Why You Should Avoid Using Melted Butter When Making Cinnamon Rolls

Homemade cinnamon rolls are one of life's greatest pleasures — just the smell alone wafting through your house can put everyone in a warm and fuzzy mood. And while there are plenty of tips to make irresistible cinnamon rolls from scratch, there's one you should always keep in mind: avoid using melted butter for the filling.

Though some recipes may ask you to use melted butter, softened butter is a better choice that can take your cinnamon roll filling to the next level. This is because it's much easier to spread evenly on the dough, resulting in a balanced filling that gets perfectly distributed when you roll it up. The risk of losing your delicious filling as it pours out the sides of the rolls is also greatly reduced with softened butter.

And this isn't the only time room-temperature butter comes to the rescue. In fact, using butter that's too soft in baking can result in a greasy end product for cookies, cakes, and other baked goods. To get perfectly softened butter for your cinnamon roll filling, pour hot water into a heat-safe container for about five minutes, then pour out the water and flip the container upside down over the butter. After about 15 minutes, your butter will be perfectly softened.

Since melted butter isn't ideal for cinnamon rolls, you can elevate the softened stuff by infusing it with complementary flavors to bring a unique twist to your recipe. Similar to how changing up your butter can get you a more flavorful grilled cheese, using compound butter — butter mixed with spices or herbs — can take your cinnamon rolls to new heights.

While your recipe likely already calls for sugar and spices in the filling, imagine using honey cinnamon or maple butter to bring everything together. If you're making gingerbread cinnamon rolls for the holidays, a compound butter made with molasses can add a depth of flavor that regular butter wouldn't offer. Making a batch of cranberry cinnamon rolls? A compound butter with chopped cranberries, lemon zest, or even candied orange can bring a fresh dimension to the recipe. Once you start getting creative with complementary flavors, you'll be able to create exciting cinnamon rolls that never lose their filling.