Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
These vanilla pudding cinnamon rolls are incredible! Fluffy and soft, the dough is a dream to work with and the frosting is perfection.
This recipe for my tried-and-true vanilla pudding cinnamon rolls is amazing!
The vanilla pudding makes the dough extremely soft and pliable. Once baked, the cinnamon rolls are so softy and fluffy!
Cinnamon Roll Dough with Pudding
This recipe has gained fame and fortune (ok, just fame) because of the secret ingredient:
Vanilla pudding.
Homemade or boxed, store bought pudding can be used.
Boxed pudding: 3.5 ounce box of instant vanilla pudding.
Homemade pudding: about 2 1/4 cups of cooked and mostly cooled vanilla pudding.
Other than the pudding, the dough is really straightforward. The dough is soft and supple and needs to rise until doubled before rolling out into cinnamon rolls.
Rolling Out Cinnamon Rolls
Pat the dough into a large rectangle and slather with butter and then an healthy sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar.
Roll up the dough into a log. Take care not to pull and stretch the dough while rolling or the rolls can shrink while baking.
Using a super sharp serrated knife or piece of thread or unflavored dental floss, cut the log into 1 or 1 1/2-inch pieces.
Place the cinnamon rolls on a greased baking sheet and let rise until doubled.
Bake until puffy and golden. PERFECTION.
When to Frost Cinnamon Rolls
There are two schools of thought on when to frost a cinnamon roll. Neither is wrong, so go with your heart!
- Let the rolls cool for 5-10 minutes and then frost. RESULT: ooey gooey frosting oozing into every crevice of the cinnamon rolls.
- Let the rolls cool completely before frosting. RESULT: fluffy frosting complimenting the pillowy soft cinnamon roll.
Reviews for Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls
These cinnamon rolls have been a tried-and-true favorite for more than a decade. Here are a few rave reviews from many of you who have fallen in love with them over the years:
Cooke F.: I have made these cinnamon rolls for the last 7 Christmas morning breakfasts. My family is addicted. Soooo good.
Kristina: The best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever made!
Gina: I’ve made these lots and they turn out perfect every time. They are the BEST. So decadent. Rave reviews from family, friends and coworkers. Thank you! 🙂
Kathy W.: I thought I had the best cinnamon roll recipe in North America but I was sadly mistaken. I made these this morning and they are to die for! No kidding. I just about made myself sick eating these delicious and gooey cinnamon rolls.
How to make these cinnamon rolls ahead of time
This post on making cinnamon rolls ahead of time applies perfectly to any sweet roll!
Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Rolls:
- ½ cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast or 1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3.5 ounce package instant vanilla pudding (see note)
- ½ cup (113 g) butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 to 7 cups (852 to 994 g) all-purpose flour
Filling:
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (424 g) brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
Frosting:
- 8 ounces (227 g) cream cheese
- ½ cup (113 g) butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups (342 g) confectioner’s sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Set aside.
- In a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook), take pudding mix and prepare according to package directions. Add butter, eggs and salt. Mix well. Then add yeast mixture. Blend.
- Gradually add flour; knead until smooth. Do not overflour the dough! It should be very soft but not sticky. Place in a greased bowl.
- Cover the dough and let rise until doubled (if using boxed pudding, it may take quite a while to double because of the cold milk – see note below).
- Roll out the dough on a lightly greased or floured surface to about 34 X 21 inches in size. Take 1 cup soft butter and spread over surface.
- For the filling: in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top of the buttered dough. Roll up very tightly. With knife put a notch every 1 1/2 inches. Cut with thread or serrated knife.
- Place on lightly greased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Cover and let rise until double again.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Remove when they start to turn golden (don’t overbake). Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting (combine butter and cream cheese and mix well, then add vanilla and sugar and mix again, then add milk for desired consistency).
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Recipe originally posted September 2008; updated August 2022 with new photos, recipe updates, etc.
