We’ve got tons of Thanksgiving traditions in my family that I look forward to every year:
Sipping mimosas while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Someone throwing a fit about losing at Scrabble, fueled by the aforementioned mimosas.
Pumpkin pie eaten while watching movies by the fire at night.
Cinnamon rolls to start the day off right.
Yes, before the mimosas, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, turkey and pie – there’s always a warm batch of cinnamon rolls waiting for my brothers and me as we trickle into my parent’s house from our respective neighborhoods.
They’re warm. They’re sweet. They’re covered in thick icing.
They also kind of sit like a rock in your stomach for a couple hours afterwards. Especially the doughy center piece you fought your brothers off for.
Well this year I thought I’d try something new when it came to those special Thanksgiving morning cinnamon rolls. I thought I’d be the one to bring ‘em, so I could scale back the size and sugar quantity a bit, and start the Thanksgiving morning off right with…
Mini Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Icing!
Don’t you just want to pinch their plump, cinnamon-swirled, icing covered CHEEKS? 
These babies are totally awesome, cause you only need to pop one or two (ok probably 3!) to get the comforting taste of an indulgent cinnamon roll, and YOU control the sugar and butter content in them. Plus they’re really easy. Yep, get ready to channel your inner Sandra Lee and bust out a tube of crescent roll dough. One tube will get you 16 mini cinnamon rolls.
Lay half the dough next to each other, and pinch the seams together.
Flip and repeat.
Next take a rolling pin and roll the dough into a square about 1/4″ thick.
Brush on 1 Tablespoon butter,
sprinkle with cinnamon,
and add a dusting of brown sugar.
Roll the dough into one big log, and cut into 8 even slices.
PS you can use as much cinnamon and brown sugar in these rolls as you want. This is a total non-recipe recipe!
Place the rolls into a non-stick sprayed mini muffin tin and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Whee!
Aren’t they the cutest? I can’t even describe how delicious they smelled warm out of the oven!
As the minis bake, mix up a quick icing made with maple syrup, powdered sugar, and a little bit of milk. While the cinnamon rolls were still warm, drizzle a teaspoon or two of the icing on top of each one.
DROOL…
Mini Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Icing
Makes 16 mini cinnamon rolls
Ingredients:
1-8oz tube crescent roll dough
2 Tablespoons butter
cinnamon
brown sugar
For the maple icing:
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 Tablespoon skim milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
- Preheat oven according to crescent roll dough package directions. Layout half the dough (4 triangles) and pinch all the seams together. Flip over and pinch the seams on the back side together too.
- Using a rolling pin, smooth the seams and roll the dough into a square about 1/4″ thick. Brush with half the butter, and sprinkle with as much cinnamon and brown sugar as you want. Roll into a log and cut into 8 pieces.
- Place mini cinnamon rolls into a non-stick sprayed mini muffin tin. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with the other half of the crescent roll dough. Bake according to package directions.
- Meanwhile whisk together maple syrup and milk in a bowl. Add in powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over warm cinnamon rolls.
These sweet, poppable bites are tiny enough to sit on a spoon…
but pack BIG, bold flavor!
I’d advise making a couple batches – they’ll go fast!
Have a wonderful, happy, tasty Thanksgiving everyone!
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What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions?
After seeing these on Pinterest I tried them out today as a test batch before Christmas morning, and they are absoutley delicious and the cutest thing ever!! So simple and fast. I’m hoping I don’t eat this whole batch myself! Thanks again!
Just made these! Delicious and super easy. Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Outstanding! Such a hit!! Added them to annual Christmas Eve Pancake Breakfast! Thanks for sharing!
These are great with dried apples or dried cherries inside the roll, too!
Tried this today and loved it!
Made these for our Christmas breakfast this morning. Oh my goodness, they are so easy and SO good! Thank you for sharing the recipe — this is a new Christmas morning breakfast tradition in our house, for sure!
Yummy! I posted a link to this on my blog…thru my pinterest board.
Thanks!
Jennifer @ The Craft Barn
I am so going to try this but I’m thinking of using the new crescent sheets by Pillsbury! Make this easy recipe even easier.
Loved these. They are amazing!!! Thanks for sharing.
Just made them! Amazing!
Stumbled across your site through Pinterest and I am so glad I did! These are amazing, as are many other of your recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Super cute! I love how easy these are.
I just made these with my 3yr. old and 6 yr. old…super easy and delicious! Iowa..you make me smile!
[...] these little bites of heaven. First of all, I didn’t make up this recipe. My favorite blogger Iowa Girl Eats made up these little beauties. While I didn’t follow the exact recipe I need to give her [...]
“you only need to pop one or two (ok probably 3!) to get the comforting taste of an indulgent cinnamon roll”
Maybe for you, but I ate 8 of them this morning!!
These are great and I added chopped pecans
Made these this morning with generic crescent roll. Taste great but I had a hard time keeping my seams together. What’s the trick?
Pillsbury makes the seamless crescent rolls now! Makes it sooo much easier.
[...] These sheets work just great for this recipe, as you don’t have to pinch together the triangles that come in a tube of regular crescent roll dough, and would also be perfect for 8 Minute Mini Cinnamon Rolls. [...]
[...] iowa girl eats via melissa on [...]
These look sooo good, can’t wait to try them. They will be perfect for company!
Well..sadly i have no brown sugar in this house…and sadly im not onld enought to drive out and get some so could someone please tell me would it mess them up if i just put normal sugar in it? :/
Hi Emily! I’m sorry to say I don’t think white sugar in this recipe would turn out so well. Let me know if you give it a go though!
