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9 sticky banana bread cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing spread on 5 of them

Sticky Brown Butter Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls Recipe


5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

3.5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Zoha
  • Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
  • Yield: 12 large rolls

Description

Soft, gooey and delicious Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls with a brown butter banana dough, sticky maple sauce, cinnamon brown sugar filling, and brown butter cream cheese frosting.


Ingredients

Brown butter banana dough:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, browned & cooled to room temperature (113g, 90g after browning)
  • 3 medium extra ripe bananas, mashed (320g)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk (180g)
  • 4 teaspoons active dry yeast (or sub instant yeast)
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar (70g)
  • 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour (715g)
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons salt

Sticky maple sauce: *see notes

  • 1/4 cup maple syrup (60g)
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (100g)
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter (85g)
  • 2 tbsp milk (30g)
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Cinnamon sugar filling:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened or melted (113g)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed (200g)
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon powder
  • ¾ tsp salt

Brown butter cream cheese icing:

  • ¼ cup unsalted butter (56g), browned and hot
  • 4 oz cream cheese, room temperature (113g)
  • ¼ cup heavy cream (60g)
  • 1 cup icing sugar (100g)

Instructions

Brown butter banana dough:

  1. Start by browning the butter. Add it to a saucepan, and place on medium low heat, and gently stir. The butter will first melt, then become foamy and start to sizzle. Keep cooking until there are brown specks in the butter and it smells nutty. This process can take a few minutes. Do not cook beyond this point as the brown butter can burn easily. For reference, the weight of the butter after browning should be around 90g. Transfer the butter to a bowl, making sure to get all the brown bits, and keep in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes until reaches a spreadable consistency like room temperature butter
  2. While the butter cools, prep the other ingredients. Mash the bananas, and microwave the milk for 20-30 seconds until it is warm to touch (~100-110F)
  3. Add the warmed milk, mashed bananas, yeast and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large bowl), and gently whisk. Rest for 10 minutes or until the mixture looks foamy (if using instant yeast, you don't need to rest or wait and can proceed to the next step)
  4. Add the flour, egg, salt, and cooled brown butter from step 1 to the same bowl
  5. Kneading by hand: Use a large wooden spoon to mix everything and bring it into a shaggy dough. Tip out onto a clean work surface, then use clean hands to knead the dough with a push-pull motion for about 15 minutes total. The dough will be sticky to begin with, but don't add more flour and keep kneading until it becomes soft, smooth and very stretchy. After the first 5 minutes, clean your hands to remove sticky dough bits from them. If the dough still feels sticky, add just 1-2 tablespoon flour and keep kneading. Eventually the dough will not be sticky, and should pass the window-pane test
    Kneading with a stand mixer: Add the dough ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer and knead using the dough hook attachment on medium high speed for 8-10 minutes, until the dough becomes smooth, pulls away from the edges of the bowl, and becomes stretchy enough to pass the window-pane test
  6. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl sprayed with some oil, cover with cling wrap and rest in a warm place for 60-90 minutes until the dough has at least doubled in size, and springs back partly when gently poked with a finger. Work on the other components while the dough rises

Sticky maple sauce:

  1. Add the maple syrup, light brown sugar, unsalted butter, milk and salt to a saucepan. Place on the stove on medium heat, and cook and stir until the butter has melted and the mixture starts to bubble. Then remove from heat
  2. Line a 9x13" baking pan (should be at least 2.25" deep) with parchment paper on the bottom. Pour the sticky sauce into the dish and spread it evenly. Place the pan in the fridge for 20-30 minutes until the sauce firms up

Cinnamon sugar filling:

  1. Mix the butter, light brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl until combined

Assembly & baking:

  1. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and transfer it to a clean surface dusted lightly with flour. Using your hands and a rolling pin, roll it into a 12x18" sheet, trying to keep the edges as straight as possible. The dough will be really soft so won't need much pressure
  2. Use a spatula to spread the cinnamon sugar filling evenly across the sheet
  3. With the 12" side towards you, divide the dough into 12 long strips (each strip will be 1" wide and 18" long). This is easiest done if you use a long acrylic ruler and a pizza cutter
  4. Roll each strip tightly into a cinnamon roll, and transfer to the baking pan with the cooled down sticky sauce inside. You will arrange the rolls in a 4x3 formation
  5. Once all the rolls are shaped, rest the pan in a warm spot for another ~30-45 minutes until they look puffed up and spring back partly when gently poked. In the last 20 minutes of the second rise, preheat your oven to 350F (conventional / no fan)
  6. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes until the rolls develop a golden color and feel firm to touch. If in doubt, remove the pan from the oven and use a spatula to pull out one roll, and check it for doneness
  7. Remove the rolls from the oven and let them rest for 10 minutes

Brown butter cream cheese icing:

  1. Brown the 1/4 cup butter just like you did in step 1 of the dough, but don't cool it down
  2.  Add the room temperature cream cheese, heavy cream, icing sugar and hot brown butter to a bowl. Use an electric hand mixer to whisk on medium speed until the ingredients combine into a smooth icing and no lumps remain
  3. Spread the icing generously on the warm rolls. Serve & enjoy!

Video tutorial:

 

Notes

  • Sticky maple sauce: I love adding this as it makes the rolls more gooey and indulgent, but it can tip them to the "too sweet" side for people more sensitive to sweetness. If you don't want your rolls to be too sweet, skip this
  • Egg substitute: If you don't consume egg, substitute it with 1/4 cup greek yogurt
  • Kneading & proofing: For more details on kneading and proofing dough, read this blog post
  • Baking pan: Because these rolls are pretty big and there's sauce underneath them, you need to make sure your 9x13" pan is at least 2.25" deep so the sauce doesn't overflow. Even then, I recommend keeping a large baking sheet on the bottom of the oven, below the baking pan, so it can catch any sauce that might drip out
  • Make ahead / storing: Instead of making the dough in advance or freezing the rolls raw, I recommend making the rolls in one go, and then storing them. You can keep them in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 7 days, and reheat in the microwave to serve. Alternately, you can freeze the baked rolls for up to 2 months, thaw overnight in the fridge, then microwave to serve
  • Scaling the recipe: You can halve all the quantities and make 6 rolls in an eighth sheet pan, or 9 smaller rolls in a 9x9" square pan. If doubling the recipe, you can use a 13x18" half sheet pan. You can also use other pan types & shapes, as long as they are big enough that you don't have to stuff the rolls into them!
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Cook Time: 25 min
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American