The famous Dollywood cinnamon bread is a cult-favorite across theme park fans and Dolly fans alike, and since I am both of those thing, you know I HAD to recreate it! Now, the cinnamon bread you can buy at Dollywood is not baked in a cast iron skillet, but since Dolly is nothing but southern, and my Lodge cast iron feels specifically southern to me, I felt like this recipe had to be made in a cast iron skillet. You can make it in another vessel, of course, but I recommend cast iron to get the best bake and texture on these rolls.
When you think of Dollywood cinnamon bread, I want you to think: cinnamon brown butter filling packed inside ripples of pillowy-soft, pull-apart bread. The secret to what makes cinnamon bread so special is that sticky, cinnamon goo that fills the bottom of the loaf pan that they serve them in at Dollywood, so don’t worry, we have that covered in this recipe! I use a bit of the cinnamon filling and put it in the bottom of the cast iron before the dough goes in, so you are guaranteed cinnamon goo with every bite. But I could go on forever about the details, when I’m sure you really just want to know how to make it. So let’s get into it!
Table of contents
- Ingredients you need to make the Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
- How to prepare the brown butter filling
- How to shape and fill the cinnamon bread dough
- What can I bake this in besides a cast iron skillet?
- How to top the Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
- Tips & tricks for how to make this cinnamon bread ahead of time
- Why is this recipe in grams?
- Looking for other great baking recipes?
- Watch the recipe here
- If you like this recipe, consider buying my cookbook here . There’s plenty of fun desserts to find in there!
Ingredients you need to make the Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
This recipe has a few elements to it, the dough, the filling and the icing! While in Dollywood they serve it with apple butter OR icing, I opted for just icing here to keep it simple. Here are the ingredients you will need for each section of the recipe!
FOR THE DOUGH
- 12 grams active dry yeast, 4 teaspoons
- 165 grams warm water between 80-95°F, a little over 2/3 cup
- 375 grams all-purpose flour, 2 2/3 cups
- 5 grams Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 2 teaspoons
- 55 grams granulated sugar, 1/4 cup
- 1 medium egg
- 57 grams softened unsalted butter, 1/4 cup
THE FILLING
- 226 grams salted butter, 1 cup
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 110 grams dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup, lightly packed
- 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
THE ICING
- 90 grams powdered sugar, 3/4 cup, lightly packed
- 1 tablespoon milk of choice
How to prepare the brown butter filling
Dolly Parton is queen of all things butter, so it would only make sense that this cinnamon bread filling is heavy on the butter, too! Now the thing is, this filling is special because we are browning the butter first. This gives the filling an extra note of nutty, toasty flavor. Kind of like a toasted-marshmallow effect. A marshmallow is good without it, but when it’s toasted, it’s just that much better. Browning the butter does the same thing for this filling.
So first, brown the butter in the cast iron skillet. This makes it so that the skillet has a nice, buttery base for the rolls, but also just cuts down on dishes.
Right after the butter is browned, transition it to a heat-safe bowl and whisk in the cinnamon. This “blooms” the cinnamon so that it has more depth of flavor. Then whisk in the sugar. This mixture will thicken as it sits.
***If you aren’t baking in a cast iron, you can also do this step using any old pan!
How to shape and fill the cinnamon bread dough
The beauty of this dough is it is nearly impossible to mess up. Even if it breaks, or you stretch it funny, or the filling comes out, it will still be pretty puffy, fluffy and delicious. Also, unlike normal cinnamon rolls, you don’t have to measure and roll these into perfect pieces. Funky pieces will do just fine!
I like to flip the dough onto an unfloured surface and stretch it into a large rectangle with my hands. (See photo). Make sure the longest edge of the rectangle is the one closest to you.
Then, spread 2/3 cup of the filling evenly across the dough, before folding the shorter edges of the rectangle into the center until they meet each other.
Then cut the dough down the long edge of the rectangle and slice it into 1-inch thick strips.
And lastly (because you’ve made it this far!), fold the strips in half and nestle them into the cast iron skillet. You can see an idea of what they should look like below. Cute, right?
From there, you want to let this Dollywood cinnamon bread rise for another hour, or until they are puffier, like you see in the image below!
What can I bake this in besides a cast iron skillet?
This is a great question, and you absolutely don’t need a cast iron skillet to make this work! I also recommend a 9-inch cake pan, a bunt cake pan, or a casserole dish as good alternatives. Increase the baking time by 4-5 minutes, and you will get a great result!
How to top the Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
So you’ve used the filling for the bottom of the pan, you’ve used it to fill the cinnamon bread, and now you get to use it to top the bread as well!