I made these this morning with the seamless sheet and it worked great. They turned into little popover cinnamon rolls. Yum! Thanks for the recipe. I love your site.
Dropping in to say happy I found your blog, however found it because your content has been lifted here: http://www.bforbel.com/2011/12/teeny-tiny-cinnamon-rolls.html
recipe, directions, a lot of the photos are all there.
These are awesome! I think next time I will invest the extra $0.50 for the Pillsbury dough. The off brand was really sticky and pretty thin, so I had to use some flour to help not make it so hard to work with. They were super easy and easy to make diary free as well! I just subbed butter with Earth Balance “butter” and skim milk with almond milk so my daughter could enjoy them as well.
Thank you for sharing your idea. I also have a daughter that is allergic to all dairy products. And we are always looking for ways to add the fun yummy foods without compromising her health . Can’t wait to try it.
Thanks for sharing your recipe! I made these this morning and they were a wonderful. I made a batch of cinnamon and a batch of carmel. The carmel I melted 2 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon dark karo, 2 tablespoon brown sugar. Microwaved 30 seconds and brushed on top of the rolls then baked them. These will become a staple in my kitchen!!
[...] breakfast, we decided to try something new. We found this recipe for 8 minute cinnamon rolls on the Iowa Girl Eats site and thought we would try it out ourselves. Now, we will say that they definitely took a bit longer [...]
I want to make these – Where oh where do I get Crescent Roll Dough from – not fair if I can’t get it in Australia do you know of a similar substitute?
Looks yummy! Anxious to try.f
Hi! These look so fun! Im wondering where you found a muffin pan small enough to make these fit on a small spoon? Can you just use a sheet pan?
It’s a mini muffin tin. You can find them at Target or Bed, Bath & Beyond!
What if I don’t have a mini muffin tin? Can I just place them on a cookie sheet?
I haven’t tried it, but you probably could!
Thanks! I will give them a try this weekend. By the way, I love your website!
I have made these twice this week and they are fantastic!!
sooo cute! i love all your pics — so helpful. i saw a similar recipe with only a final picture so, as a first time cinnamon roll maker, i had a hard time envisioning the steps. thank you!
[...] I made these cinnamon rolls this morning, but I forgot to take a picture of the yumminess after they came out of the oven. I loved the maple icing. It was to die for! You can find the recipe here: http://iowagirleats.com/2011/11/23/8-minute-mini-cinnamon-rolls/ [...]
WoW delicious!!!
Love these! Thanks for sharing!
These are on THE LIST! I am scared to make them- such a small size is not good for my waist line as I would end up eating a lot of these thinking what harm can such a tiny thing do!
i saw these on Pinterest and just made them today….i cannot stop eating them! these are ridiculously simple and amazingly tasty! well done!
DELICIOUS!!! I made these this morning and I absolutely LOVED them!! Super easy too!
I recently discovered your blog, and it’s good to see the younger crowd cooking. Those Mini Cinnamon rolls are beyond great thinking. At my age I’m ashamed I didn’t think to make them this way. Good Job.
[...] first found this recipe on Iowa Girl Eats, but the above includes my take. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
I just made these this morning and they were a huge hit for my moms’ group! Needless to say, I directed my child towards the fruit, so I could eat his share of the cinnamon rolls… so glad I found you/this recipe via pinterest!
If anyone is interested… if you used 1/2 c brown sugar, and the recipe yields 20… they are only 52 calories
This morning, after I made these cute little rolls, my husband said, “are they really as good as they look?” I proclaimed, “Even Better!”
[...] Minute Mini Cinnamon Rolls (recipe here): 8 minute mini cinnamon rolls || photo [...]
You are right…these are fantastic and easy as well! Came to you via The Lettered Cottage, great blog, great fun to be here…wish your B&B was near me in the South!
I made these and they were delicious! I got vanilla flavored topping for it and it melt in my mouth!
They now make a SHEET OF CRESCENT ROLL dough in a can!!! no more pinching the seams shut.
I’m making these as I type. I’m adding orange zest to the powdered sugar glaze instead of maple. mmm mmmm orange danish
Colleen
Keota IOWA
I can’t wait to make these on Sunday! I love all things MINI
I made these last week for me and my husband. I wanted to try them out before I doubled the recipe for my Bible study group. They were so delicious and very easy to make. I made them on a baking sheet with no problem. I don’t understand how you were able to make them look so pretty though. They wouldn’t stick together, the rolls kept coming undone. They didn’t look very nice, but they tasted great! Any tips on how you rolled them so well would be nice. I’m doubling the recipe early next week.
Make sure you don’t spread the filling all the way to the edges, so the crescent roll can stick to itself. Hopefully that helps!
Maybe try a little beaten egg white on the edge and press to seal down, or water might work too.
Made this as a treat for my kiddos this morning – I didn’t have a mini-muffin pan, but I used a regular size – my kids ate them SOO quickly – they absolutely loved them! Thanks for the great idea! Mom rocked this morning!
Do you think you could freeze these either before or after baking?
I’m not sure as I’ve never tried, but I bet it would work! Let me know if you give it a shot!
These were wonderful………so yummy! Had to laugh though at your recipe calling for skim milk in the frosting!! Like that makes this low cal…….haha………oh well, I just won’t make them very often!
Love your website by the way! Tasty stuff, along with a dose of your cute personality!
Thank you!
And fyi to Jessica, I think you really needed to use the mini muffin pan, that likely keeps them rolled up while baking!