Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls (No Yeast & No Rising!)

Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls are the quickest homemade cinnamon rolls I’ve ever made. From start to finish these take less than 30 minutes! Compare that to traditional cinnamon rolls and there’s no reason you can’t make these on a saturday morning, no sweat! The tender and flaky layers melt in your mouth as you eat it with the perfect level of sweetness. 

I want to stress how important it is to read all the notes before you start making this recipe. I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting buttermilk biscuits (recipe to come very soon, hopefully!) and want to make sure you have the best chance at perfection in this recipe. If you’ve never made biscuits before this isn’t the recipe to push “jump to recipe”. 

Why you’ll love these easy biscuit cinnamon rolls:

There is no yeast and no rising, first off. The 3 worst parts about cinnamon rolls in my opinion, are 1) the center of cinnamon rolls often are still doughy and 2) If you don’t bake them close together then they are all dry and 3) they take hours to make. I don’t waste my calories for a day on a doughy or dry classic cinnamon roll and I don’t often want to wake up 3 hours before breakfast time to have warm cinnamon rolls on the table.

When I tried making biscuit cinnamon rolls for the first time (over 10 years ago!) I literally hit the jackpot, according to myself and my husband at the very least. My husband told me he wouldn’t care if I ever made traditional cinnamon rolls ever again. There one of his favorite things I make. I’ve since made a variety of biscuit cinnamon rolls and tried them on basically everyone and at least 90% of the people said they preferred these to a normal cinnamon roll. So, basically what are you waiting for? Make these! There is no better time than this weekend.

If you do want to go the traditional cinnamon rolls route though make sure to try my cinnamon roll recipes made with traditional yeast doughwith secret instructions! If you’re looking for another quick breakfast that uses buttemrilk you’ll have to check out my recipe for the best buttermilk pancakes recipe. And if you try this recipe and are curious if you can make them with other fillings, check out my apple buttermilk biscuit recipe! So many good breakfast options for simple weekdays or special occasions.

Recipe Ingredients

You’ll need the following ingredients to make these amazing cinnamon roll biscuits:

Complete ingredient list is in the recipe card below

• Pantry staples- flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, light brown sugar, cinnamon, powdered sugar, butter (both cold butter and melted butter).
• Cold Buttermilk
• Heavy Cream

How to make biscuit cinnamon rolls . STEP BY STEP

1. Pre heat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter until the butter is the size of peas.

4. Add the buttermilk and mix until shaggy.
5. Make the cinnamon sugar filling.

6. Roll and fold the dough into a large rectangle about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.

7. Spread the cinnamon mixture over the top.
8. Cut into equal pieces and roll the dough up into cinnamon roll shape in individual rolls.

9. Place on the baking sheet and bake at 400 F for 11-13 minutes unti light golden brown.

10. Whisk together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl and frost the warm cinnamon rolls.

Recipe Tips | Expert Tips

You do not want your butter to get soft before baking. If you are new to making homemade biscuit dough, it takes some practice to make this quick. Putting the bowl of dry ingredients in the freezer for 20-60 minutes before cutting the butter in will give you more wiggle room to be successful in this recipe.

In addition to this, if you think your homemade buttermilk biscuit dough is too soft and warm to roll out, you can cover it with plastice wrap and refrigerate it for 20-30 minutes before rolling it out. This also gives you a bit more wiggle room time. I still use these tricks if I need to. Sometimes you’re working super fast but your kitchen is too hot or one of my kids needs me in the middle and I need to use my tips myeslf.

Cutting the dough in strips and rolling the cinnamon rolls individually helps them be neater and more precise. I learned this tip from my sister a few years ago and I’ll never roll a whole log of dough for cinnamon rolls ever again! Goodbye dental floss, hello pizza cutter!

Make sure your butter and buttermilk are super cold and straight from the fridge. Do not use room temperature dairy products.

I’m pretty sure not a single one of my recipes calls for unsalted butter. Salted butter tastes so much better. If you use unsalted butter, make sure you add an additional 1/2 teapsoon of salt to your dough.

If you have a food processor you can cut the butter into the dry ingredients in like 4 pulses! This is a super fantastic way to make sure your butter stays cold. But you dirty more dishes this way too.

You do not need a well-floured surface for rolling this dough out. Lightly floured should be enough. Lightly dust as you go if you need to.

Make Ahead Instructions-

If you want to make these the night before you totally can! Make the recipe up to putting the rolls in the oven. Cover the whole baking sheet with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. In the morning, preheat your oven, remove the plastic wrap and bake as directed. You may need to add a few extra minutes to the baking time. The filling has the potential to leak out a tiny bit if you let them rest in the fridge so I recommend adding a tablespoon of flour to the cinnamon sugar mixture if you plan to make them ahead.

Storage & Reheating

Store the cinnamon biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Like all baked goods, these are best eaten fresh.

Reheat in the microwave for about 5-10 seconds.

