The Best Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls

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These fluffy Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls have all the nutmeg and custard flavors of eggnog, but in a soft, baked treat. They’re soft, gooey, cozy, and covered in an eggnog cream cheese frosting that’ll have you licking your fingers. This recipe uses eggnog in the dough and in the frosting so you get a double dose of that rich, comforting flavor. The rolls are also filled with white chocolate and a brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg mixture that is sure to get you in the holiday spirit.

Why You’ll Obsess Over These Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls

Decadent and made to impress. There’s something so delightfully impressive about a fresh, warm cinnamon roll, covered in cream cheese frosting. These rolls bake up beautifully and look like you got them at a bakery in wintertime.
Soft, pillowy, and gooey texture. No one likes a dry, hard cinnamon roll, and these ones are anything but that. They’re super soft and moist from the eggnog in the dough, and gooey from the eggnog cream cheese frosting.
Cream cheese frosting, but make it eggnog. We love cream cheese frosting (and probably use it too often in baked goods), and we’ve made this one even more unique by adding nutmeg and eggnog.
Great for holiday brunches or quiet, rainy-day mornings. These cinnamon rolls are definitely a showstopper at brunch. They also taste amazing with a strong cup of coffee or black tea.

Close up of a gooey eggnog cinnamon roll with melting frosting over top.

If You Think You Don’t Like Eggnog, Think Again

Eggnog is one of those “love it” or “hate it” kinds of foods. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like it because it’s too thick, too rich, or just plain weird texturally, don’t worry. These eggnog cinnamon rolls have all of the nutmeg and custard flavors of the holiday drink but in a baked good, getting rid of any textural aversions. They’re just as soft and pillowy as traditional cinnamon rolls.

If you’re not a fan of the nutmeg flavor in eggnog, you can skip the extra nutmeg in this recipe or make a different baked brunch treat instead, like blueberry maple scones or our mom’s zucchini bread.

A Note About Adding Heavy Cream

On social media and even King Arthur Baking, you’ll see people pouring heavy cream over unbaked cinnamon rolls before baking them. This is typically to add extra moisture and softness to the rolls. We’ve baked these with cream on top and without, and we prefer them without. They’re already pretty decadent and soft. Plus, we love the lightly golden outsides and soft middles when they bake up without the extra liquid. If you choose to add cream, we recommend pouring a little over each roll, adding up to about ⅓ a cup of cream total.

Eggnog cinnamon rolls fully baked in a baking dish, prior to being frosted.

Ingredients in These Gooey Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls

Dough – bread flour (it’ll make these super soft and fluffy), warmed eggnog, softened butter, instant yeast, eggs, sugar, and sea salt.
Filling – softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chopped white chocolate.
Frosting – softened cream cheese and butter, powdered sugar, eggnog, vanilla, nutmeg, and sea salt.

How to Make Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls

Make the Dough and Filling

Make the dough. Add flour, yeast, salt, and sugar to a stand mixer with a dough hook. While the mixer is running, add the beaten eggs and slowly pour in the eggnog. Then mix in the butter, 1 tbsp at a time, until it’s fully incorporated. Knead the dough in the stand mixer for 8 to 10 minutes. The dough should be pretty sticky, but if it’s still wet and hasn’t come together after kneading, add a little more flour (1 tbsb at a time). Place the dough in a bowl lightly greased with butter or oil. Cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size (60-90 minutes).
Make the filling. Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Grid of 4 images showing eggnog cinnamon roll dough coming together. First with the dry ingredients mixing, then eggs mixing in, next showing butter adding in, and finally eggnog pouring in.

Form the Rolls

Shape and fill the dough. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle flour onto a rolling pin, then roll the dough into a rectangle 12 x 16 inches in size. Place one of the longer sides of dough in front of you, parallel to the counter edge. Spread butter onto the dough, leaving a ½ inch border along the long side farthest away from you. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on top of the butter and top with the white chocolate.

Grid of 4 images showing eggnog cinnamon roll dough before being rolled out, spreading with butter, sprinkling with sugar, and finally adding on white chocolate.

Form into rolls. There are 2 different ways to cut these: the cut-then-roll method or the log method. Cut-then-roll (our preferred method): start with the long side closest to you and slice the dough into 12 equal strips (a pizza cutter works well here). Roll up each dough strip tightly away from you. Pinch the ends together to seal them. Log method: start with the long side and roll up the dough into a tight log, pinching the seams/edges together. Cut the log into 12 pieces (use unflavored floss or a serrated knife).

Hands rolling up an individual roll after cutting the filled dough into strips.

Bake and Frost the Rolls

Preheat the oven to 350°F, grease a 9×13 inch baking dish with butter.
Place the rolls side-by-side in the dish and cover them with plastic wrap and/or a towel. Let them rise for about 30 minutes or until they’ve puffed slightly.

