Quick & Easy Cinnamon Roll Biscuits: Your New Favorite No-Yeast Breakfast Treat
Imagine the warm, sweet comfort of traditional cinnamon rolls combined with the irresistible flakiness of homemade biscuits. That’s exactly what you get with these incredible Cinnamon Roll Biscuits! Forget about yeast, lengthy rising times, and complicated techniques. This recipe brings all the flavors you love to your table in under 30 minutes, making it the ultimate solution for a quick and delicious breakfast, brunch, or anytime treat.
Cinnamon rolls and buttermilk biscuits— separately, they’re two of the most beloved baked goods. But when you combine their best qualities? Pure magic! If you’re a fan of both, then you are truly in luck. This recipe delivers a scrumptious fusion you absolutely don’t want to miss. It’s a delightful twist that offers all the comforting flavors without the usual waiting game.
Why You’ll Fall in Love with These No-Yeast Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
These Cinnamon Roll Biscuits aren’t just a recipe; they’re a revelation for anyone craving that classic cinnamon roll experience without the time commitment. Here’s why they’re about to become a staple in your kitchen:
- Incredibly Easy to Make: The biggest draw is undoubtedly their simplicity. With no yeast required, you bypass all the kneading and rising, cutting down your prep time significantly. Even novice bakers can achieve impressive results.
- Ready in Under 30 Minutes: From mixing bowl to your breakfast plate, these treats are astonishingly fast. This makes them perfect for busy mornings, unexpected guests, or spontaneous cravings.
- Flaky & Buttery Perfection: They boast the signature flaky, tender texture of a classic biscuit, achieved by incorporating cold butter into the dough. Each bite offers a delightful contrast of crisp exterior and soft interior.
- Warm & Gooey Cinnamon Centers: Just like a traditional cinnamon roll, these biscuits are generously swirled with a sweet, aromatic cinnamon sugar filling that becomes wonderfully gooey as it bakes.
- Irresistible Sweet Icing: A simple, pourable vanilla icing provides the perfect finishing touch, adding an extra layer of sweetness and moisture that truly elevates these biscuits.
- Versatile Treat: Whether you’re looking for a quick breakfast, an impressive brunch addition, a comforting dessert, or a cozy afternoon snack with coffee, these cinnamon roll biscuits fit every occasion.
They’re cozy, comforting, and utterly irresistible – a perfect blend of two beloved pastries, designed for maximum flavor with minimal effort. Prepare to delight your taste buds and impress your family and friends with this ingenious hybrid!
Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Fall in Love with These No-Yeast Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
- Essential Ingredients for Your Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
- Step-by-Step: How to Make Fluffy Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
- Prepare Ahead: Make-Ahead & Freezing Tips
- Expert Baking Tips for Perfect Biscuits Every Time
- Get the Full Recipe
- More Irresistible Cinnamon Roll Recipes
Essential Ingredients for Your Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
Crafting these delectable cinnamon roll biscuits requires a selection of common pantry staples. The magic truly lies in how these simple ingredients come together, especially when handled with the right techniques. For a successful bake, pay close attention to the temperature of your butter and buttermilk – cold is key!
Baking Tip: The Secret to Flaky Biscuits: Why Cold Ingredients Are Crucial
The hallmark of a truly great biscuit or scone is its light, airy, and flaky texture. This desirable characteristic is largely thanks to the tiny pockets of cold butter distributed throughout the dough. As these bits of butter encounter the heat of the oven, they melt and release steam, which creates separation between the layers of dough, resulting in those beautiful, towering flakes.
If your butter is too warm, it will fully incorporate into the dry ingredients rather than remaining in distinct pieces. Without these small pockets of solid fat, you lose the crucial steam-producing mechanism, leading to dense, flat biscuits. Therefore, always start with butter and buttermilk (or milk) straight from the refrigerator. Work quickly when handling the dough to prevent the butter from warming up. In a particularly warm kitchen, you can even chill your shaped biscuits on the baking sheet for 15 minutes in the freezer before baking to ensure optimal flakiness. The colder the butter, the flakier your biscuits will be!
