Dulce de Leche Overnight Cinnamon Rolls are a fantastic way to start your day! With all the prep done the night before, you an wake up and pop these rolls in the oven while the coffee is brewing.

As many of you have already noticed, I’ve been taking a little break from this space for a little while. Thanks to all of you who have written to check in and who expressed concern.

Things are good here, actually. I decided at the end of last year that I needed to declutter my brain. Between the time I was spending on the computer each day during work at the office and at home on email/the blog/social media/reading blogs/etc., I felt like I was frying my brain.

I was starting to have trouble concentrating, prioritizing, making decisions. Basically, I was in overload. And I didn’t like it.

I was sacrificing important things like time with Kyle, my hobbies (like reading and cooking), and sleep. I was dragging all day long, didn’t want to cook at night, and I started to feel like my blog was becoming a chore.

I like this little space here on the internet that I’ve deemed my own and I like sharing it with you. But in the past few weeks, I realized (remembered?) that I also really like my sleep, and my hobbies, and of course spending time with Kyle, all without feeling chained to the computer at night.

To sum it all up, I’m making some sacrifices now in order to keep myself happy and to keep from completely reaching the point of burn out later. If I only get to post a recipe here once or twice a week, that’s all I’ve got.

You can be sure they’ll all still be really great recipes, like these dulce de leche overnight cinnamon rolls. And you’ll still find me posting stuff over on Facebook or on a Pin binge every so often.

I do hope you’ll stick with me and understand at the same time that I need to prioritize my happiness in order to allow everything else I do to work properly.

Now, about those cinnamon rolls…

Holy heck! We certainly started the new year off well with these super indulgent rolls for breakfast on New Year’s morning. I took to starting a [now miserably failed] sourdough starter recipe later on that day but the day began with a pan of beautifully risen rolls oozing with a bubbling cinnamon maple dulce de leche filling.

Can I Make These Rolls in the Morning?

You could…if you want to get up in the wee morning hours. Because this recipe is for an enriched dough, it needs a longer proof time. An enriched dough includes eggs and butter, both of which slow down the yeast growth in a recipe.

This means the dough needs a much longer time to proof than say, pretzel dough, in order for the yeast to activate properly in the dough and create a soft textured-dough.

Ingredients

Here’s the basic list of ingredients you’ll need for this recipe. Be sure to check out the full list below in the green recipe card.

large eggs
granulated sugar
unsalted butter
buttermilk
all-purpose flour
instant yeast
Kosher salt
Vegetable oil or cooking spray
dulce de leche
ground cinnamon
confectioners’ sugar
milk or half-and-half
pure vanilla extract

Where to Find Dulce de Leche

These cinnamon rolls were one of the better ideas I’d had in a while. We found the maple dulce de leche at Stonewall Kitchen while in Maine on our Christmas getaway and meant to put it out for the waffles we made for our friends a few days after Christmas but forgot. Oops!

That maple variety was a seasonal variety of the caramel sauce so Stonewall Kitchen might not offer it year-round. So, any kind of dulce de leche will do here and if you want to make your own, I highly recommend trying it!

You can find dulce de leche at other specialty food stores as well, like Williams-Sonoma or even in local shops.

More Cinnamon Roll Recipes

More Dulce de Leche Recipes

Dulce de Leche Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Name: Dulce de Leche Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 14 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 large egg yolks, at room temperature; 1 large whole egg, at room temperature; 2 oz granulated sugar (approximately ¼ cup); 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted; 6 oz buttermilk, at room temperature; 20 oz all-purpose flour (approximately 4 cups); 2 ¼ tsp instant yeast (1 packet); 1 ¼ tsp Kosher salt; Vegetable oil or cooking spray; 1 ¼ cups dulce de leche, homemade or store-bought; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; Pinch of Kosher salt; 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted; 2 tbsp milk or half-and-half; 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Yield: 12 rolls

Active Prep Time: 30 minutes

Inactive Proof Time: 13 hours

Bake Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 14 hours

Overnight cinnamon rolls need some advanced planning. You'll need about 3 hours of prep time before you refrigerate the rolls overnight, 30 minutes for the rolls to proof in the morning, and another 30 minutes to bake them off. It seems like a ton of time but nearly all of it is inactive/hands-off time. This is my kind of recipe!

Ingredients

For the dough:

4 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 large whole egg, at room temperature
2 oz granulated sugar (approximately ¼ cup)
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
6 oz buttermilk, at room temperature
20 oz all-purpose flour (approximately 4 cups)
2 ¼ tsp instant yeast (1 packet)
1 ¼ tsp Kosher salt
Vegetable oil or cooking spray

For the filling:

1 ¼ cups dulce de leche, homemade or store-bought
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of Kosher salt

For the vanilla glaze:

2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
2 tbsp milk or half-and-half
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer (or with a regular whisk), beat the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, melted butter, and buttermilk together until combined. Slowly whisk in 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, and the salt until just combined. Switch to the dough hook and add 1 ¼ cups of flour to the bowl. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. If at this point the dough is still very sticky, add in another ½ cup flour and continue to knead for another 3 - 5 minutes. If after two minutes of kneading has passed and the dough is still sticky, stir in the remaining ¼ cup flour and knead until the dough is soft and slightly tacky but not sticky. Overall, the dough should knead for about 10 minutes in the mixer (by hand this will take closer to 15 minutes).
Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand for 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, rolling it around in the bowl to cover all of the sides with oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise in a warm spot for 2 - 2 ½ hours, until it doubles in size.
To assemble the rolls: Grease a 9x13-inch (3 quart) glass or ceramic baking dish. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and shape the dough with your hands into a 12x18-inch rectangle with the long side facing you. Using an offset spatula, gently spread the dulce de leche out over the dough leaving a ½-inch border around the outside edges. Sprinkle the cinnamon and pinch of salt evenly over the dulce de leche.
Starting with the long edge closest to you, roll the dough into a tight long roll, pinching the seam at the end into the dough to seal it together. A tight roll is important here to keep the dulce de leche from oozing out too much. With the seam side down, slice the roll into 12 equal-sized pieces with a serrated knife. Place each piece into the baking dish, cut side down. Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 16 hours.
To bake the rolls: In the morning, bring a kettle of water to a boil. Remove the baking dish from the fridge and place it on the middle rack in a turned off oven. Fill a shallow pan 2/3-full with the boiling water and place the pan of water on a rack under the baking dish in the oven; close the oven door and allow the rolls to proof for 30 minutes, until they are slightly puffy - they will not double in size. Remove the baking dish and pan of water from the oven.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Remove the plastic wrap from the baking dish and bake the rolls for 30 minutes, until they are golden brown. Some of the filling will have oozed out into the pan but don't worry - it's all still amazing. Allow the rolls to cool in the dish on a wire rack until they are warm but not hot.
To make the vanilla glaze: While the rolls are cooling, whisk the milk and vanilla into the sifted sugar until the mixture is thick, glossy, and smooth. If it's too thick, add a little more milk by the teaspoon until it reaches your desired consistency. Pour the glaze over the rolls and serve immediately.

Notes

adapted from Alton Brown via Elly Says Opa