Store-Bought Pizza Dough Is The Secret To Irresistible Cinnamon Rolls

There's nothing like warm, gooey cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven, whether you enjoy them on a holiday morning or just because. The only issue is that making cinnamon rolls from scratch can take up hours of your time.

Luckily, there's a quick workaround that avoids all that hassle — using store-bought pizza dough. The main perk is that the dough is already made, which avoids you having to worry about the mixing, measuring, and kneading. Then, all that's left is to roll it out, add your sugar and cinnamon filling, roll the whole thing up, and cut the dough into cinnamon rolls.

Part of the fun about this is that you still get the homemade feel of putting the rolls together, but you save yourself hours of work. Plus, you've got room to be creative with the frosting and any other flavor additions, such as spices, you'd like to add to your treat.

Besides the mixing and kneading, which both call for quite a bit of effort, cinnamon rolls also need to be risen. Simpler recipes may call for just one rise, but others call for multiple rises which can wind up adding hours of prep work to your day. With store-bought pizza dough, however, you can purchase ready-to-bake options that only require resting long enough to get to room temperature. Some bakers swear by letting the dough rest for up to four hours before working with it, but that's not always necessary when you're just in need of a quick swap.

Another trick to help save yourself some time and effort is to play around with how you shape and cut the dough. Once you've spread on your cinnamon sugar filling and rolled the dough into a log, you can use a pizza cutter to effortlessly shape your dessert into even rounds. Then, you can even pop them into muffin tins to better hold their shape as opposed to the usual baking dish.

Although using pizza dough as a cinnamon roll base can be an easy swap, it's important to note that it has a different flavor. Pizza dough doesn't have as much sugar as cinnamon roll dough does, which can lead to a more bready dessert. Still, this can create a more neutral backdrop for playing around with unique flavor add-ins for your treat. Play around with adding toppings to your cinnamon rolls, such as adding berries to them or infusing the frosting with caramel or maple flavorings.

The one thing to note is that when choosing a store-bought pizza dough, be sure to look at any flavor add-ins it has. A rosemary pizza dough might add a sweet herbal note to your cinnamon rolls, but a basil or Italian seasoning infused option could create a strange savory imbalance that doesn't work with the sweet filling. Still, it can be a time and effort-saving alternative when you don't want to bother with the hours of work that go into traditional buttery cinnamon rolls.