Barbara Bakes™
menu icon
search icon
×

Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls

by 86 Comments

Jump to Recipe
Featured Image for post Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls

These Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls are a classic ooey, gooey cinnamon roll topped with a rich cream cheese frosting in a fun mini size perfect for a party. Betcha can’t eat just one. 

A while back, my sweet friend Annalise, Completely Delicious, hosted a pot luck baby shower brunch for our good friend Becky, Vintage Mixer. When you go to a pot luck party with food bloggers, you know you’re going to eat well, and the pressure’s on to make something extra special.

Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls

Becky mentioned in a comment on my Simply Sinful Cinnamon Muffins post that one of her only pregnancy cravings has been cinnamon rolls, so I couldn’t resist making cinnamon rolls to take to the shower.

To make them easy to eat and serve at a pot lucky party, I decided to make mini cinnamon rolls like the ones you can get at the mall.

Amanda, Kevin and Amanda, baked some cute baby cinnamon rolls for a virtual baby shower last year. It’s a super easy, quick version made with crescent roll dough, but I wanted to use a traditional sweet yeast dough. I found just what I was looking for on the King Arthur Flour website. Their “Cinnabon clone” recipe.

These Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls are a classic ooey, gooey cinnamon roll topped with a rich cream cheese frosting in a fun mini size perfect for a party. Betcha can't eat just one.

I filled them with the King Arthur Baker’s Cinnamon Filling, but if you don’t have that, I’ve given the ingredients for a substitute.

I baked them in mini muffin tins, but you could also bake them on a baking sheet if you don’t have mini muffin pans. You can use dental floss or a serrated knife to cut your rolls, but I like to use my plastic dough scraper.

Cinna-Mini-Cinnamon-Rolls-Collage-Barbara-Bakes

The little cinnamon rolls are a bit more work to make than big ones, but they’re perfect for a party. Most people had two or three, and  even took some home for “their kids.” 😉 Kalyn, Kalyn’s Kitchen, gave them two thumbs up and said they reminded her of the ones her mom use to make for her growing up.

I recently made them again for my family and thought it was time to share the post again with updated pictures. My family of six devoured all 48 of these rolls in 1 day. You definitely need to give these luscious three bite cinnamon rolls a try. 

Featured Image for post Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
4.43 from 28 votes

Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls

A classic ooey, gooey cinnamon roll topped with a rich cream cheese frosting in a fun mini size perfect for a party. Betcha can’t eat just one. 
Prep Time2 hrs
Cook Time15 mins
Total Time2 hrs 15 mins
Course: Sweet Rolls
Servings: 48 mini cinnamon rolls
Author: Barbara Schieving

Ingredients

  • 4-4 ½ cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons 1 package instant yeast
  • 1 ¾ teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • ⅓ cup unsalted butter cut up
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • ½ cup water*
  • 1 cup Baker’s Cinnamon Filling mix*
  • *Or substitute ⅓ cup 2 ⅝ ounces unsalted butter, softened, 1 cup (7 ¼ ounces) brown sugar, packed, 3 tablespoons (¾ ounce) ground cinnamon
  • one 3-ounce package cream cheese softened
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
  • 1 ½ cups glazing or confectioners’ sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, combine 3 ½ cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.
  • In saucepan or microwave safe dish, heat milk and butter until warm (120°–130°F). Add heated milk and butter to flour mixture. Mix in eggs. Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed.
  • Switch to the dough hook and mix in the remaining flour a little at a time, to make a soft dough, adding more or less flour as needed. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rest 15 minutes.
  • While the dough is resting, prepare the filling by mixing the Baker’s Cinnamon Filling with enough water to make filling with a soft, pudding-like consistency. Set it aside. Spray 48 mini muffin cups with non stick cooking spray.
  • Divide dough in four equal pieces and keep remaining pieces covered with plastic wrap. On a floured surface, roll the dough into an 8×12″ rectangle. Spread ¼ of the filling evenly over the dough.
  • Starting with the long end, roll the dough into a log, and cut it into 12 slices. Place each piece, cut edges up, in a mini muffin cup. Repeat with remaining dough.
  • Loosely cover muffin pans with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled, about 60 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 375°F
  • Bake 10 to 15 minutes until rolls are golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool. While rolls are cooling, make the icing.
  • IcingIn a small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla. Spread the icing on the buns while they’re warm.
  • Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

More cinnamon roll recipes you might like:

Pin It:

Cinna-Mini-Cinnamon-Rolls-Collage-Pinterest image
«
»

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carolyn Hahne

    What do you do if your mixer does not have paddles? Can I use the regular beaters. I also have some twisty beaters that I never use but I would not call them paddles. Hope to make these soon so hope to hear from you.
    Thanks.
    Carolyn 

    Reply

  3. Tea

    I hate to say this bit this recipe is horrible. I’ve tried it several times. Brown sugar should never be used in cinnamon rolls. I will stick to my recipe for normal sized ones and just make them smaller. They turned out so much better. The sub of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon just doesn’t work. I am always up for a new recipe and love to bake. This one just didn’t work for me. I’m sure it will work for others.

    Reply

    • Barbara Schieving

      Hi Tea – sorry you didn’t care for the recipe. King Arthur Flour uses brown sugar in their popular cinnamon roll recipe and we love this recipe. But if you prefer your recipe, definitely make them in a small version.

      Reply

  4. Suzanne McLean

    Thanks for the recipe, Barbara. I’m looking forward to making these for a fancy donor brunch. My question- if I want to bake them in pans or cookie sheets, what size(s) would you recommend? I need to make lots!

    Reply

        • Jennifer

          When you say you can make the dough the night before, do you mean just the dough and you would then have to let it warm up, rise, roll out, etc. Or could you do the whole thing, have the filling inside and them rolled up and ready to go ahead of time and just bake the next day?

          Reply

          • Barbara Schieving

            Hi Jennifer – if you’re short on time in the morning, you can make them through step 6, cover the muffin trays and put them in the fridge overnight. In the morning put them on the counter to warm up and rise if they haven’t risen enough in the fridge overnight and bake them.

  11. Muriel

    Can this be done in a bread machine on dough setting, then follow rest of recipe?
    I use my bread machine for dough because arthritis prevents me from kneading dough as I used to do.
    These look wonderful; just what I have been looking for!!

    Reply

    • Barbara Schieving

      Hi Kari – use butter or cooking spray to butter the bowl you are rising the dough in, then put the dough in the bowl, turn to dough over and the top of the dough will have butter on it. Enjoy!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recipe Rating