Giant Skillet Cinnamon Roll with Cream Cheese Icing

This Giant Skillet Cinnamon Roll is fun and easy to make. A no knead brioche recipe is filled with cinnamon sugar. It is rolled up into a giant cinnamon roll and baked in a skillet. This Skillet cinnamon roll is finished with a cream cheese frosting.

I’ve been wanting to put a giant skillet cinnamon roll on here for ages. Like, since before regular cinnamon rolls were published here. But I never quite got around to it. I kept thinking about it, but it just never happened. Well, here we are. And it’s not just any giant skillet cinnamon roll. It’s the most epic giant skillet cinnamon roll of all, made with a stupid simple dough that requires only 30 seconds of kneading, and can be made up to 5 days in advance. The recipe is from my friend Zoë’s new book - Holiday and Celebration Bread in five minutes a day. This is Zoë’s fifth book, written alongside Jeff Hertzberg, M.D, and I can’t wait to bake my way through it.

The concept of the book is super simple (and super clever) - there are a bunch of base bread recipes, which are all incredibly versatile, and can be prepared in 5 minutes of active time. There are accompanying recipes for each base bread recipes (in a lot of cases you can use multiple doughs to make the same recipe), and the dough can be stored in the fridge, so one quick batch of dough will yield multiple bread projects. I’ve never made an overnight dough that is as easy to work with as these, and it doesn’t require the use of a mixer or loads of kneading. It’s just genius. The focus of this particular book is Holiday and Celebration breads, so it is jam packed full of holiday themed breads from different cultures.

This giant skillet cinnamon roll is pretty similar to the standard cinnamon roll recipe - except instead of rolling the dough up into a log and cutting rolls, you cut the dough into strips, and wind them into a tight spiral, forming one giant cinnamon roll. Once it is baked, it is loaded up with a dreamy cream cheese icing. The whole thing is perfect - super simple to make but an amazing twist on the traditional cinnamon roll. I know what I’m making for Christmas morning. I hope you pick up a copy of the book - there are so many incredible recipes in there, and it is a great introduction to bread if you haven’t made it before, as the base bread formulas and the overnight rest in the recipes produce a dough that is dreamy to work with and produces beautiful bread as a result.

A few wee tips:

• The bread recipe here makes enough for two of these cinnamon rolls, or there are a whole heap more recipes in the book you can use the dough for. It will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also halve the recipe if you like.
• I tweaked the method slightly - using a little more dough than Zoë calls for, as she made the roll in an 8” skillet and I only had a 10”.
• I also added in a wee step just to help keep the roll tight when forming the roll - once the dough is rolled out, you pop it onto a piece of parchment, then add the butter and sugar mixture. The whole thing is then quickly placed in the freezer just to help the dough firm slightly, which makes it a tiny bit easier to work with. You can skip this step if you like, it just makes the dough a bit harder to roll up.
• To make this recipe into regular cinnamon rolls, you can roll out the dough, spread with the cinnamon mixture, then roll from the long side into a log, before cutting into rolls, placing into a buttered skillet, and proofing and baking in the same fashion as the giant roll.
• If you can, make the recipe by volume - you can literally measure everything directly into the mixing bowl, which reduces dishes.
• I used a Danish dough whisk to mix up the dough, but you can use a mixer with the paddle attachment, or a strong spoon.

Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five minutes a day is Copyright © Zoë Francois and Jeff Hertzber, M.D

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A note on salt and oven temperature

It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.

All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.

Using the double / triple function in the recipe card

You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!

Tools and equipment

For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.

Why is this recipe in grams?

I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!

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