There are so many holiday traditions we do as a family or have tried to do as a family. Some traditions stick and some of them totally flop, but for over a decade there is one Christmas tradition that never fails: cinnamon rolls. I don’t know what spurred it on, but since high school I have been making (and perfecting) Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. Just like my spiced pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving, it is a sure fire crowd pleaser. Everyone (grandparents, sisters, kids, even my brother in law!) requests these cinnamon rolls and they are looked forward to with sheer delight each and every year.
Last year we even used them as a birthday cake for our December baby. This picture on her first birthday pretty much sums up how everyone feels about these cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.
Because I have been making them for so long I have changed a few things to the original recipe. However, if you don’t want the tried and true methods just go ahead and follow this link to the cinnamon roll recipe on Epicurious. But if you want them to be a smashing success you need my changes, I promise! And, there are only two, so this isn’t going to drag on forever…like some recipe blogs, har har 🙂 Plus, food blogging isn’t my gift! But telling you about a tradition that WINS?? Yes, I can do that!
Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls CHANGES
1. Double the filling-in the recipe you will make a cinnamon and brown sugar filling with melted butter. This is what makes the gooey center. But I have discovered that it isn’t gooey unless you double it. So if you’re making a double recipe then you have to quadruple it!
2. Double the cream cheese-for the cream cheese frosting we prefer more tang from the cream cheese. So for every batch of frosting I make I put it 8 ounces of cream cheese.
3. Okay, I lied, there are three changes: don’t skimp on the butter smear! If you want ooyee gooyee cinnamon rolls that melt in your mouth you need to slather the rolled out dough in butter and high quality butter if you can!
Now that you know the secret changes/tweaks/adjustments, just hop on over to Epicurious and add this one Christmas tradition that never fails to your 2023 holiday morning. You won’t regret it!
