My soft sourdough discard rolls is probably one of my most popular recipes – and for good reason! They’re soft, easy to make, and use up a lot of sourdough discard. A few months ago, however, one of my readers asked if it was possible to turn my rolls into something a little sweeter: Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls.
I haven’t made cinnamon rolls in years, so I thought it would be a fun way to get back into making them. And now I’m grateful for the suggestion.
Thanks to readers like you, I’m not making cinnamon rolls for my family on a regular basis using my KitchenAid mixer*. They’re perfect for desserts, and sometimes I make them for Christmas or birthday breakfasts.
Delicious Rolls for Everyone
These sourdough discard cinnamon rolls are light, fluffy, and soft, just like my original sourdough roll recipe. Better still, the sourdough starter adds a barely-there tang that meshes beautifully with the cinnamon and sugar and cream cheese frosting.
This recipe (and the rolls themselves) is fairly large. It’s perfect if you want to make a lot of sourdough discard cinnamon rolls for friends and family. But if you’re making rolls for a smaller crowd, you could cut the recipe in half and still have plenty of cinnamon rolls to share with guests.
Still too many rolls to eat at once? I’ve made a small-batch skillet version of this same recipe.
Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 600 Grams Water, Warm (2 1/2 Cups)
- 18.6 Grams Dry Active Yeast (2 Tablespoons)
- 226 Grams Sourdough Discard, Fed, Unfed, or Discard (1 Cup)
- 1020 Grams All-Purpose Flour (8 1/2 Cups)
- 75 Grams White Granulated Sugar (1/4 Cup and 2 Tablespoons)
- 12 Grams Salt (2 Teaspoons)
- 54.5 Grams Vegetable Oil (1/4 Cup)
Cinnamon Filling
- 300 Grams White Granulated Sugar (1 1/2 Cup)
- 15 Grams Ground Cinnamon (2 Tablespoons)
- 56 Grams Butter, Melted (1/4 Cup)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 226 Grams Cream Cheese, Softened (8 Oz. Block)
- 113 Grams Butter, Softened (1 Stick)
- 520 Grams Powdered Confectioner's Sugar (4 Cups)
- 4.34 Grams Vanilla Extract (1 Teaspoon)
- 1.5 Grams Salt (1/4 Teaspoon)
- 60 Grams Milk, to taste (2 Tablespoons to 1/4 Cup)
Instructions
Make the Dough
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the warm water and the yeast. Stir and then let the yeast sit for 10 minutes to proof.
- Add the sourdough starter and stir until well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the yeast mixture and the vegetable oil to the standing mixer bowl.
- On a low setting, use the dough hook of the standing mixer to knead everything together. Continue to mix until the dough pulls away from and cleans the sides of the bowl.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly greased surface and shape into a round.
- Place round in a lightly greased container with a lid. Let dough rest until double in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on kitchen temperature.
Make the Filling and Shape
- In a small container, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Mix well and set aside.
- In a small container, melt the butter and set aside.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly greased surface. Divide into four sections.
- Roll out one section into a rectangle. Brush one quarter of the butter onto the rectangle. Sprinkle one quarter of the cinnamon sugar over the dough.
- Starting at the longest edge of the dough roll toward the opposite side (so resulting dough is wider than it is long).
- Use unflavored waxed floss or kitchen scissors to cut the dough into 6 pieces. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, butter, and cinnamon sugar to make a total of 24 cinnamon rolls.
- Cover the rolls and let rise for 30 minutes to 45 minutes until puffy.
Bake and Frost
- Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit (204° Celsius).
- Bake the rolls for 16 to 18 minutes.
- In a mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to combine the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract.
- Mix in the powdered sugar and salt.
- A tablespoon at a time, slowly mix in the milk, until the frosting achieves your desired consistency.
- Frost the cinnamon rolls with the cream cheese frosting and enjoy!
Notes
Did You Try It?
I love it when my readers try my recipes. If someone hadn’t commented on my sourdough discard post, I never would have had the inspiration to make cinnamon rolls. Your feedback and suggestions help me create great recipes, so feel free to give input in the comment section below.
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I’ve made your small batch cinnamon rolls and loved them. Are these the same as small batch only larger quantities? Also, can you freeze once baked, thaw, then frost?
This is the exact same recipe as the small-batch cinnamon rolls – only I make them in a pan in large quantities instead of in a cast-iron skillet. I have not tried freezing them after baking – but I have a hunch that they’d freeze pretty well since they’re similar to my regular sourdough discard rolls.
