The Dough Lady sweetens Salt Lake with homemade cinnamon rolls

People in Utah seem to love sugar, especially a brown, buttery cinnamon roll loaded with fresh homemade blueberry jam, lemon curd, and a thick slather of cream cheese frosting melting into the warm, sweet dough.

“Sugar is our love language; we also want to be buried in butter!” The Dough Lady, Amy Lund said. “I love pulling something freshly baked out of the oven. It makes a home smell so deliciously comforting.”

Lund grew up baking with her mom and sisters. Classic comfort treats, from chocolate chip cookies to brownies and cinnamon rolls, could always be found in the kitchen. After high school, Lund left her home in Sandy and moved to Utah State University, where she received a Public Relations and Marketing degree, which proved valuable after she married and started a business selling take-and-bake frozen cinnamon roll dough.

"I got a new job in March of 2020 working in brand strategy and wasn’t loving it,” Lund said. “Covid hit, and everything became extremely stressful. My outlet for stress has always been baking, and I was baking a lot. My husband became increasingly concerned and finally said, ‘We've got to get all of these treats out of the house.’”  

At this point, Lund and her husband Eric began to figure out a business plan to sell cinnamon rolls. In November 2020, the Lunds launched their idea for a take-and-bake frozen cinnamon roll business with only a KitchenAid and Bosch mixer on their kitchen countertop to fill orders.

“I was so nervous, scared, and vulnerable the first year we began the business,” Lund said. “While working full time, I sold frozen cinnamon roll dough off Instagram and to family and friends.”

With a large following on Instagram, the business exploded and proved to be a huge success. In October 2021, Lund finally slipped off her corporate shoes to focus on building what is now known as The Dough Lady, housed in a shared bakery kitchen in Woods Cross.

Still using the basic family cinnamon roll recipe, Lund has improved it by incorporating the best baking ideas from several recipes. The rolls are sold in packs of four and come in a variety offlavors, including cranberry orange, fresh peach, gingerbread, and the staff favorite, brown butter chai.

“Frozen dough has kind of a tricky shelf life,” Lund said. “I did a lot of testing, and the rolls are best baked within a week after receiving them for optimal rise. Tuesday is a favorite day of the week for our staff. It’s flavor testing day, where we create and test new flavor ideas. Cinnamon is still our best seller, but it’s followed close by blueberry lemon.”

Interested in warm, freshly baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast or lunch at your office or private event? The Dough Lady caters from Bountiful to Provo with a minimum order of four dozen rolls. Need cinnamon rolls on hand for a late-night snack or early-morning comfort breakfast? That's no problem. Frozen dough can be purchased from The Dough Lady’s website. Perhaps you’re on the go and want to stop in at a local coffee shop and grab a freshly baked roll. The Dough Lady has you covered. The aroma of fresh cinnamon rolls wafts through several locations across the Wasatch Front.

“We deliver our fresh rolls to a variety of coffee shops around the valley,” Lund said. “You can always find a fresh roll somewhere—from Roots Coffee and Co. located downtown and in Sugar House, to Frankie and Essl’s breakfast shop by Liberty Park, The Neighborhood Hive in Sugar House, The Fox Shop in Holladay where we deliver fresh and frozen rolls, the local farmers market downtown, Cheryl’s Bagels in Bountiful, and we even do pop-ups at Jolley’s Corner in Salt Lake.”

According to Lund she never expected to be in the cinnamon roll business since it’s a labor-intensive dessert to bulk produce, but as she says, “Nothing is quite like eating a warm, cinnamon roll right from the oven.” 

For more information about The Dough Lady’s cinnamon rolls visit doughladyslc.com.