Step-by-Step: How to Make Fluffy Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
Making these cinnamon roll biscuits is a straightforward process that yields incredibly rewarding results. Follow these simple steps for perfectly flaky and gooey treats every time:
- Prepare Your Dry Ingredients: In a spacious mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and a touch of granulated sugar. Whisking these ingredients together ensures even distribution of the leavening agents, which is essential for a good rise.
- Incorporate Cold Butter: Add your cold, cubed unsalted butter to the dry mixture. Using a pastry blender, two knives, or even your fingertips, cut the butter into the flour until the pieces are roughly the size of small peas. Remember, keeping the butter cold is vital for that signature flaky texture!
- Form the Dough with Buttermilk: Create a small well in the center of your butter-flour mixture. Pour in the cold buttermilk. With a spatula or large spoon, gently stir until the ingredients just begin to come together. Turn the shaggy dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface.
- Fold for Flakiness (No Kneading Required!): This is where the magic happens for biscuit texture. Lightly flatten the dough with your hands, then fold it over onto itself. Repeat this gentle fold-and-flatten process two more times. This method helps create distinct layers without overworking the dough, preventing tough biscuits.
- Roll Out & Add Sweet Filling: Lightly flour your work surface as needed and roll the dough into a large rectangle, about ¼-inch thick. Evenly spread melted butter over the entire surface of the dough. In a separate small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon, then sprinkle this sweet mixture generously over the butter.
- Create the Cinnamon Roll Shape: Starting from one of the long ends of the rectangle, tightly roll the dough up into a uniform log. This tight roll ensures beautiful, defined cinnamon spirals in each biscuit.
- Slice into Rounds: Using a very sharp knife or even unscented dental floss for cleaner cuts, trim off the slightly uneven ends of the log to create neat edges. Then, slice the log in half, then each half in half again, and finally slice each quarter into thirds to yield 12 individual biscuits.
- Arrange for Baking: Place the biscuit rounds snugly into a parchment paper-lined quarter-baking sheet pan or a 9×13-inch baking dish. Arranging them close together helps them rise taller and stay moist.
- Bake to Golden Perfection: Bake in a preheated 400°F (200°C) oven for 18-22 minutes. The biscuits are done when they are beautifully puffed up and lightly golden brown on top. Avoid overbaking to maintain their tender, gooey centers.
- Whip Up the Icing: While the biscuits cool slightly, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a small bowl until you achieve a thick but pourable icing consistency. Adjust milk quantity for desired thickness.
- Drizzle & Serve: Drizzle the luscious icing generously over the warm cinnamon roll biscuits. For a set glaze, allow them to cool for a few minutes. For ultimate gooeyness, serve them immediately and enjoy every warm, sweet, and flaky bite!
Prepare Ahead: Make-Ahead & Freezing Tips
One of the many advantages of these cinnamon roll biscuits is how wonderfully they lend themselves to make-ahead preparation. This makes them an ideal candidate for holiday breakfasts, special brunches, or simply ensuring you always have a delightful treat ready to bake with minimal fuss. They freeze exceptionally well and can go straight from the freezer to the oven!
While these biscuits are undoubtedly best enjoyed fresh from the oven on the day they’re baked, you can significantly reduce your morning prep by doing the bulk of the work in advance. Here’s how to do it:
- To Freeze (Short Term – Up to 3 Days): Prepare the biscuit rolls up to the slicing stage (Step 6). Once sliced, arrange them on a parchment-lined baking pan. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Store in the freezer for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to bake, simply remove the plastic wrap and place the frozen biscuits directly into a preheated oven.
- To Freeze (Long Term – Up to a Month): For longer storage, follow the same steps as above. After covering with plastic wrap, add an additional layer of aluminum foil for extra protection against freezer burn. This double layer will help maintain freshness for up to a month. Bake from frozen, adding approximately 5-10 minutes to the recommended baking time to ensure they cook through evenly. You’ll know they’re done when they are golden brown and puffed.
- Serving Tip: If baking from frozen, you may want to prepare the icing just before serving, as it’s best when fresh.
