Crock Pot Cinnamon Rolls
Well, we’ve made our Master recipe in a crock pot, our brioche in a crock pot, dinner rolls, and even our gluten-free dough in the slow cooker. It seemed a good time to add to the list, and so we took on crock pot cinnamon rolls. I’m happy to report that they work just as well; it’s as easy as rolling out dough, brushing some butter and sprinkling sugar, shaping rolls, and then letting them bake for an hour. My family couldn’t tell they weren’t baked in the oven, and my kids had the best after school snack of the year.
Follow the instructions for our favorite cinnamon rolls to fill and shape the rolls. I used a slow cooker that was 5 quarts, and I used one pound of no-knead brioche and cut it into 7 rolls. If your slow cooker is larger, you could use more dough and double the filling, cutting the dough into more pieces. If your slow cooker fits a cake pan, you could also place the cut buns into a greased cake pan and cook them in that.
Now it’s time to “bake” the buns in your slow cooker. Line the bottom with parchment and spray it with pan spray, or brush with oil or butter.
Place the cinnamon rolls into the prepared crock-pot. Set the slow cooker to high and bake for about 1 hour. (THEY MAY TAKE MORE OR LESS TIME DEPENDING ON YOUR MACHINE.)
Once the crock pot cinnamon rolls have set, check by gently poking the top, they should no longer feel like wet dough, but will not be crusty. Lift the parchment paper out of the crock pot, and then frost the tops with our favorite icing. Then, eat and enjoy.
If you want to make things extra fancy, you could also make a braid. Use the same amount of dough and filling called for above, and roll the dough like you are making a cinnamon roll.
Cut the log in half, lengthwise.
Twist the pieces together, with the cut side facing up.
Twist the log into a circle and place in the prepared pan.
Cook, following the directions above for cinnamon roll times. Cover with icing if desired, and enjoy!
Common question: Can I make this in an Instant Pot? We have found that cinnamon rolls made in the Instant pot don’t turn out as well. Buns that will be pressure cooked still need a rise time, and turn out dense vs. fluffy. We found the oven to be a better choice over pressure cooking. Our slow cooker function on our Instant Pot also didn’t work as well as a basic crock pot – the buns took over 2 hours to cook, and and didn’t rise as much as they did in the slow cooker.
ooh, i love these! they look incredible 🙂
After shaping the rolls, do you allow them to rise for 1.5 hours and then bake in the slow cooker or does the show cooker eliminate that rise time so you shape the rolls and immediately bake in the slow cooker?
Hi Erin,
That is the beauty of the crock-pot baking, no resting time. Just shape and put them in the slow cooker.
Thanks, Zoë
Great! I can’t wait to try this. Thank you guys for your amazing books. They have changed my bread making life and I tell everyone they have to try it 🙂
What an awesome idea!!!!
Very timely recipe with a heat wave hitting Southern California today. My four-year-old and I just got some sourdough starter at a local festival over the weekend and planned to make bread this week. Too hot to turn on the oven, so the slow cooker is perfect! We’ll start with bread rather than cinnamon rolls.
Not about crock pot cinnamon rolls, but they do sound amazing!! I made the master recipe from healthy bread in 5 minutes a day (p. 54). I halved the recipe and used active dry yeast (1 tblspn because I read you needed more than instant yeast). It rose during the first countertop rise, but when I baked it the next day, it had virtually no oven spring. Came out pretty flat. The last several batches I’ve made have been that way, so I got new yeast, but that hasn’t fixed the problem. Any ideas? Thanks!!
Hi Ashley,
Have you watched any of our videos? I wonder if the dough is too dry or too wet? If it is too dry it doesn’t stretch well and if it is too wet it may spread more than rise. If it seems very wet this video may help: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/03/08/new-video-shaping-the-ball-from-a-very-wet-dough
Let me know if it is one of these and we can go from there. Thanks, Zoë
It did seem pretty wet. It felt pretty wet (even though it was only the second day) and it did spread out quite a bit during the 90 min rest before baking. It also didn’t seem as stretchy as the one in the video. So maybe cut back on the water a little bit for my next batch? I’ve got some of this batch left, so I’ll try the shaping technique in the video and see if it comes out better. It tasted fine and had nice uneven size holes throughout. P.S. I’m SO in love with the book! I’m getting it for every baker in the family for Christmas!
