Cinnamon Rolls made with Crescent Rolls

Recipes 2 Comments

So it’s Labor Day 2013… after lazing around in bed watching TV with the husband and kids, I wanted cinnamon rolls. Unfortunately, there’s no handy-dandy tube of ready-to-bake in the fridge. (Once in a while we’ll buy some.)  Hmm… what’s a mom to do? If I make the dough from scratch, we still have to wait for the dough to rise.

I wish I had a better photo, but they disappeared about 30 seconds after I took this!

BUT – there on the shelf – a tube of crescent rolls!  Leftover from last week’s mini chocolate Nutella rolls I made for a picnic (pinned HERE), it’s time to improvise!

Ingredients – Rolls

  • 1 large, or 1-2 small rolls of crescent dough (pictured is a roll of Pillsbury large, flaky rolls)
  • Butter, softened
  • Sugar
  • Cinnamon

Ingredients – Frosting

  • Powdered sugar
  • Milk
  • Vanilla
  • Orange flavoring (optional)
  • Orange or lemon zest (optional)
  1. Open the roll, spread out and separate the dough into its pre-cut triangular pieces.
  2. Slather (love that word, don’t you? slather… it promises all sorts of good things). Where was I? Oh yeah… slather the dough with butter.
  3. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar.  (Yes, even though I’m a conservative, I’m liberal when it comes to using tasty ingredients 🙂 )
  4. Roll up, and place in buttered pan.  (More butter!) I used a 10-in glass pie pan.  You could also use an 8×8 pan. The rolls should be close to each other, but not touching in the uncooked stage. Leave them a little room to expand.
  5. Sprinkle the tops with more cinnamon and sugar and make it look pretty. I added a little pat of butter on top of each roll, just for good measure.
  6. Bake until done.  Use the guidelines on your roll of dough, but add a few more minutes because the rolls will be touching each other and thus will take slightly longer to be completely done. (I’m all about it being an exact science, can’t you tell?)

The Frosting

  1. Put some powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup) in a small bowl or cup.
  2. Add a little bit of vanilla (1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon). I also added orange flavoring as we like our rolls with the orange-flavored frosting.
  3. Add milk, a few drops at a time, and stir until you get the right consistency for drizzling over the rolls. Do this slowly – it’s easy to add too much! Then you need to add more sugar, then more milk… it’s a vicious cycle.
  4. If you have an orange or lemon laying around, add some fresh orange or lemon zest to the frosting. It notches that citrus flavor up to the next level.
  5. Drizzle the frosting over the warm rolls and serve!

2 thoughts on “Cinnamon Rolls made with Crescent Rolls”

  2. Glad you liked them! I was lucky to even get the picture above… they were gone so fast. I didn’t even think about the cost issue, but a tube of cinnamon rolls is not quite double that of a tube of crescent rolls… definitely a cost savings there if you have all the other ingredients on hand. Thsi really was a “throw it together and see what comes out” recipe… if I’d realized I was going to post it, I’d have actually measured things out. 🙂

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