Baking/ Recipes

Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls

It’s July. While the rest of the country is baking, I’m baking.


After investing last Sunday morning in baking pane Toscano, this week, I wanted something quicker, something between a 3-hour commitment and the half hour drive to Top Pot for a pershing. I’ve been thinking about non-pizza uses for pizza dough. So, first stop, pizza dough cinnamon rolls. It’s a well-worn road by the looks of Google, so I went with Kristen’s recipe over at Batter Licker as a starting point.
pizza dough cinnamon rolls

With a shortcut, these pizza dough cinnamon rolls don’t have the tenderness or the ooey-gooey of a traditional, from scratch cinnamon roll, but they’re a notch above the ones in a tube. You control the butter. You control the spices. Want a little nutmeg and clove along with the cinnamon? Maybe some raisins? Go for it.

The how-to here is not complicated. It’s just a matter of rolling out the dough in a ~12 inch rectangle, giving it a good rubdown with softened butter and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, sugar and salt. You dot each roll with a little more butter before it goes into the oven and then 15-18 minutes later, they’re done.

The important tips:
1. Buttering your pan. Be generous, but you don’t have to go crazy. I wouldn’t just spray it with non-stick vegetable spray, you want to make sure those little babies will come out of the pan.

2. Roll it tightly and be mindful as you get to the end, this is where I had a little big of sag and had to re-roll.

3. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture all the way to the edges. You want to make sure even your ends will have good cinnamon coverage.

pizza dough cinnamon rolls

Shortcut: Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls

Serves: 12 rolls
Cooking Time: 1 hour 18 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 bag Trader Joe's pizza dough
  • 6 T. unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 T. sugar
  • 1 T. ground cinnamon (or Apple Pie Spice)
  • 1/2 t. kosher salt
  • all purpose flour, for dusting board

Instructions

1

Preheat the oven to 375F. Take the dough out of the fridge and let sit on the counter for 40 minutes to an hour. Butter a 8 or 9 in. round cake pan with 1 T. of the butter and set aside.

2

In a small bowl, stir together the cinnamon, sugar and salt.

3

Lightly flour your board and roll the dough into a ~12 rectangle, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Give the dough a good rubdown with 3 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture evenly across the rectangle from end-to-end.

4

Roll tightly into a log, ensuring the ends do not sag. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the log into 1 in. pieces. Place the slices in the pan, about an inch apart. Dot the top of each roll with the remaining 2 T. of butter.

5

Bake for 15-18 minutes until the tops of the rolls just begin to brown.

6

To make a glaze for the rolls, combine 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted, 2 T. milk, 1/2 t. vanilla extract. The glaze will be on the runnier side. If you like it thicker, add up to 1/2. c. more powdered sugar.

Notes

Updated 2018: Photos reshot. Added recipe for glaze.

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  • Alisha
    June 8, 2015 at 9:55 am

    the glaze totally looks like a sea turtle . These are great

  • joan rose
    January 10, 2015 at 9:45 pm

    Thank you so much. Just made these buns …added 1/2c of crushed almonds and
    1/2c pecans on top of the cinnamon mix . delish !

  • katie
    August 25, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    This recipe is fantastic! It tastes just like Cinnabon cinnamon rolls! My family loved every bite….

  • jane
    August 5, 2014 at 9:28 am

    Do you think this can be done with chocolate for a babka, or is that a different type of dough?

    • Michelle
      August 5, 2014 at 2:57 pm

      Hi Jane – I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why chocolate wouldn’t work. Like I mentioned in the post, with the pizza dough, you don’t get quite the same texture as a legit cinnamon roll, but this is also faster. Hope that helps! If you give it a shot, let me know how it comes out!

  • Summer
    May 29, 2014 at 10:17 pm

    There’s no recipe for the icing?

    • Michelle
      May 30, 2014 at 1:44 pm

      Hi Summer – You’re right! I typically just do a mix of powdered sugar & milk with a squeeze of lemon. Basic recipe here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cinnamon-roll-icing-10000000544467/. These rolls are small compared to the big honkin’ ones you’d see at a Fair, so I’d probably reduce it to 2 c. powdered sugar, 2 T. milk. Hope that helps!

  • Suzie Bell
    October 17, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    I do have to agree.. these are GREAT……YES PIZZA dough makes excellent cinnamon buns..

  • broole
    February 7, 2013 at 7:41 pm

    Turned out really well

    • Michelle
      February 8, 2013 at 8:04 am

      Glad you liked ’em!

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    July 20, 2012 at 8:33 am

    […] Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls. Does life really get better than […]

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    July 14, 2012 at 7:20 am

    […] love cinnamon rolls but they’re pretty labor intensive.  I came across this recipe for Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls on a blog and had to try […]

  • Aran
    July 8, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    Una pinta estupenda!!

  • Jenny
    July 8, 2012 at 1:48 am

    That sounds like a great shortcut to cinnamon rolls – they look really tasty!

  • yum
    July 7, 2012 at 5:48 am

    yum. I would make it but pizza dough?

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