Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls – 🥕🍞🧡 These soft and fluffy rolls are what happens when you infuse the flavors of carrot cake into homemade cinnamon rolls! Flecks of grated carrots in every bite, combined with a warming spice trio of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, and topped with the most decadent cream cheese frosting! Make these for your next special event including Easter, Mother’s Day, or a lazy weekend brunch!
Table of Contents
- Homemade Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls
- Ingredients in Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
- How To Make Frosted Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls
- what to serve with homemade cinnamon rolls
- Recipe FAQs
- Tips for The Best Cinnamon Rolls
- Storage
- Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
- More Cinnamon Roll REcipes
Homemade Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls
Carrot cake in any way – including a Frosted Carrot Layer Cake, Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Bars, or Carrot Cake Cookies – is music to my ears. But when you combine the warming flavor of carrot cake with all the fluffy goodness of cinnamon rolls, I truly am in heaven!
These carrot cake cinnamon rolls are an absolute dream and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser!
- Soft, fluffy rolls are swirled with spiced carrot cake flavors.
- They’re topped with a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth cream cheese frosting that takes them to the next level.
- Each bite combines the warmth of the spices with the sweetness of carrots making them a decadent, comforting treat that’s perfect for any occasion especially Easter brunch or Christmas morning.
- If you’ve never made cinnamon rolls, I walk you through every step to ensure your rolls turn out perfectly!
- There’s also a make-ahead option so if you want to serve these for brunch, you can do the heavy lifting the day or evening before. I have a Classic Overnight Cinnamon Rolls recipe too that’s been a reader favorite for more than a decade.
Ingredients in Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
Dough
- Dry ingredients: Bread flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt.
- Whole milk, granulated sugar, active dry yeast – These ingredients form the foamy mixture that cause the dough to rise.
- Large egg, egg yolk, butter – Give the dough fat which gives it flavor and structure.
- Carrots – Grated carrots, from 1 or 2 peeled carrots, that you quickly grate on a box grater is what I recommend rather than store bought grated carrots.
Filling
- Dark brown sugar, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg are mixed into unsalted butter
- Grated carrots
Cream Cheese Icing
- Full fat, brick-style cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, optional salt. Tip – If you’re “over it” and don’t want to make homemade frosting, buy a tub of store bought cream cheese frosting. No one will know!
- Chopped nuts such as pecans or walnuts, optional for garnishing – You can toast them in a dry skillet if desired.
How To Make Frosted Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls
These are condensed instructions how-to make carrot cake cinnamon rolls. If you plan to make these rolls, scroll down to the recipe card below, which is incredibly detailed and thorough.
- Dry Ingredients – Combine bread flour, spices, salt in a large mixing bowl and stir.
- Yeast – “Proof” the yeast by mixing it with warm milk and a bit of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the remaining sugar, egg + yolk, butter, and mix.
- Mix + Rise – To this wet ingredients in the bowl, add the dry ingredients, one cup at a time, and mix to form a dough. Finally, add the shredded carrots and mix again. Knead with a dough hook (or by hand) until a smooth dough forms. It should not be overly sticky. Allow the dough to rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Shaping + 1st Rise – Mix together the filling ingredients, punch down and then roll out the risen dough into a large rectangle on a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin. Spread the filling mixture evenly over the top, sprinkle with carrots, roll it up like a log, slice into rolls (using unflavored dental floss is a great trick for slicing), and place the rolls into a prepared 9×13-inch baking dish.
- 2nd Rise + Baking + Frosting – Allow the rolls to rise in the baking dish or high sided baking sheet or pan for about 30 minutes, and then bake for about 30 minutes. Beat together all the frosting ingredients and after the rolls have fully cooled, frost them using a spatula, and optionally garnish with nuts.
what to serve with homemade cinnamon rolls
Recipe FAQs
I do recommend bread flour because it has a higher percentage of protein in it. Protein equates to more structure when it comes to baking. So for the tallest, fluffiest rolls I do recommend bread flour.