I perused the comments but didn’t see what I was looking for but what is the general time frame for letting the rolls rise…for the first and second time? I’ll be in the kitchen in the morning trying them out!!
I’ve made these no less than 100 times now! I have my dough rising for a batch that I made with pumpkin spice pudding! Love this recipe!
I really don’t know why I don’t read the whole recipe before I set out to make them 🙂 Was going to make 6 batches for my freezer club for our exchange next week. These make a BOATLOAD of rolls! First batch was too doughy and I powdered it up with flour and baked them for today. They are so goooood…and they are the flops! It has been a long, long time in the kitchen today, but I now have cinnamon rolls for Christmas for not only my freezer club, but my neighbors and our Life group from church. A LOT of rolls. I am beat. But this has replaced all other great recipes for cinnamon rolls because of the ease of rolling out. It just glides out so smoothly. Thank you.
I made these this weekend and they are our new favorite! So soft and tender. The only issue I had… I refrigerated them after forming, and then got them out in the morning about an hour before baking. One pan of rolls seemed to… melt… pancake cinnamon rolls! They still tasted good though! Thanks Mel!
Made these today for Sunday afternoon. This was the third time I have made these and they turned out great as usual. I am only eating one. Just saying. Thanks again!
omg looks delicious….i want some
Thanks for the DELICIOUS recipe! Just got them out of the oven and they are AMAAAAAAAAZING! 🙂 I didn’t have instant pudding on hand, but I had cook-and-serve pudding, so I just used that with some milk. Didn’t even cook it to make the pudding. I’m totally not a pro, but they turned out beautifully! This will totally be my go-to recipe for cinnamon rolls now, thanks! 🙂
Do you think these could be made in a bread machine? If so, should I make the pudding before, or just add the milk and dry mix?
Momofboys – I have almost zero experience with bread machines so I’m not sure since I don’t know how much you can add to a bread machine. Good luck experimenting!
I’ve been making cinnamon rolls for decades – these were the best I’ve ever made. You can teach an old dog new tricks!
Oh my goodness this recipe is a keeper they turned out just fantastic. I made the dough the night before and just covered and left raise in my oven overnight. Baked them the next morning they were just delish. I will only make this recipe when we want fresh cinnamon rolls . Thank you for the fantastic recipe !
I constantly emailed this blog post page to all my friends,
for the reason that if like to read it then my friends will too.
I haven’t eaten breakfast yet this morning, and I can’t get this cinnamon roll out of my mind. Thanks so much for sharing! Can’t wait to try them. Have a wonderful day!
Melanie! I LOVE your blog…I have tried several of your recipes. Does this recipe work making it the night before and refrigerating the rolls then let them rise in the morning?
Hi Wendi – it sure does! I’ve done that many times.
The flavor of these are awesome!! But, I must be doing something wrong. The texture of the rolls are more like bread…nothing like every other cinnamon roll I have tried. I do not know what I am doing wrong. Any suggestions?
Robin – hmmm, I don’t really know what you mean, I guess. What texture are you going for? I’ve always thought cinnamon rolls were like bread, just a bit softer and gooier. You might try adding a bit less flour and see how that works.
Great news! I only had a half package of cook and serve vanilla pudding in my cupboard but desperately wanted to try making these so went against all the baking common sense voices in my head and tried making a half recipe of these babies. Doing things like this usually results in utter disaster about 80% of the time but NOT TODAY! Yes, I had to cook and cool the pudding but the rolls turned out fantastically. SO delicious. I’m going to make them again (with instant pudding this time). YAY dangerously unhealthy Friday food!
I didn’t think cinnamon rolls could be improved upon until I saw these. Definitely will try them this weekend!
Not too long ago, I had a cinnamon roll “cook-off,” and I was pretty certain that I had an absolutely winner – http://tuesdaynightboyfriend.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/cinnamon-roll-throwdown-winner/ – but after seeing this picture, I neeeeeeeed to make these.