By this time the rolls will be pretty puffy, so be very gentle when you spread the remaining filling on top of them. I like to use a spatula and very softly swipe it across the top of the rolls.
The beauty of this is that the filling on the top of the rolls will form a nice crust, while the filling on the bottom will make a nice goo. It’s a wonderful contrast of textures!
Tips & tricks for how to make this cinnamon bread ahead of time
If you want to just make the dough ahead of time, let it proof for 24 hours in the fridge, instead of 1 hour at room temperature. Then you can prepare the filling and icing and store those as well. Store the filling in the fridge and the icing at room temperature. However, the next day you will still need to save time for assembly, the second proof, and baking, so this will only save you half of the prep work. But it’s still a good option if you want fresh-feeling cinnamon bread when you are in a time crunch!
To prep the recipe for next day baking, you can prep the recipe all the way up until the dough is in the cast iron. Cover and let rest in the fridge overnight, it’ll be ready to bake the next day!
If you want to make these ahead to transport them for a party or brunch, I’d recommend prepping them completely beforehand, all the way through baking. Just leave off the icing. Let it cool to room temperature, then wrap the cast iron in foil. When you are 15 minutes out from wanting to serve the rolls, reheat them in an oven set to 350°F for 10 minutes. Top with the glaze and serve!
Why is this recipe in grams?
Grams is always my preference for baking, and I hope it will soon be yours, too! The only way to ensure complete accuracy is through measuring by weight, and not volume. As much as I wish I could give you multiple ways to measure ingredients, in this recipe measuring by cups might cause some volatility and miss-matched results. I want to ensure you get the best results with this recipe (and I want to keep this recipe fool-proof!) so I highly recommend getting a small affordable kitchen scale if you want to move forward with this particular recipe!
Looking for other great baking recipes?
Here are a few of my favorites!
Cornmeal Brown Butter Cinnamon Rolls
Salted Banana Cookies
Raspberry Muffins with Basil Syrup
And that’s it for this Dollywood Cinnamon Bread!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you.
Watch the recipe here
The video may not fully represent the recipe. For best results, follow the instructions as written.
If you like this recipe, consider buying my cookbook here. There’s plenty of fun desserts to find in there!
Equipment
Ingredients
For the dough
- 12 grams active dry yeast, 4 teaspoons
- 165 grams warm water, between 80-95°F, a little over 2/3 cup
- 375 grams all-purpose flour, 2 2/3 cups
- 5 grams Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 2 teaspoons
- 55 grams granulated sugar, 1/4 cup
- 1 medium egg
- 57 grams softened unsalted butter, 1/4 cup
For the filling
- 226 grams salted butter, 1 cup
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 110 grams dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup, lightly packed
- 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For the icing
- 90 grams powdered sugar, 3/4 cup, lightly packed
- 1 tablespoon milk of choice
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the yeast and the water. Add in the flour, salt, granulated sugar and egg.
- Using the hook attachment on the mixer, mix on medium until all the ingredients are combined.
- Once the ingredients are just combined, begin adding the softened butter 1 tablespoon at a time. When it is fully mixed in, that's when you know to add the next tablespoon of butter.
- Turn the mixer to medium-high and mix the dough for 7-8 minutes or until it is pulling away from the sides. You can also do the gluten test (see note).
- When the dough is ready, transfer it to a clean bowl and cover and let it rise for an hour or until doubled in size.
- While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Brown the butter in a cast iron skillet. Do this by placing the skillet over medium heat, adding the butter and letting it melt until it starts to fizz and foam. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until you see flecks of brown start forming in the bottom of the pan. Then turn off the heat and transfer the butter to a heat-safe bowl. No need to wipe out the cast iron skillet.
- Whisk the cinnamon into the brown butter while it's still warm, this will "bloom" the cinnamon's flavor.
- Whisk in the brown sugar and salt and set aside. This should form a thick paste during the time the dough finishes rising.
- Add 1/3 cup of the filling to the bottom of the cast iron skillet. Spread it around.
- When the dough is ready, place it down on a clean, unfloured surface and stretch it into a large rectangle. The dimensions don't have to be specific (mine never are), just make sure your dough is about 1 centimeter thick.
- Spread 2/3 cup worth of filling onto the rectangle of dough. (You will have a bit of filling left, save it).
- Grab the two shorter sides of the rectangle and fold them to the center of the dough so that their edges line up with each other, encasing the filling in the dough.
- From there, use a bench scraper to slice the dough into 1-inch thick strips. Fold the strips in half and nestle them together in the cast iron skillet. See the blog post for photos.
- Cover and let this rise for another hour, or until 50% bigger in size.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- When the dough has risen, spread the remaining filling all over the top of the dough.