That being said, if all you keep on hand is all-purpose flour, you can use it. Although you may need to add a bit more. Start with 4 1/2 cups, see how it goes, and you can always add more. That’s because bread flour when measuring by volume (like cups), will weigh more than all-purpose flour.
If you measure by weight here’s the breakdown:
145g for bread flour versus a cup of all-purpose flour which is 130g.
Bread flour = 652.5g (4.5 cups) and AP flour 585 (4.5 cups). The difference there is 67.5g which is very close to 1/2 cup.
You perhaps could however I developed this recipe using active dry yeast. Active yeast needs to be dissolved in a warm liquid, at which point it should become foamy and frothy looking, which signals that it’s active and alive and your dough will rise. Conversely, with instant yeast, you don’t have to dissolve it in a liquid but you also don’t know that it’s good and that could cause issues with rising later.
No, a handheld electric mixer is not powerful enough to knead the dough and you’ll be better off kneading the dough by hand. This is one of those recipes where having a stand mixer is super helpful!
If you want to sprinkle some raisins along with grated carrots onto the large rectangle of dough before you roll it up and slice it into rolls to rise, that’s fine. I would use about 1/2 cup.
You can also add additional spices to the dry ingredients. So when you add the cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, you can also add ground cloves or allspice.
Storage
In the Refrigerator: This recipe will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Bring to room temp before enjoying them. You can use a microwave (or oven) or just wait until they’re at room temp.
In the Freezer: This recipe will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 2-3 months. Do not frost them if you plan to freeze them is my advice. Thaw, then frost, and enjoy.
Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 ½ cups bread flour, (plus extra for dough if necessary and for dusting work surface. If measuring by weight, it's 652.5 grams bread flour; if using AP flour 4 1/2 cups = 585 grams and you will likely need to add ~1/2 cup more)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, or to taste
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk, warmed as indicated on the packet of yeast (2% milk may be substituted)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast, (this is one standard-sized packet in the US, or about 0.25-ounce; do not use instant or rapid yeast)
- ½ cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter, very soft
- ½ cup grated carrots, (do it yourself on a box grater and don't buy pre-grated bags of carrots)
Filling
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar, packed (dark brown sugar may be substituted)
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, or to taste (1 tbsp = 3 tsp, you can always reduce the amount if desired but I like 1 tbsp)
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, or to taste
- ½ cup unsalted butter, very soft
- 1 cup grated carrots
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (use brick-style cream cheese; do not use anything labeled as lite or reduced fat)
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted if it’s very lumpy
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt, optional (balances the sweetness of the frosting)
- ½ cup pecans, or walnuts, roughly chopped and toasted in a dry skillet if desired; optional for garnishing
Instructions
- Dough – To a large mixing bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and stir to combine; set aside.
- Proofing the Yeast – Warm the milk according to the package directions on the yeast. Normally it's about 110F. This takes about 30 seconds in the microwave, but can vary. Tip – Take the temperature and do not guess! Too hot and you kill the yeast; too cold and the yeast won't activate. If you stick a clean finger into it, it should feel warm but not hot.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the warmed milk, yeast, 2 tablespoons sugar from the 1/2 cup sugar (reserve the remainder), beat well, then leave it for about 5 minutes. After 5-7 minutes, the mixture should look frothy and foamy, meaning the yeast is active and you can carry on. Tip – If it's not frothy and foamy, you need to repeat this process because if you don't your rolls will never rise.
- Add the remaining sugar, egg + yolk (save the white for another use or just discard it), butter, and beat on medium to medium-high speed for about 90 seconds. The butter will look lumpy and awful at this point, like it has split, but it's fine.
- Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients mixture with the flour and spices, one cup at a time. After all the flour has been added, stop and scrap down the bowl.
- Add the grated carrots and beat on the lowest mixer speed for about 2 minutes. The dough will start pulling away from the sides of the bowl and being to form a ball.
- Kneading – Stop the mixer, swap out the paddle for the dough hook, and set the mixer to the lowest speed and knead for about 8 minutes. (If you're doing this by hand, you'll want to turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 10-15 minutes.)
