The Trader Joe's Hack For Easy Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Warm cinnamon rolls straight out of the oven? There's nothing much better than that. But sometimes, the effort of making irresistible cinnamon rolls from scratch — and waiting what feels like forever for them to rise — steers folks away from tackling these baked-good wonders. The secret to bakery-worthy cinnamon rolls without all the extra work lies on the shelves of Trader Joe's. Instead of making your own dough, simply pick up a bag of TJ's pre-made pizza dough and use that as your base.

While using pizza dough for a sweet treat may sound strange at first, pizza and cinnamon roll dough actually share similar ingredients. Trader Joe's Plain Pizza Dough contains enriched flour, water, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, dough conditioner, and cultured wheat starch. In comparison, traditional cinnamon roll dough is made with flour, water, butter, sugar, salt, yeast, and eggs. This combination creates a soft, pillowy yeast dough that is elastic before baking and chewy when baked — perfect for both pizza and cinnamon rolls. While Trader Joe's offers multiple flavors of pizza dough (plain, whole wheat, and garlic and herb), the plain version works best here.

Using Trader Joe's pizza dough is a great time and energy saver, but because it isn't exactly the same as cinnamon roll dough, a few tricks will help ensure your rolls turn out just as fluffy and delicious. First, bring your dough to room temperature before rolling it out on a floured surface. Pizza dough is naturally denser and firmer than cinnamon roll dough and can be difficult to stretch straight out of the fridge, as its gluten strands tighten when cold. Letting it reach room temperature will relax the dough, making it easier to roll out and spread your filling on top.

Trader Joe's Plain Pizza Dough also lacks butter and contains far less sugar than traditional cinnamon roll dough. To ensure your rolls have a rich, sweet taste, add extra cinnamon sugar and softened butter — you should avoid using melted butter when making cinnamon rolls — or an extra drizzle of icing on top to balance the flavors.

Another key tip for perfect cinnamon rolls is baking them at a lower temperature than you normally would. This helps the rolls cook evenly, as pizza dough tends to crisp up around the edges and remain chewier in the center compared to traditional cinnamon roll dough.