Hi Ashley,
What kind of flour are you using? Do try the shaping technique from the video and see if that helps this batch.
So glad you are enjoying the book and the bread you are baking! 🙂
Thanks, Zoë
Hi Zoë,
I used Trader Joe’s whole wheat flour and King Arthur white flour.
Hi Ashley,
Those should work just fine, I was just curious if you were using freshly ground flour, since it tends to behave in the way you described.
Thanks, Zoë
Do you think this would work with the buttermilk bread dough recipe. The one from the original book?
Thanks!
Hi Sandra,
Yes, I think it would be great!
Enjoy, Zoë
Woo-hoo! Now I know how to use up the last 3rd of the dough batch. I seriously love this particular dough. It is the one I seem to default to most often.
Trader Joe has a pumpkin cream cheese out now for fall. I bet that would be good spread on top of cinnamon rolls.
Hi Sandra,
The pumpkin cream cheese sounds incredible and will be perfect with these.
Enjoy, Zoë
I’m feeling adventurous and using up a remnant of your master pizza dough to make those!
Do you put the cover back on the crockpot to cook them or leave it off?
Hi Nathalie,
Yes, put the lid on to create a little oven environment.
Enjoy, Zoë
Natalie,
I once had a batch of pizza dough recipe, and a batch of brioche dough recipe in my fridge at the same time. I intended to make cinnamon rolls and a pizza.
Well, I mixed up the two doughs. The rolls were fine with the pizza dough (though I think would have been better with the brioche), but the pizza made with the brioche just tasted really off to me. Wrong texture and very sweet.
This is funny! Hmm, brioche-crusted pizza sounds actually delicious. My favorite use for the challah dough is to make nutella-filled beignets. My kids clamor for them all the time.
My rolls turned out… disappointing. But then again, I wasn’t supposed to use pizza dough to make them, hahaha. The icing was too cheesy for us (I used Neufchatel cheese) and it took way longer than 1 hour to cook them (mostly because I hadn’t gotten Zoe’s reply yet so I baked them uncovered for most of the time). But it was a fun project that I’ll try again with a pumpkin cinnamon roll recipe. I was just excited to use up some dough remnant and to avoid using my oven (Central Florida… we’re still experiencing temps in the mid 90s).
Ackkk! I spelled your name wrong… sorry about that!
Hi Sandra,
I’m shocked the brioche dough didn’t burn at that high temperature. Good to know! I’ve made the cinnamon rolls with our master recipe, but nice to know the pizza dough works as well.
Thanks, Zoë
When you use the slow cooker or crockpot do you put the dough into a cold pot or turn it on before you use it, I suppose putting them in cold would be the reason you can do away with a rise time! It rises whilst warming up!
Hi Lyn,
That is exactly right, the slow preheat with the dough in the pot is when the rise happens.
Enjoy, Zoë
Okay you geniuses! I just made this using about 2/3 pound of buttermilk bread dough that I made a week ago. I have 4 qt crock pot that is round in shape (I bought it in 1977 and still use it frequently).
I lined it with parchment and made 4 rolls. I cooked it for about 75 minutes and I was skeptical when I pulled them out, but they worked!
yes, they are pale looking, but completely done and not doughy at all inside. I spread some ready made Trader Joe Pumpkin cream cheese on a warm roll and it is divine!
What a fun way to bake rolls. My daughter happened to drop by and tasted them too. She couldn’t believe they were done in a crock pot.
Thanks and Happy Fall!
H Sandra,
I am so excited that you tried it! I think I have that same crock pot and I love it!
Enjoy, Zoë
Seriously…. give this a try with the pumpkin cream cheese! I know that the cream cheese icing is easy to make, and I could have done that as I had all the ingredients, but the pumpkin one has the nice fall spices. And did I mention it was EASY?
