Nothing screams “holiday cheer” quite like eggnog and cinnamon rolls.  Put them together and you have the best holiday breakfast dish ever!

I don’t know about you, but eggnog is a big thing at our family holidays.

My dad makes it from scratch with eggs from his hens and my kids love it!

For this recipe, I used store-bought eggnog, just cuz that’s a whole lot easier, and it tastes just fine.

The only thing that is missing in the store-bought eggnog is the nutmeg, so I added that to the filling.

Jump to:

• What you will love about these eggnog cinnamon rolls with browned butter
• Tips
• Ingredients
• How to make eggnog cinnamon rolls with browned butter
• Variations
• Substitutions
• Equipment
• FAQ’s
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

What you will love about these eggnog cinnamon rolls with browned butter

These flaky, gooey cinnamon rolls give me all the feels of a warm and cozy holiday.

The cinnamon rolls always turn out fluffy and it makes enough to either freeze one batch for later, or you could give one batch to your favorite neighbor.

I don’t know how you make your eggnog, but at our family Christmas, it’s always made with fresh ground nutmeg on the top.

The nutmeg gives this recipe a little pizazz, and the browned butter brings a rich yet subtle nutty-ness to the cinnamon rolls.

If you have never browned butter before, don’t worry it’s really easy and it adds so much to this eggnog cinnamon rolls recipe.

Tips

When it comes to making cinnamon rolls, it’s always a process.

You have to allow time for them to rise, otherwise you will end up with dense and nasty cinnamon rolls. I usually make this recipe the day before I plan on baking them.

After they are prepared and in the pan, I cover them and refrigerate them overnight and bake them the next morning.

Since this recipe makes 2 pans, I usually end up putting one prepared (unbaked) pan of the cinnamon rolls in the freezer to pull out on another day.

I LOVE having things in the freezer for a rainy day!

Ingredients

Eggnog is definitely one of those seasonal items that you only find around the holidays.

While I do recommend using store-bought eggnog for this recipe because of convenience, I do also recommend adding a little nutmeg as well, to make it seem a little more homemade.

If you are an ambitious go-getter, you can most definitely use homemade eggnog for this recipe.

Let’s talk about browned butter for a minute.  It’s not necessarily a requirement to brown butter for cinnamon rolls, but I do it in this recipe because it adds a deeper flavor that complements the sweetness of these cinnamon rolls.

In fact, when you brown the butter, you will be able to smell a toasty, almost nutty smell when it browns.  It’s quite delightful and delicious!

Here are the ingredients for eggnog cinnamon rolls with browned butter:

• Salted butter
• Eggnog
• Water
• Active dry yeast
• All-purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Salt
• Ground cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Powdered sugar

I would also like to add something about the quality of your cinnamon.

I say this in most of my posts using cinnamon, but you will notice a difference in the taste of your cinnamon if you buy REAL cinnamon from a specialty spice store.

Cheap, retail store cinnamon sometimes doesn’t even come from the bark of a real cinnamon tree.

If you buy true Ceylon cinnamon, you will immediately smell the difference when you open the package.  It almost smells spicy.

How to make eggnog cinnamon rolls with browned butter

Start off first, by bringing the eggnog to room temperature. You don’t want to add it cold to the cinnamon rolls, otherwise you might slow down the rising process.

On the other hand, you also shouldn’t heat it up in the microwave or anything like that.  I’ve seen some other recipes instructing to heat it up in a saucepan or microwave.

Don’t do that!

We are talking about eggs here!  You don’t want to end up with scrambled eggs… gross.

While the eggnog is coming to room temperature.  Put all the butter into a medium size saucepan and bring it to a bubbly boil.  Stir it frequently and make sure it doesn’t bubble over.

After about 5 minutes you will begin to smell a toasty smell and the butter will become more of an amber brown color.

Remove it immediately from the heat and separate it.  ½ cup for the cinnamon rolls and ⅓ cup for the filling.

Heat the water up until it is just over room temperature.  You should be able to feel it with your finger and it should feel warm to the touch.

Add the yeast into the warm water and let it bloom for about 5 minutes until it is foamy and fragrant.

In a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, add the eggnog, ½ cup of the browned butter (make sure it is not too hot), the yeast and water to the bowl.

Mix it on low and add the eggs, one at a time.  Slowly add the flour, sugar and salt.  It should come together.

Let the dough hook knead the mixture for about 5 minutes.  It should be stretchy and slightly sticky, but should pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for 90 minutes.

Prepare the filling by mixing ⅔ cup of sugar with the cinnamon and nutmeg.

After the dough has risen and doubled in size, on a floured surface, roll the dough to be about ⅛” thick and into a rectangle roughly 14”x24”.

Drizzle the remaining browned butter over the rolled out dough and spread it to within 1 inch of the edges with the back of a spoon.

Evenly sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg mixture over the top of the butter.

Roll the dough tightly into a 24-inch log.

With a serrated knife, cut off the ends.  You won’t use the uneven end part.  Now you can cut the dough into 24 cinnamon rolls.

Grease 2- 7”x11” pans and place 12 cut cinnamon rolls into each.

At this point you can put a lid on one pan and freeze it if you want.  It’s at this point in making my cinnamon rolls that I cover them and put them in the refrigerator overnight.

You don’t have to do that, you can let it rise again for 30 minutes and bake them right away if you want.

If you refrigerate them overnight, pull them out in the morning and let them rise at room temperature for 1 hour before baking them.

They might not rise much, and that is fine.  They will finish rising while they bake.

Preheat the oven to 375°F and bake the cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on the top and edges.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes before frosting them.

Prepare the frosting by mixing the powdered sugar and eggnog together with a spoon in a medium size bowl.

I add 1 tablespoon at a time until it’s a good consistency.

If you froze one pan, you can put half of the frosting in an airtight container or plastic zip bag and freeze it also.

Drizzle the frosting over the top of the cinnamon rolls.  Serve warm and enjoy!

Variations

There is not much to vary on this recipe, since it is already a spin-off of a more traditional cinnamon roll recipe.

However, you can change up the frosting and use cream cheese frosting if that is your thing!

You can check out the cream cheese frosting recipe on my post for more traditional cinnamon rolls <-here.

Substitutions

• You can use homemade eggnog and store-bough eggnog interchangeably in this recipe.

Equipment

• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• 2  7”x11” baking pans

FAQ’s

Is brown sugar or white sugar better in cinnamon rolls?

This is a tough question!  I make two different recipes and one of them calls for brown sugar, and one of them calls for normal sugar.

If you use brown sugar in your filling, you will have a more caramel-like and sticky center, but if you use granulated sugar, you won’t get that caramel consistency, but it will be flakier.  It’s all about your preferences here.

📖 Recipe