Eggnog cinnamon rolls doing their final rise in a baking dish prior to baking.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, then remove them from the oven. Let them cool for 15 to 20 minutes or until they’re warm but no longer hot.
Mix together the cream cheese and butter in a bowl with a whisk or electric beater until light and fluffy. Mix in the powdered sugar, eggnog, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt until combined.
Spread frosting on the warm buns and serve immediately.

Our Top Tips for the Best Cinnamon Rolls

Rachel and Emily from Cooking with Conks, standing side-by-side in green and yellow aprons.

Use room temperature ingredients. Cold butter and eggs won’t incorporate as well into the dough. Warming your eggnog to 100°F also ensures better yeast activity.
Make sure your instant yeast isn’t expired. These rolls rely on yeast for rising, so it’s important that your yeast isn’t too old.

Resist the urge to add a lot of extra flour. This is a sticky, enriched dough. It will come together after 8 to 10 minutes of kneading in the stand mixer, but it’ll still be fairly hydrated and sticky. If your dough seems super wet still, you can add more flour, 1 tbsp at a time. Just be careful not to add too much or the dough will become dry and your rolls will be less fluffy.
Don’t roll them too tight. Roll the dough into rolls that are fairly tight but don’t constrict them when you roll them. If they’re too tight, they won’t be able to expand in the oven.
If you’re rolling them out using the log method, you can cut the log into individual rolls using unflavored dental floss. For the cut-then-roll method, we recommend using a pizza cutter to slice the dough into even strips.
Don’t overcrowd the baking pan. The rolls should fit somewhat snug but with a little room to grow. They shouldn’t be squished together. If your rolls are too wide for a 9×13 pan, don’t force them into it. Instead, bake the rolls in 2 separate dishes (2 square pans or 2 round cake pans).

Serving and Storage Suggestions

We like to serve these warm with a hot cup of coffee or tea on the side. They make for a great holiday brunch (the day after Thanksgiving or even Christmas morning) or dessert.

Store leftover frosted rolls in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days, and unfrosted rolls in an airtight container on the counter for a couple of days. Reheat them in the microwave (with or without frosting) for 20 to 30 seconds. You can also freeze the rolls. We recommend freezing them unfrosted. Wrap each roll tightly in plastic wrap, then place them in a freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw the rolls in the fridge overnight when ready to eat, then reheat in the microwave or a low oven before frosting them.

FAQs: Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls

Yes. Just replace the eggnog in the dough and frosting with whole milk. You can also leave out the nutmeg if you don’t want that flavor. But without the eggnog and the nutmeg, these will be regular cinnamon rolls instead of eggnog flavored ones.

If you use too much flour, the dough will be dryer and the rolls will bake up dense and hard instead of fluffy and soft. If you’re using old yeast, it may not be as effective at leavening the dough, making them less fluffy. Rolling them too tightly could also cause them to be more dense since they don’t have as much room to expand in the oven.

This can happen if you roll them too tightly. You want to roll them tightly enough that they don’t separate in the oven, but if they’re too tight, they’ll have nowhere to expand but up. Overcrowding them in the baking dish can cause this problem too. If you have to fight to squish the rolls into the baking dish, then they’re probably overcrowded and should be baked in 2 separate dishes instead.

Yes you can, but it will more challenging. This is a fairly sticky and elastic dough, so it’ll be harder to bring it together and knead it by hand. You’ll want to mix the dry ingredients in a bowl first, then stir in the wet ingredients (eggs, eggnog, softened butter) with a wooden spoon, spatula, or even your hands. To mix the butter in easier, you could melt it and slightly cool it beforehand. You may end up needing more flour than the stand mixer version because the dough will be harder to mix with your hands. Once the dough has come together in the bowl, place it onto a floured surface and knead it by hand for 8 to 10 minutes. Then follow the rest of the instructions. More tips on hand mixing can be found by King Arthur Baking.

Yes. After filling, forming, and cutting the rolls, place then in the prepared dish, cover them with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. When ready to bake, let them rest on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour to come to room temperature and puff up slightly. Then bake according to the directions.

No, you can use all-purpose flour instead. However, we like using bread flour because its higher protein and gluten content creates more structure and helps the rolls hold their shape. Bread flour can also absorb more liquid than regular flour, which works well in a hydrated, enriched dough like this one and makes the rolls extra fluffy. You can use all-purpose flour, but it won’t absorb the liquid the same way so you might need another tablespoon or 2 of flour in the mixture to make it come together.

Fluffy eggnog cinnamon roll with eggnog cream cheese frosting sitting on a white plate with green pine in the background.

Ingredients

Dough

3 ½ cups bread flour spoon & level; approx 437g
2 ¼ tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten room temperature
1 cup eggnog heated to about 100°F
4 tbsp butter softened and divided

Filling

4 tbsp butter softened
½ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp nutmeg freshly grated
4 oz white chocolate bar chopped small

Eggnog Frosting

4 oz cream cheese softened
4 tbsp butter softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp eggnog
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt

Additional

butter or oil for bowl (for rising)
butter for greasing baking pan