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.
Pin It:
Annalise
If it hadn’t been for all of the other delicious things on our brunch spread, I think I could have devoured every last mini cinnamon roll on the platter. They’re poppable-ness makes them so dangerous! Thanks for coming to the shower and bringing these along with you!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks so much for hosting!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
So cute!! Would love to get my hands on these!
Angie@Angie's Recipes
These mini rolls are absolutely mouthwatering!
Kitchen Belleicious
so since they are mini doesn’t that mean i can eat as many as I want? Love cinnamon rolls! My favorite kind of food
Barbara Schieving
Right! Mini cinnamon rolls = mini calories 🙂
Claire @ Claire K Creations
Barbara I most definitely could not stop at one. Also adding Baker’s Cinnamon Filling mix to my New York grocery store shopping list. I’m going to have to buy an extra suitcase to bring back all the ingredients I plan on buying!
Barbara Schieving
How fun! When will you be in the NY? I’ll be there in June.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
These little bites make my mouth water. I love cinnabons but we don’t have such a thing here. I haven’t made them for a while because well, I can’t leave them alone. 🙂 I could make these and freeze without icing and that would work! I’m on a mission. 🙂
Barbara Schieving
I like the way you think.
Bunny
Does it get any better than this…ah NO! They look absolutely wonderful!
Emily
Barbara, you know you’re killing me with all these delicious sweets, right?
Linda
These are so cute. Not to mention delish! You’re right. I couldn’t eat just one.
Carol
Oh boy……cinnamon rolls in miniature? Can’t get much better than that-great for portion control….now who’s gonna slap my hand when I reach for a second one? 🙂
They look delicious, Barbara….off to pin!
carrian
Those really do look so yummy!!!
Georgia @ The Comfort of Cooking
These are dangerously cute, Barbara! I don’t think I could stop at one!
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking
I love cinnamon rolls and making the mini version is just adorable! What a cute idea for a baby shower and not only! Would love to pop one or two in my mouth
Lucy
These are so cute – I’m sure guests at a party would absolutely love these! I can imagine it would be difficult to stop after eating just one too.
Amanda
These turned out so perfect. I can just imagine their yummy-ness now! 🙂
Anna @ Crunchy Creamy Sweet
So adorable! Love mini treats like these rolls! Pinned!
Kalyn
I can testify that these were delicious!
Averie @ Averie Cooks
Absolutely adorable and beautiful! I have always wanted to make the KA Clone recipe or there’s one on allrecipes called Clone of A Cinnabon and it’s got like 6000 5-star reviews. Your little rolls are all so PERFECT! Pinned!
Annamaria
Barbara,
I love miniatures and cinnamon rolls. Great combo. I pinning these.
Annamaria
Rosa
Lovely rolls! Absolutely irresistible.
Cheers,
Rosa