine, a little time, and roll pin. See.. easy! All you have to do is plop the ingredients into your bread machine and set it to the dough setting and let it do all the work for you! Have more than one bread maker, as I do? You can produce these en mass, as I have done in the picture above. And truly, it takes the same amount of time to make 2 dozen or 10 dozen… just depends on how many bread machines you can get working for you.
I’ve also included the options to make the basic roll recipe into orange rolls, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, or an apple braid. As you can tell, this recipe is super versatile. You pretty much fashion them into whatever bread item you want to make. I also use this recipe to make buttery white bread, cinnamon pull aparts, cinnamon raisin bread, monkey bread… the options are endless. So, here’s just a few to get you started.
Make these throughout the holiday season and you will become the star of each and every dinner party, Christmas breakfast, Thanksgiving celebration, or family event! Seriously, and you’re welcome!
Shannon’s Best Ever Rolls
Basic Roll Recipe
- 1 2/3 cups Water
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- 4 2/3 cups Flour
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 rounded Tablespoon yeast
In the chamber of a bread maker add all ingredients except the yeast. Stir around to blend sugar into mixture. Add yeast.
Set bread maker to “dough” setting… wait for cycle to finish (should take about an hour and a half)
When cycle is complete, turn out dough onto a board sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, and shape to desired type of roll.
Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon mixture:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup cinnamon
- ½ cup flour
Mix the above ingredients in a bowl
In a separate bowl melt 1 stick butter
Divide dough into 2 even sections. Roll out one section(using Pam) into a rectangle. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with ¼ cup cinnamon mixture. Roll up and cut into rolls. (Should make about 9 pieces) Repeat with second section of dough (So entire batch makes 18 rolls)
*At this point dough can be frozen or baked. See baking instructions.
Dinner Rolls
Divide dough into 3 equals parts. Roll into circles and cut into 8 crescent shaped pieces. Roll into crescents. *At this point dough can be frozen or baked. See baking instructions.
Orange rolls
Follow basic roll recipe, except add the zest of one orange to the dough ingredients.
Then divide dough into 2 equal parts. Roll into rectangles, and cut into 12 strips, vertically. Tie strips into knots, tucking ends under to form rosettes. *At this point dough can be frozen or baked. See baking instructions.
Apple Braid
Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each part into a rectangle, keeping the middle section of the rectangle at double the thickness of the side sections. Brush middle with butter, and sprinkle with ¼ cup cinnamon mixture. Then top with sliced, peeled apples. Cut the sides diagonally and fold over each other in a braid. See illustration. * At this point dough can be frozen or baked. See baking instructions.
Glaze for Cinnamon rolls and Apple Braid
1 stick butter, melted
8 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
milk to desired consistency
Glaze for Orange Rolls
1 stick butter, melted
8 cups powdered sugar
orange juice to desired consistency
* both of these glazes can be poured into plastic bags (in 1 cup portions)and frozen with the rolls, then left on the counter to defrost while the rolls are baking. Then just snip a corner off the plastic bag and pipe onto rolls.
Baking Instructions for Rolls:
Place rolls onto a jelly roll pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Allow rolls to rise for a couple of hours or longer, covered by a dish towel until the desired volume is achieved.
Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until tops are lightly browned.
If you have chosen to premake the rolls and freeze them, there are 2 baking methods:
Quick Method
- Remove rolls from freezer & place in a 9×13 pan that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray (Pam.)
- Leave on counter to rise for 1 hour.
- Leave bag of glaze on the counter to thaw.
- After an hour, place the rolls in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove rolls from oven and reset temperature to 375 degrees.
- When oven reaches 375, put rolls back in and bake for
12 minutes for dinner rolls or orange rolls
15-18 minutes for cinnamon rolls or apple braid,
until tops are golden brown.
- For rolls with glaze (orange, cinnamon, apple braid. Snip the bottom corner off the glaze bag, and pipe glaze onto warm rolls
Overnight Method (this is what I prefer):
- Remove rolls from freezer & place in a 9×13 pan that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray (Pam.)
- Leave on counter to rise overnight.
- Leave bag of glaze on the counter to thaw.
