The Best EASY Caramel Rolls | Soft & Fluffy With Homemade Caramel Sauce

These caramel rolls are the fluffiest and tastiest treat you can make for the holidays. They have an ooey-gooey brown sugar cinnamon filling with a golden caramelly topping that is just to die for. And, honestly, they taste like they're from a bakery. Once you take one bite of 'em, you'll want to make these again and again - they're that darn good.

Ingredients You'll Need

One of the things I love most about this recipe is that just a few simple everyday ingredients are needed to make it. I'm willing to bet you'll have most, if not all, of them already on hand!

Anyways, here's what you'll need to make the rolls:

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Here's what you'll need for the cinnamon filling:

• ¼ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup brown sugar (dark brown sugar or light brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

And lastly, for the caramel sauce:

• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup corn syrup
• ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk

See what I mean? Super basic baking ingredients, right?!

By the way, just so you know you can use salted butter or unsalted butter, that's your call. If you use salted butter in the dough, I suggest cutting the salt amount in half.  And for the brown sugar, light brown sugar or dark brown sugar both work, depending on how deep of a flavor you want.

Also, you can use a lot of these same ingredients to make this caramel cake. It's another one of my favorite recipes with caramel sauce, so you might want to check that out next! And if you're looking for an easy basic cinnamon roll recipe to use some of these ingredients on give these cinnamon rolls with heavy cream a shot.

How To Make Caramel Rolls

Although these easy caramel rolls are simple to make, they will take a little time - every second is totally worth it though! 

All in all, you're looking at about 1 hour of on-and-off prep work, 1 hour for the dough to rise, and about 20 minutes for these caramel cinnamon rolls to bake.

With that said, the caramel rolls effortlessly come together if you follow the steps below. So without further ado, let's not waste any more time and get baking!

Step 1: Make the Dough

First, you'll make the cinnamon roll dough. Start by adding the dry yeast, sugar, and lukewarm water to a large mixing bowl and give it a mix so everything combines. Then you can set it aside for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add the melted butter and egg to the yeast mixture and mix until everything is well combined. Then you can add the all purpose flour and salt to the same bowl and fold them into the rest of the ingredients until the dough comes together.

Once the flour is incorporated, knead the dough-like mixture with your hands until a smooth ball of dough forms. If you have an electric mixer with a hook attachment, feel free to use it for kneading the dough.

Anyway, now that you have a ball of dough, place a towel or plastic wrap lightly over the mixing bowl and let the dough rest in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the dough rises and doubles in size.

Step 2: Make the Filling

While the dough is rising, you can move on to making the filling.

To make the filling, add the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and butter to a microwave-safe bowl. Then place the bowl in the microwave and microwave it for about 15 seconds, and stir well until all the butter is melted and the ingredients are smooth. If the butter hasn't melted, you can microwave everything for another 5-10 seconds.

Step 3: Shape the Rolls

Now it's time to make these delicious caramel cinnamon rolls come together!

By now, the dough should have risen and doubled in size. So while the dough is still in the bowl, you can press down on it to remove any air bubbles. The dough should feel smooth and almost spongy.

Next, place the soft dough onto a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to a ½-inch thick rectangle.  Make sure to do this on a floured surface, or the dough will stick to the table.

Now that the dough is flattened, you can spread the cinnamon filling that you prepared in the last step evenly over the dough. Then roll the dough into a log shape, starting from the long side.

Next, cut the rolled dough log you formed into about 12-15 pieces to make the cinnamon rolls.

Step 4: Bake The Cinnamon Rolls

Ok, now that the cinnamon rolls are almost ready, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking dish with parchment paper.

Then you're going to place the cinnamon rolls in the prepared baking dish, cover them loosely with a kitchen towel, and set them aside to rise once more. This will take no more than 30 minutes, and they should again about double in size.  

Once the cinnamon rolls have doubled in size, place them in the preheated oven and bake rolls for 20-25 minutes or until they're golden brown.  Then you can place the baked caramel cinnamon rolls on a wire rack to cool while you make the caramel sauce.

Step 5: Make the Caramel Sauce

Finally, you're going to make the caramel sauce to complete these caramel cinnamon rolls!

So to make the caramel sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk to the pot and mix to combine everything together. Then cook the mixture for a few minutes until bubbly, and a candy thermometer reaches 220°F.

Lastly, cool the caramel sauce for 1 minute, then pour it all over the baked cinnamon rolls.  Serve the warm caramel rolls on a plate with extra caramel sauce for dipping if you want, and enjoy!

How to Store Caramel Rolls

I hardly ever have any of these caramel cinnamon rolls left over when I make them. But, if you're lucky enough to end up with a few to save for later they store incredibly well.

Just transfer your leftover caramel rolls to an airtight container and they'll stay good at room temperature for up to 2 days, in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Keep in mind, you will want to make sure that the caramel rolls cool completely before you store them.

How to Reheat Caramel Rolls

Whenever you're ready to enjoy these caramel rolls again, you'll definitely want to reheat them.

So to do that, just individually warm one roll in the microwave at a time for about 10 seconds or until the caramel sauce melts and the cinnamon rolls are nice and soft. Then enjoy it again just like it's the first time!

If you don't have a microwave you can reheat the rolls in your oven too. Just put 'em in at 350°F for around 5 minutes.

My Final Thoughts

Well, that's how to make caramel cinnamon rolls from scratch!

With a recipe this good, you won't only be making these for the holiday season but all year round. These caramel rolls are light and fluffy with a gooey brown sugar filling and sticky sweet caramel topping that creates a combination like no other. Literally, my entire family is obsessed with them.

Anyway, I hope you love this recipe as much as I/we do. Of course, if you give it a try, let me know how it goes in the comments below.

More Recipes

If you're looking for more sweet treats that are just as delicious as these salted caramel cinnamon rolls, we have a ton on the blog you can try next!

Here are some of my favorites:

• Pioneer Woman French toast casserole
• Cinnamon roll breakfast casserole
• Bread pudding with vanilla sauce
• Sweet potato pound cake
• Fried cheesecake
• Small batch sugar cookies
• Churro cheesecake bars