Expert Baking Tips for Perfect Biscuits Every Time
Achieving bakery-quality cinnamon roll biscuits is easier than you think, especially when you keep a few key baking principles in mind. These tips will help ensure your biscuits are consistently flaky, tender, and incredibly flavorful:
- Maintain Cold Temperatures: As emphasized, the success of flaky biscuits hinges on cold ingredients. Your butter and buttermilk should be chilled and used immediately from the fridge. The small, visible chunks of cold butter are essential; they melt during baking to create steam, which separates the dough into tender layers. If the butter warms up and fully incorporates into the flour, your biscuits will turn out dense and flat.
- Measure Flour Accurately: Precision in baking is important, especially with flour. This recipe relies on the “spoon and sweep” method, where you lightly spoon flour into your measuring cup and then level it off with a straight edge. Scooping flour directly from the bag can compact it, leading to too much flour and a dry, tough biscuit.
- Avoid Overworking the Dough: After adding the buttermilk, mix the dough just until it barely comes together with a spatula. When you turn it out onto your surface, handle it gently with your hands, using the “fold and flatten” method only a few times. Excessive kneading or mixing develops the gluten in the flour, resulting in tough, chewy biscuits rather than light and tender ones. Less is definitely more here!
- Do Not Overbake: Overbaking is a common culprit for dry, crumbly biscuits. Keep a close eye on them! Biscuits are typically done when their tops are lightly golden brown and they feel puffed. When in doubt, it’s better to slightly underbake than overbake. The beauty of these cinnamon roll biscuits is their gooey cinnamon centers, which can dry out if left in the oven too long.
- Enhance Golden Color (Optional): For an extra rich, golden-brown top, you can brush the surface of your unbaked biscuits with a little extra buttermilk or an egg wash (one egg whisked with one tablespoon of water) just before placing them in the oven. This creates a lovely sheen and a more appealing color.
- Enjoy Freshness: While these biscuits are truly most delightful on the day they are baked – when they are warm, soft, and their centers are perfectly gooey – any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of days. A quick reheat in the microwave or oven can revive some of their tender texture.
Get the Full Recipe: Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
Ready to bake these incredible no-yeast cinnamon roll biscuits yourself? Below is the complete recipe with detailed measurements and instructions. This recipe was originally published in 2011, inspired by the innovative creations from Joy the Baker and Brown Eyed Baker, and has been perfected over the years to bring you the fastest, flakiest, and most delicious version!
Cinnamon Roll Biscuits
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Ingredients
For the biscuits:
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter , cold and cubed
- 1 cup (227 grams) cold buttermilk
For the filling:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
- ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
For the icing:
- 1 cup (113 grams) powdered sugar , sifted
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Equipment
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a quarter baking sheet pan or 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper or grease with nonstick spray.
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In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar. Add the cold, cubed butter and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until butter pieces are the size of small peas.
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Add the cold buttermilk and mix with a spoon or spatula until the dough just starts to come together. Dump the dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and gently bring the dough together with your hands. Pat the dough somewhat flat, then fold it over onto itself. Repeat this gentle fold 2 more times (this creates flaky layers).
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Flour the surface as needed to prevent sticking, then roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about ¼ inch thick.
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Spread the melted butter evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon mixture. Starting from one long side, tightly roll up the dough into a long log. Use a sharp knife or unscented dental floss to cut into 12 individual rolls.
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Place the rolls on the prepared pan. Bake until the rolls are puffed and golden brown, approximately 18-20 minutes. Let them cool slightly in the pan.
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In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until you have a thick but pourable icing. Drizzle generously over the warm biscuits. These biscuits are truly best enjoyed the day they are baked.
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Notes
- These biscuits can be made ahead. Prepare the rolls and freeze them, unbaked, for up to 1-2 weeks. Bake from frozen, adding about 5 minutes to the baking time.
- Be sure to keep butter and buttermilk cold for the most tender and flakiest biscuits.
- Be sure to measure flour correctly using the spoon and sweep method.
More Irresistible Cinnamon Roll Recipes
If you’ve enjoyed the quick and delightful twist of these cinnamon roll biscuits, you’ll surely love exploring other variations of this beloved classic. From traditional yeast-risen versions to festive flavors, there’s a cinnamon roll for every occasion. Check out some of our other favorite recipes: