Easy Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

Cinnamon and sugar added to crescent rolls and then drizzled with a simple powdered sugar icing is a super easy hack to enjoy cinnamon rolls with your family.

If you enjoy this recipe you may also like Crescent Roll Breakfast Pizza!

Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls

Easy cinnamon rolls baked from a tube of refrigerated dough are a tradition in many homes. Even when premade cinnamon rolls aren’t available they can be easily made by adding a few ingredients to crescent dough. We began making our own cinnamon rolls out of refrigerated crescent roll dough while staying at home in March and April of 2020.

My mom recently taught my son how to add a cinnamon and sugar mixture to buttered toast, so he is putting that mixture on everything including crescent roll dough to make donuts and these cinnamon crescent rolls. Then he mixes confectioners sugar and milk to make icing to drizzle over the top. Let me tell you – these semi-homemade cinnamon roll crescent rolls are DELICIOUS!

When going to school changed to distance learning and we started spending a LOT more time at home my son created these semi-homemade cinnamon rolls with crescent dough. We always have crescent dough in the refrigerator to make our amazing Cinnamon Cream Cheese Bars and super easy BBQ Pulled Pork Crescents.

Our young cook makes these cinnamon crescent rolls for breakfast, brunch, snacks and dessert. He has experimented with many versions and loves topping the warm rolls off with the simple icing from our Cinnamon Applesauce Muffins which is powdered sugar and milk OR water.

Sometimes my sons uses our Cuisinart Air Fryer & Toaster Oven and sometimes he uses the regular oven. The air fryer is nice because all sides become crispy evenly, but there seems to be a very small window where the cinnamon sugar crescents quickly turn from doughy to burnt.

Although the food supply is going through changes I’m confident there is plenty of the raw ingredients needed to make foods on farms. We just have to keep growing and hope that the processing sector can make appropriate adjustments. I find that we’re improvising more. Like when we want garlic toast we’ve learned to make our own Cheesy Texas Toast. I don’t think we’ll go hungry if we’re willing to be flexible.

During this time at home we’ve made a few new comfort food favorites you may also enjoy including Mushroom Swiss Burger Sliders, Crock Pot Lasagna and Buckeye Cookie Bars.

Variations of Crescent Cinnamon Rolls

Quick cinnamon rolls are a fun family tradition and we have tested several versions of this recipe.

We’ve found the cinnamon mixed with granulated sugar and stirred into a pat of melted butter makes the best filling. Butter ads a richness to the sweet sugar and cinnamon adds the home-baked goods flavor that we crave.

Brown sugar can be used, but seems to ooze out of the crescents too quickly. My son originally tested a cinnamon sugar only mixture that is just way too sweet for my palate, but the kids love it of course. In my opinion, the butter blends all of the flavors together in a special, irreplaceable way!

Cream cheese icing like we use on our Frosted Banana Bars or Best Cake Recipe could easily be used in place of our simple icing.

When we have more time we love making these Giant Old-Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls.

Possible Add-Ins:

There are so many ways to customize this recipe. You could mix in

• Mini chocolate chips
• Raisins
• Dried cranberries
• Chopped nuts
• Nutmeg or other aromatic spices
• Substitute milk in icing with orange juice for an orange flavored icing or lemon juice for lemon flavored icing
• Add sprinkles

Tips & Tricks:

• Keep the tube of refrigerated crescent dough cold until ready to use. I usually mix up my filling and have all supplies ready to go before taking them out of the oven.
• A saves a lot of clean-up time!
• Allow rolls to cool a bit before applying icing or it will just run-off. A warm roll will allow more of the icing to soak in.
• If using an air fryer basket use non-stick spray on basket because dough will stick to the wires and be a bit difficult to clean up.
• We prefer the regular oven or the air bake (as opposed to air fry) setting on our Cuisinart Air Fryer & Toaster Oven for this recipe.
• Wait until ready to ice to mix up icing so that it doesn’t dry out.

How to Make Cinnamon Rolls From Crescent Dough

1. Use a non-stick baking mat or lightly spray a baking pan. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Melt butter and stir in brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Unroll cold crescent roll dough onto a baking sheet and separate pieces.
4. Spoon brown sugar filling onto each triangle. Use spoon or fingers to spread out filling.
5. Roll up crescent roll dough and place tip on the bottom side of the crescent roll on the baking sheet.
6. As rolls begin to cool mix up confectioners sugar and milk to desired consistency and drizzle over rolls.

Other Sweet Treats to Eat:

• Chocolate Cream Cheese Crescents
• Cheesecake Cookie Bars
• Pumpkin Spice Bread
• Raspberry German Crumb Cake Bars
• Chocolate Syrup Brownies

Printable Easy Cinnamon Crescent Roll Recipe