- Bake for 22-26 minutes, or until the bread is a deep, dark brown on top.
- While the bread is baking, whisk together the icing ingredients to make a glaze.
- Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool until the cast iron is safe to touch. Then drizzle with the glaze and tear apart!
Comments
Justine, you queen! As an East Tennessean Dolly P advocate and diehard cinnamon roll fanatic, the Venn Diagram of “recipes you produce” and “food I want to make” is a circle. Thrilled by this recipe, the notion of a Dolly cast iron skillet I will inevitably acquire, and your cookbook (preordered, naturally). Thanks for all you do!
I decided to try to adapt this to make it gluten free and egg free and it did not disappoint I had to sacrifice the looks of it and make the proportions a little different for flour to warm water, but overall it was perfect. SO GOOD. My husband’s favorite dessert.
WOW I am so happy you liked it and so thrilled that it worked as a gluten-free version! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind comment <3
Delicious and simple to make. Thank you Justine!
So so happy you liked it!!
Hi Justine! This looks amazing! Could I make the dough the night before and then bake it the next morning?
Absolutely! Scroll a bit up in the blog post and I have instructions on how to do that 🙂
This was my first attempt at cinnamon rolls and they came out great! Everyone loved them!! Thanks Justine!
Hi Justine,
I’m not seeing your instructions for rising these in the fridge overnight, could you share your method? Thanks!
Hi Elka, so sorry about that! I’ve added a note to the recipe card but there are a couple of ways you could do this! If you want to just make the dough ahead of time, let it proof for 24 hours in the fridge, instead of 1 hour at room temperature. The next day you will still need to save time for assembly, the second proof, and baking, so this will only save you half of the prep work. To prep the recipe for next day baking, you can prep the recipe all the way up until the dough is in the cast iron. Cover and let rest in the fridge overnight, it’ll be ready to bake as instructed in the morning! I hope this helps and I hope you love the bread!
Amazing!
So happy you like it!
I would love to make this but don’t have a stand mixer! What would you suggest?
This is tricky, but it can be done by hand if you melt the butter and knead by hand until you reach the gluten test (see recipe notes), this will take about ten minutes of kneading, and add flour as needed!!
I just did this by hand, took me about 12 mins and I did need to add around 2 tablespoons more flour as I went. Hope this helps!
It’s in the oven and it smells delicious (I sneaked a taste of the cinnamon filling and that is amazing)
I made these without a stand mixer using some elbow grease. It took me about 10 minutes of kneading and I lubed my hands up with avocado oil at the start. I used softened butter without issue, no need to melt on my end.
it was love at first bite with this recipe! i made these without a mixer, using the gluten test to confirm my dough was ready to rest. I used room temp butter and had no issues. I also added a smidge of cardamom to my filling because i love its brigjht floral flavor is rich pastries and it was a wonderful addition! these came out bubbling from the oven and the dough was pillowy and tender (no mixer needed!) I skipped the glaze because I realized I was out of powdered sugar, but if I make these again I’d consider making one with buttermilk for a tangy drizzle. Thank you Justine for such a fabulous recipe, my husband declared this morning the best Sunday morning of the year and has eaten half the pan!
These were delicious! Next time I’ll have to double the recipe because my family polished them off in a day.
Such a high compliment! So glad everyone enjoyed them 🙂
I tried making these using Bob’s 1 for 1 gluten-free flour. They expectedly didn’t rise too much, but they were delicious! The filling didn’t completely become a paste, and some of it oozed out when I folded the dough (I should have just added more sugar to it). It is saltier than my husband likes, but I would make these again using a Gluten-free flour mix more suited for bread recipes and adding more sugar for the filling and less salt. Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you for the gluten-free intel! I’m sure it will help others who are curious. As for the filling, letting the butter cool a bit more should help with that in the future <3
Oh my goodness! I just made these and they are by far the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever eaten! Thank you for the recipe!
amazing texture BUT the salt level was TOO much! should be at least cut by half or even 3/4. Came out more salty than sweet
I think you might be using a finer grind of kosher salt! If you are using a table salt or a salt like Morton’s, it will be double-y salty than what the recipe intends (I’m sorry this happened!). I call for Diamond Crystal salt in all of my recipes, but use half if you are using another brand!
I wanted to print this using an image and when I chose it, the image took up 2 1/2 pages just for the picture! Normally it is only a couple of inches at the top of the recipe. Could that be fixed please? This looks amazing and I would love to make for my birthday breakfast. Thanks!
Catie
Oh no, that’s so weird! I will definitely look into that, thanks so much for letting me know!
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