Can the cinnamon sour dough discard be frozen then thaw and make cinnamon rolls
Yes it can! Just freeze right after rolling and dividing the rolls. Then when you’re ready to babe, let them thaw until puffy and you should be good to go.
@jennibee, are you saying let them do the final rise AFTER they thaw or should I let them do all rises and then freeze? I tried this method yesterday, putting on the pan immediately after cutting them and then freezing, and this morning but the tops got tougher than I’m used to and they seemed to be a bit doughy/undercooked on the bottom. Maybe I didn’t let them thaw long enough?
Hey Carla, I would do the final rise as they thaw. That way they have plenty of time to reach room temp all the way through without over proofing. As they thaw, make sure to cover them with plastic wrap so the tops don’t dry out too.
Mine are in the oven as I type this message. I didn’t read through the entire recipe. Not sure who all is going to benefit from 24 rolls. Can’t wait to taste them. Always looking for great discard recipes. Thank you.
Yes it is a big recipe! I hope you enjoy them. If you’re interested in something not so big, I have a small-batch skillet version of these cinnamon rolls you might want to check out.
I love this recipe so much!! I make it all the time and it always turns out amazing. I do have a question. Because these take a while, can you make them at night and just bake them in the morning? Thank you!!
That is a good question. They have quite a bit of yeast, so they rise quickly. If you pop them in the fridge, the colder temperature will slow that rise time by a bit – but probably not enough to let them sit overnight. I suggest cutting the yeast so they rise much more slowly. I haven’t actually tried this myself, but perhaps try only 1 tablespoon of yeast instead of two? Then in the morning, let the rolls come to room temperature before baking? Let me know how it goes!
I made this recipe last night and it is great! They are super fluffy and delicious. ????
Wonderful. I just love these cinnamon rolls so much 🙂 I’m so happy you do too!
I have tried a few different sourdough discard cinnamon rolls. This recipe is now my absolute favorite. It made the biggest fluffiest cinnamon rolls. I have a mature sourdough starter and I used it unfed in the recipe. The only change I made was the filling. I prefer to cream together the butter sugar and cinnamon for the filling.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you so much for the filling suggestion.
My family loved these! This is the best recipe I have tried so far with sourdough!
Yay! Thank you so much. I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed these.
Do these need to be refrigerated, if you don’t eat them all the first day? Thanks
Hey Lori – since these are a bread product, refrigeration might actually make the cinnamon rolls go stale faster. However, cream cheese frosting does require refrigeration. So, if you don’t think you’ll eat all these cinnamon rolls, I suggest only frosting the ones you’re going to eat right away. Keep the rest of the rolls sealed in a bag (or a plastic container) at room temperature, and save the extra frosting in the fridge. Or, feel free to make a small-batch version of this recipe.
When you starter does this mean a freshly fed starter? or can I actually use discard that I’ve saved up over the week?
Hey Melinda, while you could use a freshly fed starter, this recipe is a great way to use up the extra discard you’ve been saving up for a while.
My first time to ever try cinnamon rolls and these are truly amazing. They are light and fluffy and delicious. They will be a constant around here now.
Thank you so much! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed them.
Made these for the 2nd time! Hubby and I had a small batch they were so delicious! We are having a small family gathering this weekend so I made a big batch for Saturday breakfast! We live cinnamon so I always add more but these are absolutely the best. Your instructions are clear which I love too.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you so much for the positive feedback.
I made tonight I had some issues with new yeast blooming. Shouldn’t sugar be added to yeast water to help this process? They didn’t seem to rise enough????
Hey there, new yeast should have no problem blooming without sugar. If your rolls didn’t rise enough, multiple factors could contribute. It’s possible the you happened to have a bad batch of yeast, or perhaps your kitchen temperature was too cold and it needed more time to rise.
What size pan do you use for the full recipe?
I typically bake on 12 inch by 10 inch baking sheets for most of my recipes since that’s what I have on hand.
Loved this recipe! Whats the bast way to store them? Do they need to be refrigeratorated?
Thank you! If you haven’t frosted them, store the rolls in an air tight container or Ziploc bag at room temperature (baked goods stay fresher longer this way). If you have frosted them, keep them in an air tight container in the fridge (cream cheese frosting needs refrigeration).