Additions & Substitutions

I know, it’s annoying to have to buy buttermilk if you don’t use it often. DO NOT use milk curdled with vinegar or lemon juice. I have tried this with these rolls and the homemade buttermilk alternative is way way way too thin. You will have an incredibly sticky dough.

If you have sour cream on hand you can use 1 cup sour cream and 1 cup milk in place of buttermilk. I have done this and it works just fine, however you may need a tablespoon or 2 extra milk if your dough is a bit too dry.

If you don’t have heavy cream on hand you can sub it for normal milk. You may need a tiny bit more powdered sugar to get a thicker glaze.

You can add a few tablespoons of cream cheese into the frosting to get a cream cheese frosting.

Items Needed to make this recipe:

• Baking sheets
• parchment paper
• pastry blender
• bench scraper (handy but not necessary!)
• Kitchen scale (I cannot live without mine!)
• pizza cutter or sharp knife
• mixing bowls
• measuring cups

Frequently Asked Questions – Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls

Did you love these biscuit cinnamon rolls? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so rate it and give it a quick review, below, or share on social media.

Originally posted on 4/4/20. Updated 4/2/25 with new pictures and better instructions. (no changes to the recipe.)

Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls (no yeast & no rising!)

Print Recipe

Flaky biscuit like dough, cinnamon roll filling, rolled like a cinnamon roll with a delicious frosting. No yeast, no rising.

• Prep Time: 18 minutes
• Cook Time: 11 minutes
• Total Time: 29 minutes
• Yield: 12 biscuit cinnamon rolls 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Dough-

4 1/2 cups flour *see note (638 g)

1/3 cup white sugar (71 g)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

13 tablespoons cold salted butter *see note (182 g)

2 cups buttermilk (plus a few tablespoons more, if needed) *see note

Filling-

5 Tablespoons butter, melted (70 g)

½ heaping and packed cup brown sugar (125 g)

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Frosting-

1 cup powdered sugar (113 g)

2 tablespoons butter, melted (14 g)

2 tablespoons heavy cream

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pre-heat the oven to 400 F.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt *see note for possible extra step after this. Cut butter into the flour with a pastry cutter until the butter is about the size of a pea. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour the buttermilk in. Using a fork or spoon, quickly mix the dough until it’s shaggy, but mostly mixed together. Don’t overmix or your finished dough will be too tough. The dry parts of the dough should mix into the dough as you fold in the next steps.

Put your dough in the fridge for few minutes while you mix your filling up. Melt the butter in the microwave and add the brown sugar and cinnamon and mix until combined.

Flour your counter lightly and pour the dough onto it. Quickly pat the dough together. Use a rolling pin to either very gently roll or use it to kind of pat the dough into a rough rectangle. (you are not going for perfection at this time, you are going for quick) The key is to handle the dough as little as possible and work as quickly as possible so the butter stays cold. Once the dough is in a rectangle apx 10 in x 18 in and ¼ inch thick, fold in half or thirds and pat again quickly back to the same dimensions and fold in half or thirds one or two more times. (This is how you get the flaky layers) If the dough is sticking to the counter then lightly flour the counter before you fold each time.

Spread the filling evenly over the dough (I use a rubber spatula to gently spread evenly).

Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 strips (the short side) about 1 ½ inches long. Roll each individual roll up and kind of tuck or seal the loose edge under the bottom so it doesn’t come undone when you bake them. Place the cinnamon rolls about an inch apart on the baking sheet.

Bake for about 11-14 minutes.

When the cinnamon rolls come out of the oven, mix the frosting ingredients together in a small bowl with a whisk or fork. Let the cinnamon rolls cool for 10-15 minutes before drizzling with the frosting.

Notes

See the FAQ and post details for even more notes and tips on how to be successful making this recipe!

If you don’t weigh your flour, make sure you’re not packing it in the cup. If you put too much flour in, your cinnamon rolls will be too dry in the end and you’ll need to add more buttermilk to get them to come together. This will result in not having the right ratio of butter and baking powder to make them puff up right.

If you use unsalted butter, add an additional 1/2 teaspoon salt into the dry ingredients. Butter must be super cold!

Don’t use a buttermilk substitute on these. Vinegar in milk won’t make the milk thick enough lending to a very wet dough that will make it impossible to roll. If you don’t have real buttermilk on hand, I have had success in making these with 1 cup sour cream mixed with 1 cup milk instead of the buttermilk.

If you don’t have a pastry blender you can use a box grater to quickly shred frozen butter and gently toss into the flour mixture.

One of my favorite ways to ensure a flaky tender biscuit is to put the bowl of dry ingredients in the fridge or freezer before cutting the butter in, and then again after cutting the butter/before putting the buttermilk in. This gives you a bit more slack in preventing the butter from melting or softening too much.

You can prepare these the night before baking and put them in the fridge, covered. In the morning pre-heat the oven and put them directly in the oven from the fridge and cook, adding 2-3 minutes extra cooking time.

Keywords: biscuit cinnamon rolls, buttermilk biscuits, flaky biscuits, cinnamon rolls, breakfast, 30 minute meal