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.
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.
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.
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.
Cinna-Mini Cinnamon Rolls
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
More cinnamon roll recipes you might like:
- A fun, easy to make petal-shaped Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake drizzled with a sweet glaze. Sweet Petals Coffee Cake from Barbara Bakes
- Pumpkin Fantail Cinnamon Rolls, perfect for fall from Barbara Bakes
- Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls, a fun combo of banana bread and cinnamon rolls. Cooking Classy
- Parry’s Cinnamon Rolls a classic cinnamon roll from Two Peas and Their Pod
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls topped with a heavenly cream cheese frosting from Heartbeet Kitchen.
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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
Barbara Schieving
Hi Carolyn – your twisty beaters are probably dough hooks for kneading dough. So you can use your regular beaters initially and then switch to the twisty beaters in step 3. Enjoy!
Katrina
How small are they?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Katrina – about 2 inches wide.
Kelsi Thomsen
I sprayed my muffin tin but they stuck horribly anyways it was a mess any suggestions on what else to do
Barbara Schieving
Hi Kelsi – did you use a paper towel to spread the spray around in the cups? Did you remove the cinnamon rolls before the sugar had time to cool? Is your muffin tin nonstick? I’ve also made these on a glazed pizza and that worked well, so that could be a good option for you too.
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.
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.
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!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Suzanne – sounds like a great idea for a fancy brunch. I haven’t tried it, but I would bake them on a rimmed baking tray /cookie sheet similar to how the bakery owner made hers in this recipe https://www.barbarabakes.com/bake-shop-sweet-rolls/ Space them about a half inch apart so they have room to rise. Snap me some pictures. I’d love to see them and the brunch. 🙂
Rocky Mountain Woman
These are perfect for a brunch I’m doing next weekend!
Barbara Schieving
Sounds like my kind of brunch 🙂 Enjoy!
2 Sisters Recipes
Love these little ones! Now we are craving for them!
Rosa
A great idea. I’m craving these babies now… 😉
Cheers,
Rosa
Amanda
Does this make 24 rolls or 48 (4 sections of dough cut into 12 rolls each)? Thanks!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Amanda – it does makes 48 rolls. I’ve updated the yield. Enjoy!
Amanda
Thanks!
Amanda
Thanks for that info.
Sally
Thank you! These turned out fabulous
Barbara Schieving
Great – thanks for letting me know Sally! 🙂
Melody
Can I make these a day or two ahead of time?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Melody – yes, you can make them a day or two ahead of time. I would store them in a ziplock bag and frost them the day I was serving them.
Sam
Are you able to make the dough the night before and cook them the next morning?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Sam – yes, that will work. Just refrigerate the dough over night.
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?
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.
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!!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Muriel – definitely! I’m a big believer in doing what works best for you. Enjoy!
Muriel
Thanks so much.
Also, I love the idea of using mini muffin pans!