It’s super flaky and dense!! 8 1/2 cups of flour!! Ew 🙁
Hey Austin, I’m sorry that your rolls didn’t turn out how you hoped. This is a large recipe, so 8.5 cups of flour isn’t uncommon. When you factor the water and the oil in the recipe, it’s about 65% hydration which is means it will be easy to work with and hold it’s shape. It shouldn’t be as dense as a pretzel, but neither will these rolls be as fluffy as focaccia. It’s possible you used a stiff starter resulting in a denser dough or maybe you measured by volume instead of by weight and used extra flour as a result. Perhaps a colder kitchen slowed the rise so they didn’t get as puffy as they could be. There are a lot of factors that impact how these rolls turn out. Do you need help troubleshooting?
These were fantastic!!! Rivaled Cinnabon, no joke! I did modify some parts of the recipe. I added the sugar to the active yeast and water. I also incorporated vanilla bean paste to the dough before letting it rise. I halfed the recipe and used a cast iron skillet for baking. I also undercooked mine, because I love them more moist than bready. All that being said, these rolls needed way less frosting than it called for, I think they were plenty sweet with half the amount of frosting and I love frosting. A++ recipe!!!
Oh wow! Thank you so much for all that feedback. Your comments made my day. ????
Forgot to actually give a rating! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐????
I’m currently making these. My dough is very loose it never formed a ball on 1st rise I added more flour even though I have a 1:1 starter. It still was sticky so I just rolled with it hahah. I’m wondering where I went wrong. Also do you have to use yeast if using a very active starter and just let it rise longer?
Hey Camille, it’s hard to tell exactly why your dough was sticky without watching exactly what you were doing. Did you measure by weight or by volume? It could be possible an ingredient was mismeasured along the way. As for using an active starter and no yeast, you probably could let your sourdough just do it’s thing – but I haven’t the foggiest idea how long of a rise time you would need because I haven’t tried it myself. If you feel comfortable experimenting, I say go for it.
I’ve made these cinnamon rolls 3 times now, they are a family favorite!! Question about mixing… How long should it take the mixer with dough hook to pull together the dough? Mine stays super loose. Am I not mixing long enough? I’m afraid to overwork it too much.
I’m so glad these rolls have become a family favorite! As far as mixing goes, it really varies depending on your mixer. I just keep an eye on it and adjust as I go along. If you worry about over mixing, you can always mix it by hand. It just takes a little bit longer.
Going to make these tonight. Curious, why you use white sugar in the filling instead of brown sugar?
Hey Aaron, you can totally use brown sugar if that’s what you like. I found that all white sugar makes the rolls a bit sweeter and that brown sugar’s molasses tends to compete with the cinnamon and sourdough flavors.
Excellent rolls!!
Thank you 🙂
I’m looking forward to making this recipe, but I was wondering if I could use instant yeast instead of dry active, as that’s all I have on hand. If so, would I need to change the amount at all? Thanks!
No worries at all! Instant yeast is interchangeable with dry active. No need to change the amounts.
Thinking about making these, could I put the rolls together in the evening and let them sit in the fridge to bake in the morning? Or will that affect the recipe by letting them sit overnight before baking?
I still need to try an overnight bake. However, they have quite a bit of yeast, so they rise quickly. If you pop them in the fridge, the colder temperature will slow that rise time by a bit – but probably not enough to let them sit overnight. If I were to try an overnight bake, I would probably cut some of the yeast so they rise much more slowly. I’d perhaps try only 1 tablespoon of yeast instead of two? Then in the morning, let the rolls come to room temperature before baking? Let me know how it goes!
I left the dough over night in the fridge.
I baked half today and plan to bake the rest tomorrow.
The half I did today did just fine. I will say if you plan to put in the fridge overnight you should probably at least divide in half or you’ll have a mess to deal with the next day. I pulled out the dough and let it warm up before working with it, rolled them out then let the rolls rise before baking.
Thank you so much for letting us know. That’s really helpful 🙂
Loved this discard recipe! I have tried several and this was the best hands-down so far! The dough was perfect to work with and the frosting delicious.
Thank you so much! That’s so kind.
I want to make these, however, we prefer sticky buns over the iced buns. Did you ever try this?
I have not tried this but that is an excellent suggestion! Sounds like I need to make a new recipe 🙂
This is my go to for cinnamon rolls. Hot rolls, bread loaves, we love it. Don’t use any other recipe
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoy them.
Is it possible to make these without the yeast and just use super active bubbly starter? I know the rise time will take longer but I generally never have yeast on hand
I don’t see why not. I don’t have an estimate for how long that first rise would take, but I think a bubbly starter should have no problem getting these rolls nice and fluffy.
Just made these and ate 2 already!! I’m in trouble. One of the best Cinnabon buns I’ve had, and with a dairy allergy is hard to find dairy free ones. I used vegan butter and my own icing. I’ll never be buying store bought ones again. Thanks ????
