By Shannon Deady
Columnist
Whether it's from Trader Joe’s or ingredients found in my kitchen, I always like to have pizza dough in the fridge when making fun dishes for my family. I wanted to try a creative spin on a classic recipe and remembered that my brother had been craving homemade Cinnabons, so I thought why not try using pizza dough?
The idea of using a dough usually reserved for savory tastes to make a sweet treat was kind of daunting to me, but I found it works just as well as any other pastry dough. My family of four finished all dozen of the buns that this recipe made in just a few hours. This is the perfect simple and cheap recipe for a warm treat to share with friends back at school as the coldest winter months set in.
Servings: 12 small cinnamon buns
Ingredients:
Cinnamon buns
-One Trader Joe's pre-made pizza dough (you can also use your own if you have it!)
-2 tablespoons butter softened
-2 teaspoons cinnamon
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-Flour for working dough
Homemade cream cheese icing
-1 tablespoon butter
-1/4 cup powdered sugar
-2 tablespoons cream cheese
-2 tablespoons water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare a round cake pan or pie dish by greasing with butter or baking spray of choice. Allow the additional three tablespoons of butter to soften at room temperature while you prepare dough.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before dusting with flour and rolling out into a rectangular form.
- Start by spreading butter as evenly as possible onto the now rectangular dough making sure to reach all corners and edges.
- Mix cinnamon and brown sugar together and sprinkle evenly on top of buttered dough.
- Roll dough from smaller end into a cylinder form and cut in 12 even pieces.
- Place 12 buns into greased pie dish or cake pan so that they are just touching or only have a small space in between them.
- Place in oven and set timer for 20 minutes. Now, it's icing time while they bake!
- Place softened butter, cream cheese and water in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 30 seconds.
- Take out and stir mixture. Once blended slowly stir in powdered sugar in small increments, adding more water if necessary.
- Remove cinnamon buns from oven and coat in icing while hot. Let cool and enjoy!
