I Could Eat an Entire Pan of These 4-Ingredient Sweet Rolls (I Never Buy Canned Cinnamon Rolls Anymore!)

Holiday food can be a little bit overwhelming. Whether you cook a big meal for Christmas Eve, the big day, or even both, that’s the meal that’s probably taking up the most real estate in your mind. I’ve certainly been in the position of planning a special meal for guests — or even just for my husband — and forgetting that there’s a whole day before dinner for which I haven’t given one single thought to what we’re going to be eating. 

Lots of people do big holiday brunches in addition to dinners, but I am just not that ambitious. I need that breakfast to be super-easy, but not feel lazy or thrown together. I want it to feel special, but not require a ton of effort or planning, which is (one of many reasons) I love Stroud’s cinnamon rolls. 

Unlike your typical iced cinnamon rolls, these singular treats — which originally hail from Stroud’s Oak Ridge Manor in Kansas City, Missouri — are a soft, lightly sweetened dinner roll-style roll absolutely drenched in cinnamon-sugar butter, with no icing in sight. They’re unexpected and knee-bucklingly delicious. I didn’t know what to make of them the first time I was presented with one when I was working as a recipe developer at America’s Test Kitchen, where they were developing a recipe for the rolls based on the restaurant’s dish. But then I bit into one and became instantly obsessed. They are, without a doubt, the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had in my life.

All of that said, they’re a lot of work. Making these rolls requires making dough from scratch and then letting it rest for hours, ideally overnight. They’re worth every bit of the effort, but during the holidays, I don’t have the time or planning skills to get these ready in advance, so I turn to a time-saving cheat: store-bought dough. 

I give store-bought dough the same butter and cinnamon-sugar treatment I would give homemade dough, but it takes about half an hour from start to finish instead of several hours plus an overnight rest. While they’re not exactly the same as homemade, the rolls are still soft, warm, and delicious, and drenched in salty-sweet cinnamon-sugar butter, so no one is even a little bit sad. And I don’t have to stress about breakfast on Christmas morning. Win-win.

1. Grease a baking dish well. Sugar is sticky, so either grease a baking dish well with butter or spray liberally with vegetable oil spray.
2. Make the cinnamon-sugar mixture and melt the butter. The amount you make depends on the number of rolls you’re baking. For six rolls, I use 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Melt the butter and transfer to a wide bowl or shallow dish. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a second bowl or shallow dish with a hefty pinch of kosher salt. (You should be able to taste the salt, but it shouldn’t be “salty.”) Reserve about 1/4 cup of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. 
3. Prepare the rolls. Dredge each roll in melted butter, covering all sides. Then coat the buttered roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Repeat with the remaining rolls.
4. Arrange and bake the rolls. Depending on the rolls you’re using, you may need to leave a bit of space between them so they have room to grow in the oven. It is totally fine (even preferable) for them to wind up touching. Bake the rolls according to the package directions.
5. Make cinnamon-sugar butter. While the rolls are in the oven, combine any leftover melted butter with the reserved cinnamon sugar. You only need a few tablespoons of butter here (if you didn’t have enough left over, feel free to melt some more).
6. Finish the rolls. When the rolls are done baking, use a pastry brush to brush the tops with cinnamon-sugar butter.

• Use un-baked store-bought rolls. This can be refrigerated dough or par-baked rolls from the freezer section (though you should let those defrost a bit before dredging, which will help the butter adhere to them). Avoid fully-baked rolls, since they’ll be going back in the oven.
• Make as many as you need. The beauty of not following a strict recipe is that you can make as many or as few rolls as you need, rather than a pre-determined batch. I’ve made as few as four rolls at a time and as many as 12.