If you thought you couldn’t start every morning with a cinnamon roll…just bake a batch of my cinnamon roll muffins! With no yeast or rising time required, they feature all of the gooey, warm spiced flavors of a homemade cinnamon roll, including cinnamon sugar swirls and a drizzle of cream cheese frosting on top.
Tender, buttery, and so moist and fluffy, I love how easy they are to make. They come together in a fraction of the time! Take my advice: make a full batch, freeze the extras, and you’ll have a nice warm cinnamon muffin every morning of the week.
You can thank me later!
When I realized how freaking delicious these muffins turned out, I knew another cinnamon roll dupe recipe was needed. My soft cinnamon roll cookies have the same vibe: all the cinnamon roll flavors, but zero effort!
How to Make Them
1
Make the cinnamon sugar crumb. Chill in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, then break into pea-sized pieces. These crumbs are going to melt into every nook and cranny of the muffin batter!
2
Whisk together the wet and dry ingredients. You want to stop mixing when there are still some dry flour pockets like above. This will keep you from overmixing the muffin batter which can result in dry or dense muffins.
3
Fold in the cinnamon crumb mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the cinnamon sugar crumbs into the muffin batter. Don’t overmix or you’ll lose the swirls of cinnamon sugar!
4
Scoop and bake the muffins! For tall muffin tops, overfill the liners with the batter that sits taller than the liner. This is the secret to tall, bakery-style muffin tops! Don’t forget to top them with the extra cinnamon sugar crumb before baking!
Then once they’re baked and cooled, dunk the tops into the cream cheese frosting and enjoy!
When you have time to make a batch of classic cinnamon rolls, I’ve got you! My browned butter cinnamon rolls are full of rich, nutty brown butter in every single bite. Or if you love fruit, my blackberry raspberry cinnamon crumb rolls are a big favorite in my house!
If you tried this or any other recipe on my website, please let me know how it went in the comments; I love hearing from you! Also, please leave a star rating while you’re there! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Cinnamon Roll Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Cinnamon Crumb
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
For the Muffin Batter
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, *See notes below for measuring*
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
- 2 large whole eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For the Cream Cheese Glaze
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 4-5 tablespoons whole milk
- 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Line a 12-cup muffin pan with 6 muffin liners and set it aside. Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C.
- Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and melted butter until combined and crumbs form. Spread onto a lined baking sheet. Chill in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, then break into pea-sized pieces before using.1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar, 3 tablespoons (42 g) salted butter, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.3 1/4 cups (415 g) all-purpose flour, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sugar, melted butter, egg, sour cream, oil, and vanilla. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until almost combined, with some flour streaks still remaining. Then fold in the cinnamon crumb mixture.1 1/4 cups (300 g) buttermilk, 1/2 cup (113 g) salted butter, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, 2 (100 g) large whole eggs, 1/4 cup (60 g) sour cream, 1/4 cup (50 g) canola oil, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Scoop about 1/3 cup of the batter into each cup of the lined muffin tray. The batter should fill higher than the muffin liner. (see photo in the post for reference) Bake at 425F for 8 minutes, then without opening the oven door, decrease the temperature to 350F/180C and bake for another 10-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs and the tops are golden brown.
- Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the muffins from the pan. Repeat with the remaining batter (6 muffins).1/3 cup (40 g) powdered sugar, 3 ounces (3 oz) cream cheese
- To make the cream cheese icing, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Whisk in the milk and vanilla until smooth. Dunk the tops of the cinnamon roll muffins with the glaze or drizzle it over the top.3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, 4-5 tablespoons whole milk
Video
Notes
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below & tag @cambreabakes on social!
I made these today, pretty easy. They’re super tasty warm, so we’ll see how they are after they sit awhile. Not sure if the brown sugar crumb is enough for the batter, I’m thinking the whole half a cup should go in the batter, but I”ll decide after their gone and how everyone responds to them. It was fun making them.
These muffins are huge! So beautiful! Happy with the outcome! We make our own butter so we love when a recipe calls for buttermilk! We’re always looking for different ways to use it! Crumble is perfectly noticeable within muffins. Will be making again!!
Yay!! I’m so glad to hear it, I wish I could taste them with your fresh buttermilk!
These were so freaking good. I took them to my family and everyone was huge fans of them! Devoured immediately.
These were delicious and look so impressive! The cinnamon crumble was amazing and the texture was absolutely perfect. They came so soft and fluffy, will definitely be making again 🙂
Thank you so much Christa! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed them 🙂
OMG IT’s SO SOFT and Yummy! I added 150g of sugar instead of 200g and it was the perfect amount of sweetness! I don’t have buttermilk so i decided to add milk and vinegar. As for the sour cream, i added no sugar yogurt in instead as sour cream in my country is very expensive. Super happy with texture ugh i wish i could eat the whole tray!