- Checking the Dough – Stop kneading and check the dough. With a clean and dry finger, gently press it and your finger should make an indent that slowly springs back. Tips – The dough itself WILL feel tacky but should NOT stick to a clean, dry finger. If the dough doesn't spring back when touched or feels sticky, add one tablespoon flour at at time, with the mixer running on the lowest speed. Mix again for 1 minutes, check again, and repeat if necessary. Do NOT add too much flour because over-floured dough creates rolls that are dense and heavy, rather than light and fluffy. If in doubt, perform a windowpane test by taking a small amount of dough about the size of a walnut then stretch it. The dough should become thin and translucent without tearing, and when held up to a windowlight should pass through it. If your dough passes this test you can be confident it has developed enough gluten and you’re ready to move on to the next step in the recipe.
- First Rise – Spray a large mixing bowl (the same one you used for mixing together the dry ingredients is fine) with cooking spray or use a little oil to grease the bowl. Place your dough ball into it, cover it with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size. Tips – If you have a warm or sunny nook in your kitchen, this is ideal. Dough will rise faster in warmer environments than in cold ones. Take a picture of your dough. This makes it easier to see a couple hours later if it has indeed doubled in size. If it needs more than 2 hours, that's fine to give it another ~30 minutes or so.
- Filling Mixture – Meanwhile, make the filling. To a small bowl add the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and use a fork to thoroughly mix the ingredients together. Use this time to make sure your butter is very soft. If it’s not spreadable you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds just before you roll out the dough.
- Punchdown + Roll-Out – Once the dough has doubled in size punch the air out then transfer to a lightly floured surface like a clean countertop. Roll out the dough to a rectangle roughly 12 inches by 18 inches.
- Spread the dough rectangle with the soft butter, taking the butter all the way to the edges. Evenly sprinkle over the spiced sugar then scatter the grated carrots on top. Press the top of the carrots down with a fork so they don’t escape when you roll up the dough.
- With the longer edge (or side) facing you, roll up the dough into a log shape then pinch the seam together.
- Slicing – Cut the log in half then cut each half into 6 equal sections. Tip – You can use a sharp serrated knife to do this or unflavored dental floss for precise cuts. Floss helps from compacting or squishing down the log so the rolls stay circular and less mutilated.
- Second Rise – Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish very well with cooking spray (or grease with butter) and then place the cinnamon rolls inside. Cover the dish and leave somewhere warm for 30 minutes or until they look puffed up. They should roughly double in size. Tip – Again, take a before photo for extra assurance so you can remember what they looked like.Preheat the oven at the beginning of the second rise to 350F if you're planning on making them straight through and not doing the make-ahead option. Make-Ahead – After the second rise, if you’d like, you can stop, cover the baking dish tightly with plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge overnight. Take the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge 2-3 hours before you plan on baking them to allow them to come to room temperature. Baking with a cold baking dish and cold dough will not yield great results.
- Baking – When the rolls have puffed and risen, bake in the middle of the preheated 350F oven for about 30-35 minutes or until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the rolls comes out clean. Using a digital thermometer, check to see that the the internal temperature is 190ºF – 200ºF. Tips – Watch the dough carefully to make sure they're not burning on top. All ovens vary so make sure you keep an eye on them and start checking early, after ~25 minutes. I like to rotate my pan midway through baking for more even baking.
- Frosting – While the rolls are baking, make the frosting by adding the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla, and optional salt to the bowl of the stand mixer (or large mixing bowl and handheld electric mixer) and beat on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, or until soft, fluffy, and creamy. Tips – If you want the frosting to be a bit thicker, add more confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. As written, the frosting amount is sufficient to cover the rolls but if you LOVE frosting, double all ingredients so you have a double batch.
- You can frost the rolls freshly pulled from the oven. The frosting will melt and seep down into the crevices. Or you can wait 10-15 minutes, and it won't melt as much – your choice. Optionally, garnish with nuts, and serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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