- Bake rolls at 375 degrees for
12 minutes for dinner rolls or orange rolls
15-18 minutes for cinnamon rolls or apple braid,
until tops are golden brown.
- For rolls with glaze (orange, cinnamon, apple braid. Snip the bottom corner off the glaze bag, and pipe glaze onto warm rolls.
Linking up at: Stuff and Nonsense, Simply Sweet Home, Happy Hour Projects, Jane Deere, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Serenity You, Skip to My Lou, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Add a Pinch, The Girl Creative, Singing Three Little Birds, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, C.R.A.F.T., My Sweet and Savory, Chef In Training, Tatertots and Jello, Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, Sugarbee Crafts, It’s A Blog Party, The Blackberry Vine, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Strictly Homemade, Nap Time Creations, Crazy For Crust, At the Well, This Chick Cooks, Sew Much Ado, Somewhat Simple, Someday Crafts, Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, Everyday Tastes, Passionately Artistic
lucyjanesbest.com 
Can’t believe you’re sharing this! Thanks for finally letting us in on the secret.
Can \i say, died and gone to bread heaven! Thanks for sharing your wonderful treasures. Now we can have Christmas in London.
Cookie
Can you believe how fabulous Shannon is to share this recipe with us?? It’s just so much easier and more fun to order them from Shannon ALREADY MADE for the holidays!! When do we place our orders???
Let there be rolls alright, around my mid section, and you guys aren’t helping with recipes like this 🙂 They look yummy. Kathi
These look amazing and easy! Thanks for sharing on Made by you Monday.
I also linked these on facebook, thanks!
Thanks Cindy! You are took kind! We hope people will find this recipe easy and delicious, just in time for Thanksgiving! And thanks for hosting such a rockin’ party!
yay, I have been wanting a good recipe… now my next thing is I need a bread maker, WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?? I had a wheat grinder & tried to do it that way but no luck! Sold it on KSL, and think a bread maker would be better for me! THX so much! Tami
Shannon and I both use whatever people are willing to let us have!! Both my makers are “Breadmann” brand. One was bought at a garage sale and one was given to me by a friend. Ask everyone you know if they have a breadmaker just laying around. Many, many people who do would probably be willing to give it up! Unless you give them this fabulous recipe, then they may want to hold onto it!!
Fabulous post! I’ve been wanting to stock the freezer with bread items and now I’ve found the perfect recipe. Dinner rolls, breakfast rolls…this could be dangerous. Thanks for posting!
I can sure see why these wonderful rolls are in such high demand, I would sure stand in line for a couple dozen of them. Thank you so much for sharing your fabulous recipe with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you are having a great week end and come back soon!
Miz Helen
My bread maker has been in the back of the cupboard for at least 5 years. I never really liked the loaves it made. But now I have made 2 batches of dough that I turned into cinnamon rolls, orange rolls and crescent rolls. Thanks you so much for sharing and inspiring me!
Karee
I thought that I lost this recipe. I was so, so sad, but then I found it again. My husband and kids told that these are best ones that I have ever made. Thank you for sharing these wonderful cinnamon rolls with us.
THESE ARE OFFICIALLY MY ALL TIME FAVORITE DINNER ROLL RECIPE! Easy to make! When I froze some and baked them …. they turned out PERFECT! Thank you for sharing this incredible recipe!!
For Valentine’s Day I decided to make the Apple Braid…. this recipe tastes sooooo good! The filling was perfect…. next time I will use 3 apples (I used 2 this time and it wasn’t quite enough) and the icing was “just right!” So yummy…. can’t wait to make this recipe again!!
Hi, I love to make cinnamon buns. Bt I like to make this a business, like supply to hypermarkets, gas stations , bt I don’t know how to keep it longer, can you advise me on this
I love this recipe! This is my go to recipe for baking. I also use this recipe for my pizza pull-aparts. Thank you!!
I have made the cinnamon rolls a few times. Last night I saw my 30 year old son move faster than I’ve ever seen. I said, “I’ll make cinnamon rolls if you go get me a couple of things.”. BAM, he got the list and ran out the door!! It’s Easter morning and the rolls are heading into the oven!