Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
Love baking cinnamon rolls but limited on time to make the dough? With Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls, you can easily have buttery, flakey cinnamon buns in half the time!
If I had to choose what my favorite pastry is, it’d be fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. One of my guilty pleasures, for sure.
I love making and kneading fresh dough from scratch, but one of the challenges is that it’s time consuming; I can’t just whip up cinnamon rolls in an hour.
You need time for the dough to rest and rise before assembling and baking away.
It’s mainly why when I stop by a bakery for something sweet to eat, I’ll go for cinnamon rolls because I never make them often enough at home.
That was until I discovered I can make a small batch of Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls in half the time.
Now I’ve been using puff pastry as a shortcut for apple turnovers and puff pastry Danish since making it from scratch can take anywhere from 2-4 hours.
Why not make cinnamon rolls from puff pastry?
They’re buttery, flakey cinnamon rolls filled with a brown sugar cinnamon filling and crunchy pecans.
To finish, you drizzle them with an easy glaze (similar to my Bundt cake glaze).
Or use my small batch cream cheese frosting if that’s your style.
Ingredients For Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
To make your cinnamon rolls with puff pastry, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Butter: Ensures the rolls don’t stick to the pan and so the cinnamon sugar filling sticks to the dough
- Puff pastry: Can be found in the frozen section near frozen pie crust. It’s not the same as phyllo dough.
- Brown sugar: Sweetens the filling
- Cinnamon: Can’t have cinnamon rolls without cinnamon!
- Pecans: Adds a bit of crunchy texture. I prefer pecans but you can easily use walnuts.
- Powdered sugar: Sweetens and thickens the glaze
- Milk: Thins out the glaze so it’s spreadable
- Vanilla: Flavors the glaze
How To Use Puff Pastry
The key to working with puff pastry is giving it enough time to thaw out (40 minutes or so) without letting it get too warm.
You still want cold dough that is just warm enough to be pliable; otherwise you will tear the dough (and if you do tear the dough, just pinch it back together).
I only used one puff pastry sheet as most boxes contain two, so you can either save the extra to make blueberry turnovers or just double the recipe and make a dozen.
How To Make Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
Here’s how to make this puff pastry cinnamon rolls recipe:
- Brush puff pastry with melted butter.
- Sprinkle cinnamon sugar and pecans on top.
- Roll up with a cylinder then cut into 6 rolls
- Bake at 400F for 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.
- Drizzle with glaze then serve.
Cinnamon rolls with puff pastry are best eaten the day they’re made, but you can eat them the next day with your morning coffee.
How To Decorate Cinnamon Rolls
As mentioned, you can decorate your puff pastry cinnamon buns with a homemade glaze or traditional cream cheese frosting.
However, you can change them up a bit with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, chocolate cream cheese frosting, or even strawberry cream cheese frosting.
Not a fan of cream cheese? Check out my cinnamon buttercream instead.
More Breakfast Pastry Recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe for puff pastry cinnamon rolls, check out these other pastry recipes:
Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls
Love baking cinnamon rolls but limited on time to make the dough? With Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls, you can easily have buttery, flakey cinnamon buns in half the time!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed according to package directions (it should still be cold but pliable enough to roll)
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans (plus more for garnish)
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon whole milk, room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Brush some of the melted butter into 6 cavities of a 6-cup or 12-cup muffin pan.
- Unfold the puff pastry (if the dough is a little warm, you may want to lightly flour the surface). Brush the remaining melted butter on top of the dough.
- In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Sprinkle it evenly on top of the dough.
- Tightly roll up the dough into a cylinder (if the dough starts to tear, just pinch it back together. If the dough starts to get too warm, refrigerate it for 15 minutes or until cold again).
- Cut the dough into 6 even pieces then place into one of the pan cavities brushed with butter. Bake 20 minutes or until the dough is puffed and golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, make the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. It should be slightly thick yet a little runny and hold its shape for a few seconds then smooth itself out when drizzled back into the bowl. If it doesn't hold its shape, add a little more sugar. If it's too thick, add a few more drops of milk.
- Drizzle the glaze over the warm cinnamon rolls then garnish with pecans. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Notes
- Instead of glaze, you can also decorate your cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting, peanut butter cream cheese frosting, or cinnamon buttercream.
- Since you'll likely have 1 sheet puff pastry leftover, use it to make apple turnovers, puff pastry Danish, or puff pastry croissants.
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So nice to see that you continue to give us small batch recipes. I will definitely give these a try. Just one question about left overs, can the cinnamon rolls be reheated?
Thanks for your consideration.
It’s too dangerous for me to have 12 cinnamon rolls ;D Yes, the leftovers can be reheated. I usually put mine in the microwave for 10 seconds or so.
Perfect for unexpected company, quick to make and tasty.
Agreed! You can whip up these cinnamon rolls with ease when company is over.
This certainly sounds easy enough. I have hated trying to work with puff pastry in the past but I might give this a try. LOVE fresh cinnamon rolls.Truth be told….I love fresh cinnamon ANYTHING!!!
The key to working with puff pastry is make sure it’s still cold, even after thawing. I’ve had trouble with warm puff pastry dough before because it gets too warm. Hope you’ll give these a try! :)
While I do already have a recipe for smaller batch cinnamon rolls, I love that this requires less time!
Yes please! I appreciate short cut recipes that are super yummy!
These look absolutely divine. It’s just the hubby and myself in our household (plus furry, four legged kids) so I love that this is a small batch recipe that is easy, breezy to make. I bet the kitchen smells amazing when these are baking. Hmmm. . .perhaps a batch of these in the oven is enough to wake the hubby at a reasonable hour on the weekends.
What an amazing recipe. I love that these come together quickly. Pinned.
puff pastry is miraculous! Cinnamon rolls are ohhh so delicious, and being able to make them quickly makes me a happy Kayle!
Love how easy and delicious these puff pastry cinnamon rolls are.. I definitely have to make them!
These look amazing! Can I refrigerate these overnight and bake in the morning?
Yes! You may need a few extra minutes baking since they’ll be cold going into the oven.
I have made these twice now. Once when the grandkids were sleeping over and once for just the hubby and I. Both times were met with rave reviews! This is a keeper! Thank you for developing small batch recipes for us,
Happy to hear everyone enjoyed the cinnamon rolls!
In the notes above the actual recipe, it suggests that we bake for 20 minutes at 350°F. In the recipe itself, it says we should bake at 400°F for 20 minutes. Which is the correct temperature for the oven? I think puff pastry needs a high oven temperature. Thank you.
Sorry about that! 400F. Sometimes I copy/paste verbiage to save time but forgot to update the temp.