What is your favorite holiday tradition? Thanks to my partnership with Pillsbury™, I’m sharing my holiday memories, favorite traditions and a fantastic quick and festive Cinnamon Roll recipe hack for the holidays that will dress up your breakfast and make everyone smile!
As the sun peeks above horizon, I hear the first pitter-patter down the hallway, followed quickly by the whispered gasps of excitement and the rustling of presents under the tree. Christmas morning has arrived!
The first whiff of coffee tickles my nose (as I was smart enough to set it on a timer the night before knowing it would be an early rise,) as my bedroom door creaks open. In seconds, I know the kids will be bouncing on my bed, begging to see what Santa delivered.
From the time I was the child bubbling over with enthusiasm, Christmas morning nestled in my heart as the epitome of what a wonderful holiday memory should be filled with – elation, joy, love, and family all couple with the scents of coffee and cinnamon.
Before the mayhem ensued, my parents always filled a cup of coffee for themselves and whipped up a quick breakfast for us. Generally, this meant fresh cinnamon rolls or apple-cinnamon coffee cake, a breakfast we all looked forward to on Christmas morning as a special treat and one we sure gulped down quick!
In all honesty, I can’t recall most of the presents I received each Christmas morning but to this day, the scent of cinnamon always makes me think of home.
As an adult, I’ve carried on the same, simple yet rich Christmas traditions with my children. Even though my sons are in their teens, I still awake to muffled sounds of delight as they discover that magical stack of presents that appeared under the tree. Thankfully, they no longer wake us up by jumping on the bed, though, ha ha! (They do, however, make just enough noise to stir us from sleep!)
The first thing I do, is the first thing my father did each Christmas morning, I pour a cup of coffee and serve up a quick breakfast, making sure there’s plenty of cinnamon rolls to go around! This year, I’ll be trying something new that I know my children will be ga-ga over. I’m making my cinnamon rolls more festive than ever.
Why change the tried-and-true, deliciousness of Pillsbury Grands!™ Refrigerated Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing? I’m not! Seriously, why mess with perfection? They are awesome just the way they are. But while you can’t improve something that’s already perfect, you can enhance it.
You see, I really strive to make our holidays special around here. I want Christmas day to be like no other. I want everything from breakfast to our traditional family dinner to be festive and out-of-the-ordinary, something we all look forward to on that one special day of the year.
But I don’t want to spend any extra time in the kitchen on Christmas morning. So I don’t! I’m simply re-thinking the way I present the scrumptious cinnamon rolls we all eagerly enjoy – similar to the way we wrap up presents, for the sheer surprise of it!
My holiday recipe hack morphs Pillsbury Grands!™ Refrigerated Cinnamon Rolls in a merry morning cinnamon roll pie with cinnamon dusted cream cheese frosting. It’s not only super simple to make but are ridiculoulsy-delicious (yup, I sure have sampled ’em! Every Christmas morning cook must submit to a taste test first, right?)
This hack add only about 2 minutes of extra prep to your cinnamon roll bake time, but it will be a quick two minutes well spent when you see how joyful and jolly it turns out!
Step-by-Step Cinnamon Roll Holiday Breakfast Hack
First and most important – Prior to the holiday, pop over to Walmart to purchase Pillsbury Grands!™ Refrigerated Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing (5 ct 17.5 oz Can)
On the morning you are making cinnamon rolls, grab your Pillsbury Grands!™ Refrigerated Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing and your favorite pie tin.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (F).
Remove cinnamon rolls from package and separate. Set each roll on a cutting board and cut each roll into 4 equal pieces (you should have 4 triangle shape pieces of cinnamon roll per roll.)
Line pie tin with cinnamon roll pieces, keeping our rim of cinnamon roll to the outer edge of the pie tin. (as pictured below.) As you can see, by cutting the rolls, you are able to easily create an outer edge for your cinnamon roll pie!
Another bonus of cutting the cinnamon rolls in pieces is infusing cinnamon flavor throughout every inch of the pie -trust me, you are totally going to love the results!
Fill in the remaining spaces of the pie tin with the cinnamon roll pieces, alternating direction as needed to ensure there are no large gaps between pieces (as pictured below.)
When oven is preheated, bake for 20 minutes or until top of cinnamon roll pie is golden brown. Remove cinnamon roll pie from oven, set on cooling rack for 3 minutes.
Use a spatula to spread cream cheese icing completely over the top of the cinnamon roll pie. Lightly sprinkle ground cinnamon atop the cream cheese icing.
Slice cinnamon roll pie into 8 equal slices, serve and enjoy!
For an extra-special touch, I’ll be adding festive candy sprinkles to our cinnamon roll pie just before serving as I love to glitz up the holiday servings. You can also serve the cinnamon roll pie with any of your favorite breakfast sides like sausage, ham, bacon or eggs.
What is your favorite holiday moment or memory? Have you made it a tradition?
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