Cinnamon Roll Bites

Do you love the soft & gooey center of the cinnamon roll? Cinnamon roll bites are baked in cinnamon syrup and heavy cream to create a bunch of “middles”.

This recipe has been brewing in my mind for about 3 years. Our Better than Cinnabon cinnamon rolls became famous, and that’s because the heavy cream makes them ooey, gooey delicious.

The best part of the cinnamon roll is that center bite that you get when you unroll a cinnamon roll. Don’t even try to eat that cinnamon filled middle bite first. The best gets saved for last. Why not create an entire recipe that mimics that “center of the cinnamon roll”? That’s exactly what this does.

Center of the Cinnamon Roll

Cinnabon has a menu item called “Center of the Cinnamon Roll”. I’ve had them and to be honest, I was less than impressed. I have no idea how they actually make them, but to me, they tasted like day old Cinnabon’s that they tried to revive by pouring some cinnamon syrup and glaze over.

I knew I could do better, so this is our center-of-the-cinnamon-roll dessert. There are several steps and it takes a bit of time, but I’ll give tips for shortcuts below.

I’d love to know what you think!

Start with the Dough

This is the same recipe as our buttery soft cinnamon rolls, but I halved the recipe so that the cinnamon roll bites could be baked in a traditional size skillet.

There are a couple of ways to make the dough:

• Knead by hand. No special tools needed, and this dough is super easy to work with.
• Knead with a stand mixer. That’s how I’ll demonstrate for this recipe and how we often make our cinnamon roll dough.
• Make in a bread machine on the dough setting (this is the bread maker I love). This is hands off and super simple. It even rises right in the bread maker.

If this is your first time working with yeast, read our complete guide to baking with yeast and our tips for helping dough to rise.

What Makes the Cinnamon Syrup

There are two elements of this recipe that make the cinnamon syrup.

• The cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll or dip balls in melted butter, then shake in cinnamon and sugar. This will coat every side of every dough ball ensuring that cinnamon flavor is in every bite. This is the same method we use in our monkey bread recipe.
• The cinnamon syrup. After you’ve coated the dough balls, whip up a quick cinnamon syrup using butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Then pour this over the dough balls.

Each part is important. The first time I only used the cinnamon syrup and it just wasn’t enough flavor. Take the time to coat the dough balls. It will be worth it.

The Secret Ingredient: Heavy Cream

Just as we do with our cinnamon rolls, the cinnamon roll bites have heavy cream poured over them as well. That heavy cream soaks around each bite and helps the sugar syrup to turn into a fantastic caramel-like glaze.

You love our heavy cream cinnamon rolls for being ooey gooey, and these are no different.

Don’t forget the powdered sugar glaze.

The center of the cinnamon roll always has the most glaze which is partly what makes it the best. I made a simple powdered sugar glaze from scratch. You may be thinking “ugh…another part to this recipe?!” But trust me, this is the easiest.

Simply whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla extract and heavy cream. Then pour this over the golden brown bites. It helps add one last blast of “gooey” to the bites.

Storage Instructions

The bites are best served fresh from the oven. If you have leftovers, store them in the fridge or the freezer and warm them in the microwave before serving.

Cinnamon Roll Bites

4.58 from 52 votes

Do you love the soft & gooey center of the cinnamon roll? Cinnamon roll bites are baked in cinnamon syrup and heavy cream to create a bunch of "middles".

Servings 12

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 29 minutes minutes

Rise Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

---

Print RecipePin RecipeSave RecipeSaved Recipe

Email Me This Recipe!

Enter your email and get the recipe sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new recipes from us every week.

Email *

Send

Ingredients

 

For the dough:

• 1/2 cup warm milk about 115 degrees F, 4 ounces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast* I like Red Star Platinum Baking Yeast
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1/4 cup salted butter Melted, but make sure it isn't over 110º Fahrenheit. Just softened is fine. (2 ounces)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar 50 grams
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour divided, 293 grams

To shake the dough balls:

• 1/4 cup melted salted butter 2 ounces
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 100 grams
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

For the syrup:

• 1/2 cup salted butter melted, 4 ounces
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 55 grams
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

To pour over the top:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream** 4 ounces

For the powdered sugar glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar 130 grams
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream 2 ounces
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

 

Make the dough:

• Pour the warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast overtop.
• Add the eggs, butter and sugar. Mix until combined.
• Add in salt and flour. Mix using the beater blade just until the ingredients are barely combined. Allow the mixture to rest for 5 minutes so the flour has time to soak up the liquids.
• Scrape the dough off the beater blade and remove it. Attach the dough hook.
• Beat the dough on medium speed. Knead for 5-7 minutes or until the dough is elastic and smooth. **The dough should be tacky and will still be sticking to the sides of the bowl. That's ok!
• Spray a large bowl with cooking spray.
• Use a rubber spatula to remove the dough from the mixer bowl and place it in the greased large bowl.
• Cover the bowl with a towel or wax paper.
• Set the bowl in a warm place and allow the dough to rise until almost double. I like to turn on the oven to the lowest setting for 1-2 minutes. Then turn off the oven and place the dough to rise in there. It normally takes about 30 minutes for the dough to rise. Do not allow the dough to rise too much.
• Split off about 64 ¾” dough pieces. Roll into balls.
• Toss dough balls in melted butter.
• Place ½ cup brown sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag. Shake the dough balls in the bag with the sugar to coat them.
• Place them in a greased 10” cast iron skillet. Set aside.

Make the syrup:

• In a small bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Then pour butter/brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over the top of the dough balls. Let this rise for about 20 minutes.

Heavy cream:

• Pour ½ cup heavy cream over the rolls. Or, for extra gooey rolls, wait until half way through baking to pour the cream on the rolls. This allows some of the cream to stay in the pan rather than get soaked into the dough. Either way works and we like both ways.

Bake the rolls:

• Bake at 350ºF for 27-29 minutes or until the cinnamon roll bites are baked through.

Make the glaze:

• In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, heavy cream and vanilla extract.
• Drizzle the glaze over the warm rolls.
• Serve immediately.
• Store any leftovers in an airtight container and warm them in the microwave to serve again.

Notes

*Different yeast calls for slightly different proofing methods. We follow Red Star Platinum’s temperature guidelines. Please check your yeast packet to see what temperature the milk should be at.

**If you don’t have cream, use half and half, coffee creamer, evaporated milk, whole milk or coconut cream. Any of these will work. Even 2% milk will work, but we prefer a higher fat milk.

Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.

The calories shown are based on the recipe serving 12, with 1 serving being 1/12 of the cinnamon roll bites. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**

Nutrition

Calories: 410kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 74mg | Sodium: 238mg | Potassium: 92mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 733IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 1mg

Author Julie Clark

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Calories 410

Keyword breakfast recipe, cinnamon roll bake, cinnamon roll breakfast

Have you tried this recipe?

Share a review below or share on Instagram with the tag #tastesoflizzyt.