If there is anything better than waking up to freshly baked cinnamon rolls, it’s eating them. 😉 The smell alone will get you in a good mood but these sticky gooey cinnamon rolls are life changing.

The rolls are soft and fluffy and the sticky caramel sauce is rich and indulgent. Some of the sauce soaks into the dough while the rolls bake and the rest of the caramel sauce drenches the top of the rolls when they come out of the oven.

We aren’t messing around here. There is a LOT of caramel sauce. These are called sticky gooey cinnamon rolls for a reason. You’re going to need a fork for these but I suspect that if you have come for this recipe, you won’t mind.

Why This Recipe Works

Oh, these rolls are good! There is a bounty of sticky caramel sauce that oozes into the tender, buttery rolls. .

These are so much better that you will never want to buy a store-bought cinnamon roll again. The brown sugar, caramel sauce is both sinfully rich and HEAVENLY at the same time.

The rolls are rich, tender, light, fluffy, and melt in your mouth. The dough is very similar to my brioche dough but adapted to work well in a stand mixer or in a bread machine. That’s why you will see the butter gets added all at once with the milk.

The butter doesn’t blend completely into the milk but it all comes together after you add the flour. It’s the order that I toss everything into the bread machine if I am using that contraption. The video shows you how I make it with the stand mixer.

Ingredients Needed For The Cinnamon Rolls

Here are the ingredients you need to make the rolls.

Milk. Warm the milk up to about 110°F to 120°F.
Eggs. Let them come to room temperature.
Butter. Make sure it is softened.
Sugar.
Salt
Instant dry yeast. Instant yeast doesn’t need to be dissolved first. If you want to use active dry yeast, that will work too but make sure you dissolve the yeast before adding it to the mix.
Bread flour.
All-purpose flour.

Ingredients needed for the dough for gooey cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients For The Cinnamon Roll Filling

There is a generous amount of filling in these rolls. They aren’t just dusted with a bit of cinnamon. They are smeared with a heavy coat of buttery, gooey, creamy, cinnamon roll filling. So good!

Brown sugar
White sugar
Butter. Softened
Cinnamon

Ingredients needed for cinnamon roll filling and for gooey caramel sauce.

Ingredients For Gooey Caramel Sauce

The sauce is what makes these cinnamon rolls so sticky, gooey, and finger-liking-good. It gets cooked only partially on the stove top then finishes in the oven until it is thick and perfectly gooey.

Butter
Brown Sugar
White sugar
Corn syrup
Water
Salt
Cream
Vanilla extract

How To Make Gooey Cinnamon Rolls

Combine the milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl and blend. The butter will look clumpy but that is fine. As long as it is soft, it will blend right in when you knead the dough.
Add all of the bread flour and most of the all purpose flour and mix. At this point, you can assess if you need to add more flour. Knead it until it is soft and smooth.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl and let it rise.
While the dough is rising, mix up the ingredients for the cinnamon roll filling.
Now make mix the ingredients for the caramel sauce. Cook it for a few minutes then pour it into a 13 x 9 inch pan. Set the pan aside so the sauce cools down.

Process photos showing how to make gooey cinnamon rolls with cinnamon roll filling.

Roll the dough into a rectangular shape and smear the cinnamon roll filling all over the surface.
Start at one of the long ends and roll it up into a log.
Slice the log into 1-1/2 inch to 2 inch sections. You can use a sharp knife or a string (like dental floss).
Place the slices into the cooled caramel sauce and let the rolls rise until they are almost double in size.
Bake the rolls in the preheated oven.
Let the pan sit at room temperature for 10 minutes then slide a knife around the edge to loosen them from the pan. Place a platter on top of the pan and invert the cinnamon rolls. Lift the baking pan off and serve warm.

There will be some extra caramel sauce in the baking pan. Scoop that out before the pan cools down.

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Sticky Gooey Cinnamon Rolls

These cinnamon rolls bake in a bath of caramel sauce that oozes all over them. The caramel sauce makes them sticky, gooey, and oh, so delicious. You're going to need a fork to eat these gooey cinnamon rolls. You can mix the dough by hand, with a mixer, or with a bread maker.

4.88 from 41 votes

Print Pin Video Save

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 1

Servings: servings

Calories: 493kcal

Author: Dahn Boquist

Ingredients

Tender Buns

1 cup warm milk
3 eggs room temperature
½ cup 4 oz or 113 g butter, softened
¼ cup sugar 50 grams
¾ teaspoons salt
2-¼ teaspoons instant dry yeast
3-½ cups 420 grams bread flour
1-¼ to 2-¼ cups 228 grams all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Roll Filling

½ cup light brown sugar packed (110 grams)
¼ cup sugar 100 grams
½ cup 4 oz or 113g butter, softened
1-2 tablespoons cinnamon

Sticky Gooey Caramel Sauce

½ cup 4 oz or 113 g butter
1 cup 220 g light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup 50 g sugar
⅓ cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the Tender Dough:

You can mix the dough by hand, with a stand mixer, or in a bread machine: Combine the milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, and instant yeast. The butter will look clumpy.
Add the bread flour and 1-1/4 cups of the all-purpose flour. Mix by hand or with the stand mixer or bread machine. If you are using a bread machine turn the machine to dough setting. You may need to help the ingredients blend together in the first minute of mixing by stirring the edges with a spatula.
If the dough is too sticky, gradually add the rest of the all-purpose flour. Continue to knead until the dough is soft and smooth. (See the video to see the texture of the dough).
Place the dough in an oiled boil. Cover and let rise for 1 to 2 hours. It will get puffy and almost double in size.
While the dough is mixing and proofing, make the cinnamon filling and sticky caramel sauce below. Set them aside until ready to use.

Cinnamon Filling

Mix the brown sugar, sugar, butter, and cinnamon together until they form a paste. Set aside at room temperature until the dough is ready to roll out.

Sticky Caramel Sauce

In a large saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, sugar, corn syrup, water, salt, and cream. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer for 3 minutes..
Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract and pour into a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Set aside until the cinnamon rolls are ready to be placed on the sauce. The sauce will thicken as it cools down.

Make the Rolls and Bake them:

Place the dough on a clean, floured work surface. Roll the dough out to a 16 by 24-inch rectangle.
Spread the cinnamon roll filling over the dough.
Starting at the long end, roll the dough into a 24-inch long log.
Using a sharp knife, slice the log into 12 slices. If you do not have a very sharp knife then you can use dental floss or thread to wrap around the log then pull the ends to cut the roll without squishing it.
Place the rolls on top of the caramel sauce in the pan then cover loosely with a dish towel and let sit in a warm place for an hour until almost doubled in size.
Pre-heat the oven to 350°. Uncover the rolls and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.
Allow the rolls to cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes then run a knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen the rolls from the edge. Invert the pan onto a platter so the sticky gooey sauce is on top, be certain the pan is not too hot when you do this or the caramel sauce will burn you.
Serve warm.

Notes

The baking time will vary depending on how packed the rolls are when you put them in the baking pan. If the rolls are packed in tight, it will take longer for the centers to bake.