You’re gonna be singing all day with this happy and delicious breakfast medley: homemade cinnamon roll waffles with gooey brown sugar cinnamon filling melted into the crunchy pockets, then topped with traditional cinnamon roll cream cheese icing. No syrup needed – unless you want to add some to your icing:) That’s also delicious! We made this batch with sourdough waffles, but traditional waffle batter also works perfectly, in case you don’t have any sourdough starter handy at home or really don’t feel like being tied to feeding sourdough starter on a consistent basis. We love baking with sourdough, but it definitely requires some love and attention! We include recipes for both in this blog! Oh, and the Cinnamon Roll Waffles freeze well, too, so if you make extra, just freeze them with the cinnamon butter and icing right on them and reheat in the toaster oven!
We love cinnamon rolls and enjoy making our Cinnamon Roll Knots any time we get the chance, but since they are a bit of a production, we often make these cinnamon roll waffles instead. You get all of the great texture of a good crunchy waffle, and the cinnamon roll filling from the brown sugar cinnamon butter. Top it all with cream cheese icing and you have a fantastic breakfast! It’s fun to make these for brunch gatherings, too. You can make extra cinnamon filling and cream cheese icing and keep them in the refrigerator until ready to use, which makes breakfast that much quicker!
Sourdough waffles take a bit of extra time, too, since you need to prepare the “sponge” a few hours ahead of time, before finishing the batter. But, you can also make the sponge a full day ahead, so it’s all ready to go when you wake up and get ready to make breakfast! Most of the work is done by the time you get the sponge made anyway, and from there you just need to add eggs, oil and a few more ingredients. We also love to make savory dishes with sourdough waffles for dinner or appetizers.
Be sure to look at the recipe below the sourdough waffle recipe for our traditional waffle recipe. It’s made with olive oil in place of butter and lots of vanilla for extra flavor! It’s really great and since so many people do not meddle in sourdough projects, this one will be perfect for your Cinnamon Roll Waffles!
Cinnamon Roll (Sourdough) Waffles
Equipment
- Waffle Iron
Ingredients
The Sourdough Sponge
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 cups buttermilk or sour milk (2 cups milk + 2 tsp. cider vinegar)
- 1/2 cup Sourdough starter, unfed/discard
Sourdough Waffle Batter
- All of the prepared sourdough sponge
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling
- 4 oz. butter, at room temp
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 4 tsp. cinnamon
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp. butter, at room temp
- pinch salt
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp. milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. maple syrup *optional
Instructions
Sourdough Sponge
- Stir down your sourdough starter and remove 1/2 cup. (This is a good time to feed the remaining sourdough starter, if necessary. But, don’t feed the starter until you have removed the 1/2 cup needed for this recipe!)
- In a large bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup starter, flour, sugar, and buttermilk.
- Cover and let rest at cool room temperature (about 65-70°F) for at least 4 hours, but as long as overnight.
Sourdough Waffle Batter
- Add eggs, oil, flour, baking soda and salt to the sponge and blend just until combined with a wire whisk.
- Preheat your waffle iron and lightly spray both the top and the bottom with cooking spray. Keep it light, because otherwise it tends to get very brown.
- Spoon batter over the bottom just to cover the bottom plate of the iron and close the lid.
- Cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until you can easily lift the top of the waffle iron from the waffle.
- Remove the waffle and repeat the process until all of the batter has been used.
- Remove waffle from iron and place on plate. Spread about 1 tablespoon cinnamon filling over the top and allow it to melt into the pockets of the waffle. Drizzle cream cheese icing over everything.
- Either serve immediately as they come off the waffle iron, or keep the batch hot in the oven until ready to serve.
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling
- Mix butter with brown sugar and cinnamon with a fork until well blended. Set aside. This can be made ahead and refrigerated for several weeks.
Cream Cheese Icing
- Blend softened cream cheese, butter and a pinch of salt with a fork or an electric beater until well-blended. Slowly stir in powdered sugar and milk alternately until you arrive at a good icing consistency. Flavor with vanilla and/or maple syrup.
Notes
Vanilla Waffles
Equipment
- 1 Waffle Iron
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine dries in a large bowl. Add eggs, oil, vanilla and milk and whisk until smooth and thickened. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes before spooning into the waffle iron. The batter will thicken up during this process. If the batter seems to thick, thin it out with a little bit of milk at a time.
- Preheat waffle iron while batter is resting.
- Spoon batter into the waffle iron and cook according to directions for your waffle iron. Spoon cinnamon filling over the waffles while they are still hot so the filling melts into the waffle pockets. Spread or drizzle cream cheese icing over the top. Serve hot!