(I LOVE shopping at Trader Joe!)
Oh, and if someone didn’t want to ice them, then just flip the rolls over. The bottoms are covered in the gooey, sticky brown filling and give the rolls a nice color from that side.
They are delicious without icing too. I tried them both ways! (I am so gonna flunk Weight Watchers this week!)
I have a general dough question. I am severely lactose intolerant. While I can tolerate a bit of butter, I can’t handle anything made with milk. Can I substitute almond milk for the recipes that call for milk? Side note: I just made maple oatmeal bread and it’s tough to let it cool before cutting into it! My house smells pretty amazing!
Hi Hannah,
I’ve made our recipes with both soy and almond milk with success. You can even use water. I’ve also used Earth Balance instead of butter. It does change the flavor, but still great.
Thanks, Zoë
This goes on my ‘to try in the very near future like… this weekend’ list!
Love my Artisan Bread cookbook! Going to try this with the Brioche dough recipe. If my husband eats 8 of them in 2 days (as he did with the baked version!), I’ll know this technique is a winner! Good thing The Hubs works out every day. He’s my faithful test monkey!
Can I add raisins to the filling,and would I have to soak them first?
I just baked my first loaf of bread this evening, and it was a huge success. I’m so hyped, ready to take on anything, and sell my bread machine:<)
Thanks Sharon,
Yes, raisins would be wonderful. You can soak them or add them without the extra step. They will be great either way.
Enjoy, Zoë
I’m just curious if you use the top of the slow cooker or if you leave it off.
Have to leave it on…
I made these this week with the buttermilk recipe and they turned out great. I was wondering if they could be prepared the night before leaving the crock pot in the fridge and then start the cooking process the next morning.
Hi Doug,
So glad you enjoyed the rolls! You can make them the night before and just let them rest on the parchment in the refrigerator overnight. Be sure they are covered so they won’t dry out. The next morning you can just lower them into the crock pot and bake as normal. Because the dough is cold, they may take just a bit longer to bake.
Thanks, Zoë
I’m a little late to this, and was very skeptical…my husband dislikes anything done in the crockpot, HOWEVER: He was extremely happy with the results, and so was I. Bad thing is, you can’t eat just one, hey are THAT good and THAT addictive!
Thank you for bringing back fond memories of the smell of cinnamon rolls in my kitchen:) 🙂 🙂
Hi Karla,
I am so thrilled that you liked the bread. I was skeptical about the crockpot breads when I first set out to try it. What a pleasant surprise it was. 🙂
Cheers, Zoë
Have you ever made the cinnamon rolls out of the buttermilk dough? Would that work? I love that dough.
Hi Elen,
Yes, it sure will. Enjoy!
Zoë
Yum! I will have to try this. I made your cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, and added sauteed apples (butter and cinnamon) before I rolled them up. My family loved them.
Hi Carolyn,
Your apple cinnamon rolls sound incredible!
Happy New Year! Zoë
I made a batch of Swedish Limpa dough, baked half ( great! ), Sandy moved the plastic pail to the pantry… if I don’t see it I forget about it… found it after three days plus by the smell of very sour dough! Added 2 T sugar, parchment & into the crockpot! Hmmmm? Maybe I should let Sandy try some first, ya think? It looks great. No; not worth the risk! The birds can decide if it’s edible, and now I’m out of flour, to boot! How sour is too sour?
well… all depends on your taste. I’d probably eat it…
Your the Doctor; … no milk nor eggs to go bad, , as in Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” … just one little piece.
I think about all the effort I put into making hearty honey bread Winter weekend mornings, if I didn’t have to work, in our drafty old Minnesota farmhouse. The smell of fresh, hot bread would bring the three kids ( and two hounds ) boiling down the stairs and into the warm kitchen – little talking – but a lot of concentration getting bread, butter, jam or peanut butter assembled and consumed!
I don’t think the crockpot would provide the same effect, back then, but these forty years later in Tucson the joy of fresh bread is still the same. No longer need to heat up the whole house. Thank you very much for all your good work.
Excellent… Glad you’re enjoying the recipes.