Activate the yeast. Sprinkle the yeast on to warm milk and let foam.
Add sugar, eggs, and melted butter and mix throughly.
Stir in the flour until everything comes together into a ball of dough.
Knead the dough until smooth, then pop into a lightly oiled bowl so it can proof for an hour.
After the dough is puffy and proofed, tip it out onto a floured surface and roll it into a rectangle.
Spread out some soft butter and sprinkle on brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll it up tightly, cut into even pieces, and place in a pan and let proof until doubled.
Bake until gooey and golden.
Bread flour – this one is important. You might be tempted to just use all purpose, and well, you can do that, but if you use bread flour your rolls will be soft and fluffy with just the right amount of chew. Bread flour has a higher protein content than regular all purpose – the resulting dough has more gluten in it which helps the rolls stay soft and chewy.
Cinnamon – obviously cinnamon rolls need cinnamon. But the kind of cinnamon you use is important too. Cinnabon’s cinnamon (if you’re looking to create a copycat cinnabon) is a special super cinnamon-y proprietary blend called Makara – they sell it! If you don’t want to get cinnabon cinnamon, go for Ceylon cinnamon if you can.