Just made these rolls tonight…. AMAZING!!!! So easy, so delicious. I’m in love!
Came across your recipe on Pinterest and decided to make tonight for the holiday. WOW! Amazing. So soft and yummy, and the frosting is just perfect. I don’t think I rolled out the dough enough, though, because when I rolled everything up, it was a huge roll and a little difficult to cut. I ended up making 12 huge rolls instead of 24. I wonder if you could make a cinnamon bread out of this instead of the rolls? Might have to try it since I’m so un-coordinated!
I’ve run across your blog while looking for an Italian bread to go with my Italian dinner for Christmas Eve and came across your Ciabatta and can’t wait to try it tomorrow. Then I noticed your Cinnamon Rolls and checked them out – come to find out you use the same recipe I began to use a several years ago. Mine calls for corn syrup for the filling, it’s great when you bake them right away, but I froze some and with the corn syrup all of the filling ran out during the freezing process. When I freeze I use butter and they are fantastic. I am going to have to make some more very soon. I’ll let you know how the Ciabatta comes out – I use an Electrolux Assistent for my bread, really for almost everything, and I love the way all of my bread comes out — as light as professionally made bread.
After years of making the pioneer woman’s recipe for cinnamon rolls, my kids have begged me to convert to this one! And I have to agree that it is the best! About to get ready to make and freeze for Christmas morning. Thanks!!
I don’t have the strength to knead by hand and would like to use a stand mixer. Does anyone else do this? and how long would I let it run?
I make mine in my bread machine. Dough setting. It works just fine. Once the dough is completed, you may want to add a bit more flour.
I cut this recipe in half because my machine will not handle that much flour.
Anon – sorry, I don’t know the answer to that since I’ve never officially measured the pudding. You might try googling the answer. Also, I know there are a lot of comments on this post and they are cumbersome to read through, but I seem to remember someone else had used homemade pudding so you might read through to get their feedback.
Roughly how much vanilla pudding does a 3 1/2 ounce package produce? I want to use pudding made from scratch!:)
the 3.5 oz package of instant pudding makes four 4oz. servings, so 2 cups total. 🙂
These recipes look amazing!! Thank you for sharing!! Now mommy can have a “nice” popsicle with the littles
wow! the cream cheese frosting looks so yummy on the bread. i bet this smells so good!
Hey! I just made your recipe from pinterest, they are awesome!!! Thank you very much for sharing the recipe! Mucho gracias.
Hi Esma, unfortunately, I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the German pudding at all. Sorry I can’t be more help! Perhaps just try using one package next time?
Hey Mel,
Your rolls Look very delicous. Thanks for the recipe but i had My Problems with the instant pudding. In Germany we make One package pudding with 2 cups of milk. So therefore i had to put alot more flour then u wrote. I also used2 of them haha so alot more flour was needed. Could u Tell me how much of our German pudding i have to use to get the exact flour amount for the dough. Thanks alot
I made these for Christmas last year! Baked half and froze half!! They were so good! I will definitely make these again!!!
OMG Just made these and they are awesome! I have tried several and these are the ones! I didn’t even have as much yeast as it called for and they still turned out. Now if I can figure out how to incorporate pumpkin into them.
I might add that it took closer to 8 cups of flour with kneading so that the dough wasn’t too sticky. I didn’t use an electric mixer but would recommend doing so because of the stickiness of the dough and not knowing exactly how much flour you will need. I doubled the recipe and it seemed like forever kneading it to get the stickiness to go awy. BUT it was worth every minute it took. This is by far the best cinnamon roll recipe I have ever made. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I made these cinnamon rolls and the women couldn’t get enough of them. This recipe makes 24 VERY LARGE rolls. I took them to a fish fry and they were devoured by about 10 women and a few small children within 5 hours …..followed by body wraps, of course LOL. The recipe said to spread the softened butter over the dough and sprinkle with the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture but I mixed the butter with the brown sugar and cinnamon and spread it on that way. I also put pecans in half of them and that was wonderful. I highly recommend this recipe !!!!
good roll!!! http://www.ccchinachic.com u can find u need or like!!
