Quick Cinnamon Rolls

Quick Cinnamon Rolls

How long does it take to open up a tube of refrigerated cinnamon rolls? Add five more minutes' of prep time, and you could make these delicious cinnamon roll biscuits from scratch. I used whole wheat flour but white would be fine. Compared to the chemistry lesson required for the store-bought kind, this ingredients list is simple and you likely have everything on hand:

2 cups flour (either whole wheat or unbleached)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (optional)
1/3 cup butter, still hard from the fridge
1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder


Preheat the oven to 450F.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives. Stir in the milk and gently mix until a soft dough forms. Be careful not to handle the dough more than you have to, since keeping the tiny pieces of butter cold keeps the biscuits flaky. Gently roll the dough into a rectangle, about 12"X14".

Soften the quarter-cup butter and spread it over the dough, leaving an inch plain along the long side of the dough This will be the outside layer of each biscuit after you roll them. Sprinkle on the brown sugar and cinnamon over the butter. Starting at the opposite side of the part you left plain, roll up the dough. Pinch the end to seal it so the butter and cinnamon does not fall out.  Slice the roll into a dozen peices. As you place each roll onto a cookie sheet, pinch the bottom, using a bit of the outside layer, to seal the biscuit. If you have each bottom plain dough instead of allowing butter and sugar to fall out, there will be no mess to  clean up. When you pinch the bottom, each biscuit will open up a bit like a rose.

Bake for about 12 minutes and serve warm.




[I started with the basic Tea Biscuit recipe from the Five Roses Guide to Good Cooking (Classic Canadian Cookbook Series) cookbook. My 1983 edition lists it on page 41. I used butter instead of shortening and whole wheat flour, and shaped the biscuits into cinnamon rolls before baking.]


I shared this recipe at the Ultimate Recipe Swap.

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