I have the secret for the easiest homemade cinnamon rolls ever. Instead of making your own dough, use Hawaiian rolls for these absolutely delicious and incredibly simple Hawaiian Roll Cinnamon Rolls!
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I can't get over all the things you can make with Hawaiian rolls. We buy them weekly to make sandwiches, but I also love incorporating them into all kinds of different recipes, especially breakfast recipes.
Hawaiian roll french toast is one of my all-time favorite easy brunch recipes... In fact, I love it even more than french toast on brioche! After making it several times and adding a little too much cinnamon, I started thinking about cinnamon rolls.
I absolutely love making cinnamon rolls, but they're time consuming and a bit messy. They're a commitment to make! But these Hawaiian roll cinnamon rolls are incredibly easy to make, mess-free, and so deliciously satisfying.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
If you regularly crave homemade cinnamon rolls, but don't want the bother of rolling dough out on your countertop and waiting for it to rise, these Hawaiian roll cinnamon rolls are for you!
They're so simple to make and they don't make a mess. It takes less than 10 minutes until you have them in the oven... No rising time involved!
They taste so much better than the cinnamon rolls you make from a tube. They're homemade with a major shortcut!
🗒 Ingredients
You don't need too many ingredients for these Hawaiian roll cinnamon buns- just six! I've listed everything below, but be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions:
- Hawaiian Rolls: I like to use King's Hawaiian sweet rolls, but the savory butter rolls can work, too
- Melted unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar: can use dark if preferred
- Granulated sugar
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
👩🍳 How to make Hawaiian roll cinnamon rolls
I've made so many different homemade cinnamon rolls in my life, but none are so easy as these ones! I love that there's no dough rolling involved.
To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly brush a little of the melted butter into a baking pan. I use a 9x9 pan, but you just need one big enough for the rolls to fit into.
And now you'll slice the Hawaiian rolls horizontally into two halves, keeping them connected in one piece (don’t separate them).
You should have a top half and a bottom half.
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and white sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Brush all but about 2 tablespoon of the melted butter on both the top and bottom halves of the rolls.
And sprinkle all but 1 tablespoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over both buttered halves.
Place the top half of the rolls back onto the bottom half and press them together gently.
Place rolls in prepared pan and brush remaining 2 tablespoon butter over the tops. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of cinnamon sugar mixture.
Cover the pan with foil and pop in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until tops of rolls are caramelized.
Yesss!
But wait, what's a cinnamon roll without an icing drizzle?
This icing is made with just confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and milk or cream. Just put everything in a bowl and whisk together until smooth.
Drizzle the vanilla icing over the warm Hawaiian roll cinnamon rolls.
Now we're talking!
And pull them apart into individual cinnamon rolls.
Honestly, these taste SO close to homemade cinnamon rolls, it's wild. They're made in a fraction of the time with a fraction of the work.
But they're packed with the same tender, buttery, sweet cinnamon flavor of from-scratch cinnamon rolls.
I'm in love with this weekend brunch hack. Actually, they're so easy, Hawaiian roll cinnamon buns can be enjoyed on a weekday morning, too!
Homemade cinnamon buns don't get any easier than this!
⏲️ How to store
In our house, we can eat an entire batch of cinnamon rolls in one morning. But if you do have leftovers, they're easy to store.
When the cinnamon buns have completely cooled, cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil or remove the buns and place them in an airtight container.
When stored properly the cinnamon rolls should stay fresh for 2 days at room temperature. If you want them to last longer, keep them stored in the fridge.
If you store them in the fridge, I recommend popping them in the microwave for a few seconds before enjoying.
Is there anything better than a warm cinnamon roll?
🎉 Variations on recipe
I love the simplicity of these Hawaiian roll cinnamon rolls, but just like with from-scratch cinnamon buns, you can make them in so many different ways!
Here are some fun ideas:
- Add nuts like pecans or walnuts to the cinnamon and sugar mixture
- Add chopped apples to the filling
- Sprinkle chocolate chips onto the rolls
- Add some pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice onto the rolls
- Add fresh or frozen blueberries, raspberries, or chopped strawberries to the filling
- Add rainbow sprinkles to the filling and to the top of the rolls
- Spread a layer of peanut butter onto the rolls before adding cinnamon and s ugar mixture
- Add a layer of cream cheese mixed with confectioners' sugar
🥞 What else can you make with Hawaiian rolls?
Hawaiian rolls are so versatile and there's so much you can do with them. My all-time favorite recipe is this Hawaiian roll french toast:
But you can also make all kinds of fun sandwich recipes. I love these turkey, ham, and swiss BBQ reuben sliders.
And here are some other ideas:
😍 More cinnamon roll recipes
If you want more intensive from-scratch cinnamon rolls, I've got lots of those recipes, too!
Here are some of my favorites:
You can also make easy cinnamon rolls with pizza dough!
Now that I know how ridiculously easy it is to make cinnamon rolls in a pinch, we're going to be having them in my house WAY too often.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
How do you like using Hawaiian rolls?
📖 Recipe
Hawaiian Roll Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 12-count package Hawaiian Rolls (I use King's Hawaiian sweet rolls)
- ½ cup (1 stick) melted unsalted butter divided
- 3 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Vanilla Icing
- ⅓ cup confectioners' sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon milk or cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and brush a little of the melted butter into a baking pan (I use a 9x9" pan).
- Keeping the Hawaiian rolls connected in one piece (don’t separate them), slice them horizontally in half so that you have a top half and a bottom half.
- Brush all but 2 tablespoon of the butter on both halves of the rolls.
- In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and white sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Sprinkle all but 1 tablespoon of this mixture evenly over both buttered halves. Place the top half of the rolls back onto the bottom half, pressing them together gently.
- Place rolls in prepared pan and brush remaining butter over the tops. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Cover pan with foil and place in oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until tops of rolls are caramelized.
- Remove from oven and drizzle vanilla icing over the top
Vanilla Icing
- Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Notes
- Store Hawaiian roll cinnamon rolls in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for 2 days or in the fridge for 5-7 days.
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