Crème Brûlée Cinnamon Rolls

If a cinnamon roll and a crème brûlée hooked up, this would be their unholy (and ridiculously delicious) offspring. These soft, buttery sourdough cinnamon rolls are baked in jumbo muffin tins, topped with some silky smooth vanilla pastry cream, and finished with a crackly, torched sugar shell. After making these, you might not care to make plain cinnamon rolls ever again!

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Why You’ll Love this Recipe

• It’s a fun twist on two old favourites! Crème brûlée and cinnamon rolls kind of belong together. Trust me, just try it!
• It’s easier than making a traditional crème brûlée because there’s no custard that needs to be carefully baked.

Key Ingredients

• Dough. I recommend using my Anything Goes Enriched Sourdough recipe for the base. You’ll use a full batch of the recipe to make 12 jumbo muffin tin-sized rolls. Of course you can use any enriched dough recipe you like whether it’s sourdough or not!
• Ground cinnamon is responsible for most of the flavour in these rolls, so use a good quality ground cinnamon that’s fresh!
• Egg yolks give the pastry cream its richness and most of its body. Use yolks from large eggs.
• Vanilla adds flavour to the pastry cream. Use a good quality extract, or a vanilla bean for an extra luxurious pastry cream.

Crème Brûlée Cinnamon Rolls

Soft, buttery sourdough cinnamon rolls with a classic cinnamon-sugar filling, topped with silky vanilla pastry cream dipped in sugar and torched for a delicious brûléed top!

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Shaping, Proofing & Assembling 3 hours hrs

Servings: 12 rolls

Course: Afternoon Tea, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American, French

Ingredients Method Video Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 batch Anything Goes Enriched Sourdough Or any enriched dough you like for cinnamon rolls. See Note 1 for a link to my dough recipe!

Cinnamon Roll Filling

• 100 g unsalted butter softened
• 180 g brown sugar light or dark
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Pastry Cream

• 330 g whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks see Note 2.
• ⅛ tsp fine sea salt
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 70 g granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod
• 25 g butter cold & cut into pieces

To Assemble

• ½ cup granulated sugar

Method

 

Make Filling

1. Add 100 g unsalted butter, 180 g brown sugar, 1 tbsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp fine sea salt, and 1 tsp vanilla extract to a medium mixing bowl. Mix until completely combined into a smooth paste.

Roll, Fill & Shape

1. Roll out 1 batch Anything Goes Enriched Sourdough to a rectangle about 12 x 16 inches (30 x 40 cm) and roughly ¼ inch (0.6 cm) thick.
2. Spray two 6-well jumbo muffin tins (or one jumbo muffin tin with 12 wells) with baking or cooking spray. Dot the dough with chunks of the filling, then spread it out with an offset or rubber spatula all the way to the edges. Leave about 1 inch (2.5 cm) clear of filling along one short side, so you can pinch the rolls closed later.
3. Use a sharp knife or pizza wheel to cut it into 12 equal 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide strips. Use a transparent gridded ruler to help make the strips nice and even! Use a dough knife/scraper to help lift each strip up as you roll it into a spiral. Pinch the ends closed, and place each spiral into a greased muffin well or mini springform pan.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until it's noticeably puffy (it won't double at this stage). Or you can put it in the fridge to proof overnight or for up to 24 hours.

Make Pastry Cream

1. This needs to chill in the fridge for a few hours to set, so make this while the rolls are proofing. Add 330 g whole milk to a small saucepan. Add 4 large egg yolks, ⅛ tsp fine sea salt, and 2 tbsp cornstarch to a heatproof container (see Note 3). Take about half of the 70 g granulated sugar (you can eyeball this) and whisk into the milk. Add the rest of the sugar to the egg yolk mixture and whisk until completely smooth.
2. If using a vanilla pod, split it in half with a paring knife and use the knife to scrape the seeds out. Add both the seeds and the pod to the milk. Heat the milk until it starts steaming (don't let it boil). Slowly stream the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly (see Note 4). Pour everything back into the saucepan.
3. Cook over a medium heat while whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens. Don't be alarmed if nothing seems to happen for a while, that's just how pastry cream is! All of a sudden it will thicken. When it does, keep cooking for another 30-60 seconds, then pull it off the heat.
4. Add 2 tsp vanilla extract if not using a vanilla bean, and 25 g butter. Whisk until completely smooth. If you used a vanilla bean, pull the pod out now. Transfer to a heatproof container and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until set (about 2 hours).

Bake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Bake for 25–30 minutes or until the rolls have puffed up and turned golden brown. Leave to cool in the wells for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Finishing

1. You need a relatively flat surface on the cinnamon rolls for topping with pastry cream. It doesn't need to be perfectly flat, but if any of the rolls went a little crazy puffing up in the oven just trim them down with a serrated knife and enjoy the scraps as a little snack!
2. Put ½ cup granulated sugar in a small bowl. Spoon or pipe on some pastry cream on top of each roll. The recipe makes just enough for each roll to get a generous portion of pastry cream. Dip each roll into the sugar to coat the pastry cream topping in a layer of granulated sugar.
3. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar until it turns golden brown (a little burnt in some spots is fine, and only adds to the flavour!) If you don't have a torch you can roast the sugar under the broiler of your oven, but do this extremely carefully! It would be very easy for the pastry cream to just get melted off, or for the rolls themselves to burn, so keep a very close eye on this. I strongly recommend using a torch for the best control if you have one.
4. These are best enjoyed immediately or within a couple of hours. Store any leftovers in the fridge within 2 hours, and eat within 2–3 days. You can freeze the cinnamon rolls before topping with pastry cream, but after the pastry cream has been added they will not freeze well.

Video

Notes

The estimated recipe timing above doesn’t include the time to make the dough. You can use any enriched dough you like (whether sourdough or not) as the base for these rolls, even though I do recommend using my Anything Goes Enriched Sourdough recipe for these. The timing to make the dough depends on what recipe you use!

1. Make a full batch of Anything Goes Enriched Sourdough up to resting in the fridge, then roll, fill, shape, and bake according to this recipe. Or make whatever enriched dough recipe is your go-to up to bulk fermentation.
2. Save the egg whites to make some macarons! I have a full beginner’s guide to making Swiss macarons here if you’ve never made them before.
3. I like using a large glass measuring cup. The spout makes it super easy to transfer the tempered eggs back to the saucepan without making a mess.
4. This step tempers the eggs, or carefully and gradually increases their temperature so they don’t turn into scrambled eggs.