In today’s post: These homemade cinnamon breadsticks are soft, chewy, and bursting with cinnamon flavor – and you can make them from scratch in exactly one hour! This is an easy bread recipe that’s absolutely amazing with our simple cream cheese frosting.
Everyone at my house loves my homemade cinnamon rolls, but they take about three hours to make start to finish. They’re worth it, but sometimes when the treat craving hits we don’t have three hours to spare. That’s why these cinnamon twists are so great: from start to finish they only take an hour to make, and they’re delicious! While they bake I mix up a super simple cream cheese frosting for dipping. So good.
One Hour Recipe
Now I’ve seen plenty of blog posts that claim you can make a recipe in a certain amount of time, but once you read the instructions you realize that’s an exaggeration at best. But the total time for this homemade garlic knot recipe is really just an hour – and they still turn out soft and chewy! Here’s how the time breaks out:
- 10 minutes to add ingredients to your mixer and knead the dough
- 10 minute rest
- 20 minutes to add the butter + cinnamon/sugar and shape the twists
- 18-20 minute bake
Ingredients
Another reason I love this easy 1-hour cinnamon sticks recipe is that it only uses a few ingredients you probably always have on hand. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Warm water: You want the water to feel warm to the touch, but not so hot it would be uncomfortable on your skin.
- Yeast: You can use either instant yeast or active dry yeast here. Instant yeast might make the knots slightly puffier; I really like how soft and chewy they turn out using active dry yeast.
- Sugar: A few tablespoons of granulated sugar helps the yeast go to work.
- Flour: All purpose flour works great; you could use bread flour if you have it on hand.
- Salt
- Butter, Cinnamon + Sugar: For the filling.
How to Make Cinnamon Sticks
Working with a yeast dough can be a little tricky if you’ve never done it before, so I’m including some extra tips and pictures here. It’s easiest to mix up this dough in a stand mixer like a Kitchenaid or Bosch.
Make the Dough
You’ll start by adding the dough ingredients, beginning with three cups of flour. Start the mixer and you’ll quickly have a very wet dough that sticks to the bowl, like this:
Letting the mixer continue to run, gradually add more flour a quarter cup at a time. Wait until the flour is incorporated to add more. You want the dough to come into a ball that mostly pulls away from the sides of the bowl but is still nice and soft. Depending on how you’ve measured your flour you might need a whole additional cup of flour. I usually use 3 and 3/4 cups of flour total. Here’s what it looks like once enough flour has been added:
Now you can let your mixer run for 5-7 minutes to knead the dough. You’re looking for a soft, stretchy dough. To test whether it’s kneaded long enough, pinch off a small piece of dough. It should easily roll into a ball between your hands. Then gently pull the dough apart. It should stretch thin enough that you can see light through it without breaking. This is called the “windowpane test”.
Shape the Dough
Once the dough is done kneading, cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the four tablespoons of butter in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar for the filling. Then turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Lightly flour your counter and turn out the dough. Roll it out to a 12×18 inch rectangle, and pour on the melted butter. Brush the butter evenly over the dough, all the way to the edges.
Then you will sprinkle most of the cinnamon/sugar over the melted butter. Reserve about two tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar.
Now you’ll use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into strips. Cut the rectangle in half up and down to make two 12×9 inch rectangles. Then cut each of those sideways into twelve 1×9 inch strips.
Take one end of a strip and fold it in half, sandwiching the filling in the middle as shown below:
Then twist the strip a few times and place it on the prepared cookie sheet. Repeat with all 24 strips. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the cinnamon twists.
Bake
If you have time, you can let the cinnamon sticks rest for 10 minutes before baking, but if shaping has taken you close to 15 or 20 minutes you can go ahead and place them in the oven right away. They will take approximately 18 minutes at 400 degrees until they are light golden brown and cooked through. You can mix up the simple cream cheese frosting while they are baking so they are ready to serve as soon as they come out of the oven.
Serving and Storing
These cinnamon sticks taste best when served right away still warm. They can be served with the frosting on the side as a dip, or you can put the frosting in a ziplock bag, snip off the corner of the bag, and pipe the frosting over the warm cinnasticks! Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of days, but because they don’t have preservatives in them they won’t be as soft as on the first day.
One Hour Cinnamon Breadsticks
Ingredients
Dough
- 1.5 cups Warm Water
- 1 tablespoon Yeast active dry or instant
- 2 tablespoons Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 3-4 cups All Purpose Flour
Filling
- 4 tablespoons Butter melted
- 2 tablespoons Cinnamon
- 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
Frosting
- 2 oz Cream Cheese
- 2 teaspoons Milk
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
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Instructions
- Place warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add yeast and sugar. Add 3 cups of flour and the salt and start mixing.
- Mix until the dough starts coming together in a ball, gradually adding up to one more cup of flour as needed. You want the dough to mostly pull away from the sides of the mixer bowl. Then let the dough continue to knead for 5-7 minutes until it's soft and smooth.
- Cover the mixing bowl with a towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, start preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Also, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter in one bowl and mix together the cinnamon and sugar for the filling in another bowl.
- Lightly spray a cookie sheet or baking tray with nonstick spray or line it with parchment paper. Turn the dough out onto a floured counter and roll it into a 12×18 inch rectangle. Pour on the melted butter and brush it evenly across the dough, all the way to the edges. Sprinkle most of the cinnamon/sugar over the butter, reserving about two tablespoons.
- Use a pizza cutter to cut the rectangle into two 12×9 inch rectangles. Slice each of those rectangles into twelve 1×9 inch strips. Fold each strip in half so the filling is sandwiched inside and twist the strip, then place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Once all the dough strips are twisted on the baking sheet, sprinkle with the reserved cinnamon sugar.
- Bake for approximately 18 minutes or until lightly golden brown. While the sticks are baking, use a hand mixer to beat together the frosting ingredients. Serve cinnamon sticks immediately with frosting.
Marg says
I’d love e to make this but don’t have a stand mixer. Would a hand held mixer with a dough hook work? Or how long would I knead it by hand?
Autumn says
I have not used a hand held mixer with a dough hook, but I imagine it would work! And all bread can be kneaded by hand, it usually takes about 10 minutes to get the dough smooth and elastic. Good luck!