Air Fryer Crescent Roll Baby Cinnamon Rolls

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · crescent rolls swirled with cinnamon sugar, air fried

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The holidays are in full swing and the year 2022 is almost over. Where has the time gone? I feel the year just started! It went by so fast!

I hope you’ve had an incredible holiday season, but we’re not done yet! Are you searching for the ultimate New Year’s Eve party treat? These Mini Cinnamon Rolls are for you! We’ve got the goodness of some awesome Cinnabon cinnamon rolls made with ease with Pillsbury canned crescent rolls!

Not only do the crescent rolls speed up the process by A LOT, but using an air fryer speeds things up too compared to baking in an oven!

If you’re short on time but want to serve a crowd-pleaser for your holiday parties, you gotta give this air fryer baby crescent roll cinnamon roll recipe a try! As I discuss more in my free guide Make Cooking Fun!, my top 5 tips to explore your potential in the kitchen, you really should use up what you have! I actually had a second can of canned crescent rolls after I had made my Air Fryer Mini Pigs in a Blanket, since I thought I was going to need two cans but I ended up only needing one! Furthermore, I had making cinnamon buns on my bucket list on my bucket list Live to Cook one-month challenge!

Don’t forget to watch the video to see how easy these Air Fryer Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls are to make, even if it’s a last-minute decision! If you’re not already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell button so you receive all of the notifications when a new video recipe goes live! I love to share the video recipes to give you a tangible view of the recipe that will guarantee you success! Let’s get baking!

Why You’ll Love Air Fryer Crescent Roll Cinnamon Buns

• Few ingredients: We save so many ingredients by using the canned Pillsbury crescent rolls to make the buns themselves! Otherwise, the vanilla icing and the brown sugar mix each don’t need many ingredients either!
• Beginner-friendly: This is an awesome recipe excellent for cooks of all levels! You still get the experience of making your own cinnamon sugar filling and your own frosting, but you won’t have to stress about making the dough. You can test that out on another occasion!
• Budget-friendly: Cinnamon rolls made with the crescent rolls are very cheap! Probably the priciest part of the recipe will actually be the crescent rolls themselves, and even then they will not make the slightest dent in your wallet! All other ingredients in this recipe are typical commodities that you probably already have on hand so you won’t have to go out of your way to buy them!
• Fast: This probably is the selling point for this recipe in my opinion! If you want a dessert that looks like you’ve spent tons of time on it but it actually was prepared in a flash, then this is the recipe for you! The crescent rolls bake so well in the air fryer and you save tons of time not having to make your cinnamon roll dough from scratch!

Tools Needed

• Mixing bowl
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Pastry brush
• Rolling pin
• Chef's knife
• Air fryer
• Whisk

Ingredients for Air Fryer Pillsbury Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls

Scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD with all ingredient quantities and instructions to save for later. You can also adjust the recipe based on how many cinnamon rolls you’re craving - whether it’s just for an easy treat or you’er making a lot for a major New Year’s Eve party, everything will automatically adjust for you!

For the Cinnamon Sugar

• Cinnamon
• Brown sugar
• white sugar

For the Vanilla Icing

• Powdered sugar
• Corn syrup
• Vanilla extract
• Water

For the Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls

• Grands! Crescent rolls
• Butter

How to Make Crescent Rolls in the Air Fryer

For the Cinnamon Sugar

Mix together 1 part cinnamon, 2 parts white granulated sugar and 1 part brown sugar. Set aside until needed later.

For the Icing

Mix together the powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla extract and a splash of water using a whisk. Add the water 1 Tbsp at a time to ensure you can control the consistency - you can go for a thinner icing or a thicker kind at this stage.

For the Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls

Open the packaging for the crescent roll and roll out one of the dough portions over a clean baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.

Grab a pastry brush and apply butter all over the surface of the dough. Then grab a generous portion of the cinnamon sugar from earlier and sprinkle/spread all over.

Starting from the shorter edge of the pastry, start rolling the dough into a thick, tight roll. Repeat the same for any remaining portions of the crescent roll dough. Cut the prepared rolls into smaller portions by cutting them into 6 equal portions.

Preheat the air fryer at 360 F for 3-7 minutes. Bake until the pastry has puffed and is golden brown all over.

Pour the icing over the prepared cinnamon rolls and enjoy!

Tips for Soft & Fluffy Air Fryer Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls

• There’s not much you can do wrong to result in these crescent roll baby cinnamon buns not soft and fluffy. Just keep an eye on that golden brown color that you see up there and you will be set.
• In terms of the spirals and adding the cinnamon sugar, be patient and spread well, going edge to edge and roll into a tight even cigar.
• For the frosting, you can adjust the consistency to be as thick or as thin as you want by adjusting the amount of liquid used in the frosting. Instead of water, you can easily use milk or buttermilk.

