Mini Cinnamon Rolls

I have been seeing people sharing recipes on Pinterest for mini cinnamon rolls lately, maybe its a back to school thing. I know one thing is common in all of these recipes, they use refrigerated dough.  I decided to give them a try and enlisted the help of my six year old daughter Ava.  I used ingredients I bought at Trader Joe’s including the (new to me) crescent dough. It was fast and easy,for you non-bakers you CAN do this. Start to finish 20 minutes, promise. Ava who would cook morning noon and night if I let her made the entire batch while I hovered around with the big camera. I think what I love most about these rolls is the texture of the finished roll, using the crescent dough (make sure you bake them long enough) gives them a flaky crunch you dont get with canned rolls. These mini cinnamon rolls are a fraction of the cost and if you think about it 5 mini rolls is the same as eating just one crescent roll, now that’s a WIN in my book.

Also while I’m on a food kick I want you to know two things, first that I have started a page dedicated to all my previous recipes, you can find the list here. Second, I just finished Dinner A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach (DALS is her blog) it’s fantastic I completely related to every written word so now I am back on the I-will-cook-dinner-every-night-even-if-it-kills-me kick, the added benefit more recipes for the list.

Ingredients

• 1 can Trader Joe’s Crescent Rolls
• 4 TBL softened butter
• 2 TBL flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 TBL white sugar
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 1 TBL milk (or apple juice)
• ¼ tsp almond extract or orange zest (optional)

Instructions

1. POP the can of dough (my favorite part of course!)
2. Unroll onto flat surface and separate into 4 rectangles. Gently pinch the diagonal seams to fuse them together.
3. Mix 2 TBL butter with the flour, sugar and cinnamon, this is your filling mixture.
4. Spread 1 TBL of softened butter on each rectangle and sprinkle with filling mixture (add raisins or nuts if you want I did on one section just for me)
5. Roll up starting with the longest edge and slice into 5 pieces.
6. Place in a mini muffin pan. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes (check them at 12) remove from oven let cool

Icing

1. Combine powdered sugar and your liquid be careful to only add a very small amount of liquid at a time the sugar melts quickly and has a tendency to get very thin quickly. Remember adding a flavor like almond extract adds more liquid so decrease your milk or juice accordingly. Drizzle over muffins.