Better Than Canned, Vegan Crescent Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting!
If you grew up as an 80’s kid like I did, canned cinnamon rolls were a Saturday morning tradition. Probably the best thing you can really say about canned rolls, as an adult, is that they are quick and easy, crack open the can, plop them into a dish and bake. But would you believe that in the time it takes to preheat your oven you can up your cinnamon roll game by using another canned doughy staple from your childhood? That’s right…we’re talking crescent rolls!
Ever since I realized that canned crescent rolls are are #accidentallyvegan I have been thinking about using them to make some dairy free cinnamon rolls! And...WOW am I glad that I did because these bad boys turned out absolutely amazing. These quick and easy rolls are everything you love about cinnamon rolls and everything you love about crescent rolls all in one bite!
What you are going to need to buy:
Canned crescent rolls. (The Pillsbury brand is vegan!)
Non Stick Cooking Spray
1 cup of White Sugar
3 Tablespoons of Ground Cinnamon
Dairy Free Cream Cheese
Powdered Sugar
Vanilla or Maple Extract
What you are going to need to do:
Preheat your oven to 350.
Yes, the back of the can will tell you to bake at a higher temperature…don’t do it! We are going to bake these rolls at a lower temperature for longer than what you would bake traditional crescent rolls.
Crack open your crescent rolls and carefully unroll them onto a piece of parchment paper.
Do not break apart along the perforated edged into individual pieces. The goal is to get one rectangle of dough.
Take your fingers and gently press the perforated seams that you would normally use to separate into individual crescent rolls back together.
Spray the dough rectangle with the non-stick cooking spray. This is going to give the cinnamon sugar something to stick to.
Combine your cinnamon sugar and sprinkle a liberal amount onto the entire rectangle, leaving a one inch seam on one of the short ends. This is where you will close your rolls and you want the dough to stick to itself after rolled up!
Begin at the opposite end from where you left your sugarless seam and roll the dough onto itself until you get a log. Go slow and try to make sure that the whole log stays together. You can use the parchment to help you roll.
With a very sharp, serrated knife, cut the roll in half, then in half again and one final time so that you have 8 equal pieces.
Lightly spray the pan you are going to bake the rolls in.
Note: I like to bake mine in a round pan but if you want to use a 9 by 9 pan that is fine too but you will want to cut your rolls into 9 pieces so that they fit nicely into 3 rows of three!
Place the rolls onto the center rack of a hot oven and bake for 15 minutes with a piece of tin foil draped over the top of the baking dish. This doesn’t need to be sealed on the edges, just lay flat onto the top. The crescent dough will brown faster than it cooks so you want to guard aganist the tops of your rolls getting too brown, too quick!
After 15 minutes remove the foil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until light golden brown and fluffy!
I like to frost these rolls with cream cheese that I have added just a pinch of powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Personally, I don’t like my frosting to be too sweet because there is so much sugar in the rolls. The tang of the cream cheese is the perfect balance to all the sweetness and butter inside the rolls!
Let sit for 1-2 minutes after baking before frosting.
Enjoy!