Serving Suggestions Air Fryer Cinnamon Buns with Crescent Rolls

These Air Fryer Pillsbury Crescent Rolls cinnamon buns are totally satisfying enough on their own for a breakfast, snack or dessert!

However, I really recommend them as part of a magical holiday brunch. To make these part of a wholesome meal for a special occasion, you could pair them with a savory egg dish. Some ideas include a Classic French Omelette, a Cheesy Egg Souffle or an Authentic Croque Monsieur or Croque Madame! If you want to have a spread of finger food, I recommend a Homemade McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin, McDonald’s Breakfast Bagels, Deviled Eggs, a Tim Horton’s Farmer’s Wrap, or even Pepperoni Pizza Bagels!

For beverages, you can’t go wrong with coffee or hot chocolate! If you’re like me and you love chocolate, a simple Cafe Mocha will be awesome with these! You could even have White Hot Chocolate or a Pumpkin Spice Latte for more cinnamon goodness! If you want a cold beverage, try my Iced Eggnog Dalgona Latte to keep the holiday theme or for the chocolate lovers, try out my Chocolate Cream Cold Brew!

Storing Leftover Mini Cinnamon Buns

This Air Fryer Mini Cinnamon Buns recipe will totally make an amount of cinnamon buns that are perfect for a party! However, if you’re just making these for yourself or for two, one crescent roll will yield plenty that you probably won’t be able to eat in one sitting (but if you do… I won’t judge!). All you need to do is simply transfer the leftover baby cinnamon buns into an airtight container in the refrigerator.

I recommend you reheat in the air fryer for best results. If you don’t have an air fryer, you can reheat in the microwave, but I found that it made the cinnamon buns too soft and they lost their crispiness on the edges and they just became doughy.

If reheating in the air fryer, simply heat at 350 F for about 2-3 minutes or entirely warmed through.

Air Fryer Cook Time, Batches and Basket Size

Cook time is the thing to watch here, because air fryers vary far more than ovens do. The recipe runs the air fryer at 360 F with a 3 to 7 minute window and tells you to judge by colour rather than the timer — pull them once the pastry has puffed and gone golden brown all over. In a conventional oven the same rolls want 375 F for 12 to 15 minutes. One package of crescent rolls gives you 12 baby rolls, and depending on the size of your air fryer they will not all fit at once. Work in batches, in a single layer, with space between them in the air fryer basket so the hot air can move — crowded rolls steam against each other and stay pale where they touch. Set a timer for the low end of the range on the first batch, look at them, then adjust for the rest.

Recipe Tips Worth Knowing

A few small things make the difference. Brush the dough edge to edge: the recipe uses softened butter and a pastry brush, and if yours has come straight from the fridge, melted butter spreads far more evenly. Mix the cinnamon sugar in a small bowl first — 1 part cinnamon to 2 parts white granulated sugar to 1 part brown sugar — rather than sprinkling each one separately, so no roll ends up with a mouthful of pure cinnamon. Roll from the short edge into a tight cigar, then cut the log on a cutting board into 6 even portions with a sharp knife, wiping the blade between cuts so the spirals stay neat. And make the icing while the rolls cook: 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and water added a tablespoon at a time until it pours the way you want it to.

Other Air Fryer Crescent Roll Recipes to Try

A can of crescent rolls is one of the most flexible things in the fridge, and the same air fryer crescent rolls method works for far more than the sweet version. For a savoury appetizer, brush the sheet with melted butter, scatter over garlic powder, italian seasoning and grated cheese, then roll and cut exactly as above and air fry until golden — the result lands somewhere between a garlic knot and a cheese straw. Wrap the triangles around cocktail sausages for pigs in blankets, or around a spear of asparagus with a little parmesan. For other sweet ones, try a spoonful of jam with cream cheese, or chopped apple with brown sugar. They are all easy recipes built on the same three moves — fill, roll, air fry — which is exactly why the can is worth keeping around. If this kind of shortcut cooking is your thing, my free guide Make Cooking Fun! digs into the mindset behind it and lands straight in your inbox when you sign up.

More Holiday Treats!

• Espresso Brownies with Peppermint Mocha Cream
• Deep Dish Pumpkin Pie
• No-Bake Oreo Cream Pie
• HUGE New York Black & White Cookies
• Apple Spiced Caramelized Bananas
• Pumpkin Banana Bread Pudding