Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake

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Cinnamon spiced cheesecake studded with chunks of cinnamon filling and topped with a cream cheese frosting drizzle.

Welcome to #FallFlavors where more than 25 food bloggers are sharing recipes with favorite fall flavors. Our sponsors (Millican Pecan, Dixie Crystals, Melissa’s Produce, Taylor & Colledge, Nairn’s, and Republic of Tea) have furnished participating bloggers with complimentary product to use in their recipe creations that they will be sharing this week. Be sure to follow our Fall Flavors Pinterest account for more inspiration.

If there’s one spice out there that I can just never get enough of, it’s cinnamon. I’ve said it from the beginning of my blog that cinnamon is one of my favorite spices to bake with, and you can find every recipe I have using ground cinnamon right here.

Besides the obvious like cinnamon chip scones, cinnamon streusel coffee cake, sourdough cinnamon rolls, cinnamon honey butter, apple cinnamon oat streusel muffins, and cinnamon babka, I have even found a way to get cinnamon into my peanut butter cookies.

Yeah, I totally love it.

And while I’ve always loved September because it’s my birthday month and I am usually DONE with hot weather come early August, what has made it even better in recent years is seeing all the absolutely delicious recipes my fellow blogging friends create around fall flavors.

Truly, I am a sucker for pretty much anything I see that mentions cinnamon, so when I had to create a fall-inspired recipe for this month, I knew that cinnamon + cheesecake (my newest favorite dessert to bake) just had to happen.

I’ve talked extensively about exactly how to make a cheesecake in my debut cheesecake recipe, funfetti cheesecake. But every good cheesecake follows essentially the same formula.

We need a springform pan, lined with some sort of crust, an epic cream cheese filling, and then either goodies inside the cheesecake filling itself or some kind of fun topping. Simple, right?

I have seen cheesecakes out there with lots of layers or piles of fruit and/or sauces on top and while I will likely branch out into “extravagant cheesecake world” eventually, I like to keep my cheesecake recipes plain and simple for now and really bring the wow with flavor in each individual aspect of the cheesecake.

Let me tell you what I mean.

(You can dip your remaining Nilla Wafers into cake batter dip, pumpkin dip, or gingerbread dip!)

Press into a springform pan, then bake for 6-8 minutes. While that’s baking and cooling, you have two fillings to tackle.

This cinnamon roll filling is made from butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon for flavor. You’ll also add some flour to sort of bind things together and create chunks of cinnamon filling.

These chunks of filling will come into play in a bit. Set the filling aside for now.

I’m so glad you asked– we’ll reserve that single ounce of cream cheese for the cream cheese frosting.

If for whatever reason you don’t want cream cheese frosting on top, go ahead and use all 24 ounces. This will not alter the recipe enough to make any other adjustments.

The cheesecake filling also gets sweetened with brown sugar and spiced with a hefty dose of cinnamon.

Other ingredients you’ll need for this cinnamon bun cheesecake recipe are heavy whipping cream, full fat yogurt or sour cream, three whole eggs, and two egg yolks.

You’ll need all of these ingredients at room temperature, which is key in creating that silky smooth cheesecake filling. Any lumps and bumps will show up in the final baked cheesecake, so make sure everything is nice and soft before combining it all.

HOW TO MAKE CINNAMON ROLL CHEESECAKE

Once your cheesecake filling is ready, you’ll grab it along with the cinnamon filling you already prepared.

You’re going to make three layers of cheesecake + cinnamon filling.

On top of that layer, you’ll pour another ⅓ of the cheesecake batter and another ⅓ of the cinnamon filling chunks.

Your third and final layer will mean that the top of your gooey cinnamon roll cheesecake will have what I affectionately called “cinnamon craters,” as the cinnamon filling will melt slightly but still keep its chunky shape, and indent slightly into the top of the cheesecake.

Umm… Cinnamon craters = best part of this whole entire cinnamon swirl cheesecake.

DRIZZLE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Once your cinnamon roll cheesecake is fully baked, fully cooled, and fully chilled, it’s ready to serve!

I chose to drizzle my entire cheesecake with cream cheese frosting, but the recipe makes enough that you can also RE-drizzle slices to cater to the taster’s preference, or you can completely forego drizzling the whole thing and just drizzle per slice as you serve it.

Either way, I urge you to use it, but I promise this cinnamon roll cheesecake recipe can totally stand alone without any frosting if you prefer not to use it.

My friends, this easy cinnamon roll cheesecake blew my expectations out of the water, and I wish I had pictures or a video of what happened when I took it to a gathering.

I placed it on the table with a cake dome over top of it, and it sat for a bit before someone said “by the way, Lynn made this,” which prompted someone else to come over and remove the lid.

Once that lid was off and folks got a whiff of what was happening under there, all bets were off. Slices were flying off the plate and forkfuls were being devoured before some people even grabbed their slice.

It did not last long AT ALL.

Personally, I admit to taking 80% of the cheesecake to that gathering because I knew if it stayed at our house, I would not be trusted with it. And that’s saying a lot, since I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth.

It’s that cinnamon, man. It gets me every time!

And I would be willing to bet that if you also enjoy yourself some warm cinnamon notes and also enjoy cheesecake, you will also be chomping at the bit to dig your fork into this stuff ASAP.

Your fall baking lineup needs it. And I can’t wait for you to try it!