That’s awesome! I’m glad this recipe worked well for you.
I just made these and they are DELICIOUS !!! I mean OMG!!! I made just a couple of changes mostly to use what I had and also I was making for someone not in love with cream cheese.
I forgot the 2 Tablespoons of sugar to go with the 1/4 cup in the dough. Still plenty sweet enough.
I accidentally mixed the melted butter in with cinnamon and sugar. Worked fine.
I used olive oil in dough vs vegetable oil.
For glaze I used 1 stick of softened butter, 4 C powdered sugar, 1 1/2 t vanilla, and Half n Half to consistency. It was a LOT of frosting but OH so good.
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe.
Oh wow! You were very resourceful with your substitutions but I’m so glad they worked out for you. Thank you for sharing – your tips can help other bakers who may need to make similar swaps. I really appreciate all your feedback.
This was a great recipe. these rolls are certainly delicious and easy. . I did everything just as you said. I will probably make in a 9 x 13 cake pan next time. If you do use the sheet pan, you might want to use a larger sheet pan under them in the oven. Mine rose and folded over and some of the butter cinnamon mixture poured out in the bottom of my oven, which, in return set off my fire alarm. ????
I like a lot of frosting and there there was plenty. I probably had a third of the frosting left.
Oh no! I’m sorry about the mess. Thank you for the tip and the positive feedback. I hope your next batch turns out even better.
I’ve made this recipe twice now. Both times my family dives in as they are coming out of the oven. They freeze well too. I don’t own a bowl big enough to accommodate how much the dough rises ???? dough is so fluffy and smooth and easy to work with. I make them a little smaller, about 40. Fantastic recipe.
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you.
Instead of active yeast, do you think a different rising agent might work instead like baking powder? Any substitutes for that?Thanks!
Hey Justina, baking powder and baking soda work best with quick breads, muffins, and cakes. They all have a completely different consistency. Instant yeast and dry active yeast are the best way to go with this particular recipe.
I love this recipe and have made it several times. I recently made the butterscotch topping that I used for sticky buns and it was wonderful.
{1/4 c butter, 1c brown sugar, 1/2 c corn syrup melted in saucepan divided in 3 pans for 8 buns each}.
Oh thank you so much! That’s very helpful – I’ve been playing around with different sticky bun toppings and haven’t quite nailed it. I will take your suggestion to heart.
Thank you for a great and easy to follow recipe. I do have a question. I just made the dough and it never pulled away from the bowl. I did cut the recipe in half, perhaps this is why? Have you made a “how-to” video for these. I am determined to make these for my family!
Hey Julie, if I were to take a guess, your sourdough discard might have a little more liquid than mine. An extra tablespoon or two or flour might be all that you need to get the right consistency. Alas, I haven’t made any how-to videos – I don’t have the equipment for it. But I’m flattered that you think I should.
I baked them anyway and they were amazing! The flavor was so good, topped with buttercream frosting. My family devoured them!! Thank you for responding as well!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience. 🙂
Delicious!! Great with my morning coffee 😛
Wonderful! Thank you 🙂
@Jennibee – oh my these were awesome. Cut everything in half to make a smaller batch and used brown sugar for the roll-out. My starter was pretty active when I made these. Hands-down the best I’ve ever had. Soft, fluffy, melt in your mouth. Side note: Ran out of confectionary sugar, like me? Make your own with an electric coffee grinder and regular sugar. Grinds up to powder in 30 seconds or less.
Thank you so much for the positive feedback! You really made my day. That sugar tip is especially helpful.
Made these yesterday and for me, they are a miss. I prefer soft cinnamon rolls and these (despite trying to undercook them)still are chewy and somewhat hard. Taste is good though and the frosting was great.
Oh darn. I’m sorry Nedda. It’s possible your oven bakes at a different temperature than mine. I hope you find a recipe that works better for you. Happy baking!
Do you have any information about how to add pumpkin puree to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls? I love this recipe so much and would prefer to use yours for pumpkin rolls as well.
Oh that is a lovely idea. Unfortunately I do not. I’ve tried making a discard pumpkin bread and each time it’s been an utter failure. I’m getting closer, but I can’t get the flavor and texture right. Maybe I’d have better luck making pumpkin rolls as you suggest.
Sooo I realized when I went pull the dough outta the mixer that I forgot to add my discard. I very quickly added it and mixed it a few more minutes. You think it will turnout okay? 🤦♀️
I think you caught it soon enough that they should turn out fine? I wish you the best of luck.