These were amazing! I think they are the best cinnamon rolls in the world. =)
Melanie,
I made the pudding cinnamom rolls today and they are superb. Your recipe was very easy to follow and totally foolproof in my opinion. Cant wait for hubby to get home and try them. He will be impressed! Gonna share some with our neighbor too. Thank you so much for sharing!
Vicki from Oklahoma
The blog is very good, It worth to collect
Excellent recipe for vanilla frosting!
Thanks – MakingVanilla.com
Hi Shane – this dough is definitely on the softer side of the dough spectrum but it shouldn’t be overly sticky. It should end up being very soft and supple without leaving a lot of dough residue on your fingers. Because the amount of flour can vary widely in yeast recipes based on how you measure flour, humidity, etc., I think if your dough was overly sticky and not clearing the bowl that you need to add more flour. I use my Bosch mixer to knead the dough and depending on where I’ve lived (living at a high altitude, dry climate and now living at humid, sea level), sometimes I add as much as 8 cups of flour. It’s hard to put a specific amount because it will depend on each person making them. Hope that helps a little!
Hi Melanie! I am very excited to taste these. I am in the middle of making them but wonder if I am doing something wrong. I make bread all the time but mostly do the kneading in my Kitchen Aid, especially for soft, wet doughs. I tried to do this the same but it never cleared the sides, was always sticky even after adding about another 3/4 cup flour. I then tried to knead them by hand with about another 1/4 cup flour and that was much worse and messier. I finally managed to get it in a ball and put it in a bowl to raise. How much “6+” flour do you end up using. Do you knead them by hand? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Hilary – you can use either light or dark brown sugar. I use whatever I have on hand and both work great.
Brian – I hope the measuring flour thing helps out with the stickiness of the dough! It sounds like you need to add a bit more flour to begin with. Hope that helps!
Just found your entry on measuring flour, & I have been using spoon & sweep since I could reach the counter. This could account for the difficulty I experienced!
Found this recipe & had to try it – & they were delicious. First time I’ve made cinnamon rolls (though mom used to do so regularly when I was growing up).
The issue I ran into was kneading the dough. It took a long time (I’m talking 35-40 minutes) for it to come together. I followed the recipe with the 6+ cups of flour, and ended up adding probably 1/2 – 3/4 c additional flour during kneading. My first guess was that because of the pudding the dough took a bit longer, but I see that nobody else had this problem.
Any thoughts? Do I need to add a bit more flour to start? I’d love to make these again but I don’t look forward to another marathon of kneading….
I think that it is hard to make good cinnamon rolls! There are definitely more bad than good out there, but these look amazing!! All elements met… moist and gooey and slathered with frosting… it just looks like it will melt in your mouth!! I can not wait to try these! Thanks for being great at what you do!
Sorry this is so late, but do you use light brown or dark brown sugar for the filling?? Thanks!!!
Making these for conference in the morning. I wake up early with the baby anyways, so I am going to try to make them tonight and put in the refrigerator over night, take them out to come to room tempurature and rise until double and then bake so they are warm and fresh from the oven for conference. I will let you know how they turn out!
Lyndsay – you can make the rolls, shape them and put them on the baking sheet the night before. Don’t let them rise on the baking sheet – cover them with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate them. Take them out 2 hours or so before you want to bake them so they can rise.
Should the dough rise is a warm area of the kitchen?
I use all-purpose flour (unbleached); and yes, the dough can rise in a warm location or just at room temperature.
Is there an easy way to make these at night for breakfast the next morning?
Is instant yeast the same as rapid yeast????? I do have rapid and active….Thanks
Brenda – yes, instant yeast is also called rapid rise yeast.
I made these Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas! They were so good!! I froze them and made them as needed because this recipe makes a lot. So, So delicious!!!!