I am so proud of these rolls. They were good from the start, but I kept finding excuses to make them again and again because “that recipe needs testing” one more time. No, it didn’t. I just really wanted to make them. They are exactly what I like all at once, both as an end product and as an experience. Kneading the dough and watching it go from shaggy to silky smooth, letting it sit and rise, knowing something exciting is happening. Smooshing together the filling and smelling all the spices and sweetness come together. The shaping and rolling and cutting of the buns. The way they rise and get fluffy and soft and gooey in the oven. It is comfort on comfort on comfort. I can feel my deeper breaths returning as I describe them. These are like cinnamon rolls, but with the cream cheese frosting baked into them, there is even more goo and spice and no sad, dry part in the middle, only a sublime final bite.
Cinnamon and Spice Cream Cheese Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus extra to dust the countertop
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (1 package)
- 3/4 cup water at room temperature
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted; plus more, at room temperature, for greasing the bowl
- 2 large eggs
Filling
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese (1⁄2 package), at room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
