I Tried the Viral Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Hack

Canned cinnamon rolls are a summer staple for me and my family. They make for a tasty lazy breakfast over coffee, saving you time to pack up the cooler with drinks and lunches before heading off to the beach for the day. We always have multiple cans on hand, however, I never find that the cinnamon roll is big enough to actually make me feel full. Sure, they’re tasty, but they always come out kind of small. Don’t worry, there’s apparently a solution for this floating around over on TikTok.

Foodies are upgrading their canned cinnamon rolls with heavy cream and a brown sugar glaze on top, which is known as the “viral cinnamon roll hack.” It seems easy enough, and the result looks delicious. The cinnamon rolls surprisingly look homemade compared with the usual store-bought ones that we like to enjoy. Curious, I decided to give this viral cinnamon roll hack a try. Here’s what I thought.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Open a can of refrigerator cinnamon rolls. Break them apart and place them evenly in a casserole dish or skillet. (I used a 8-inch casserole dish for one can.)

Pour heavy cream in the casserole dish until it completely coats the bottom of the pan.

Melt a stick of unsalted butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Mix together with 1/3 cup of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon. Spread the glaze evenly on top of the cinnamon rolls.

Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Top with the provided icing that came with your rolls, and enjoy!

This is absolutely how you should prepare a canned cinnamon roll, and I refuse to make them any other way again. Yes, breaking them apart and placing them in a pan is simple and easy enough. But with this small upgrade, you can enjoy fluffy cinnamon rolls with an ooey-gooey texture that tastes like it came from a bakery. It’s honestly kind of wild how much of a difference it makes.

First, the texture of the cinnamon rolls ends up soft and fluffy from the heavy cream. The rolls expand to two times their size as well, which is shocking when you compare it to what the canned cinnamon rolls normally look like once they’re out of the oven. The brown sugar glaze accentuates the flavor of these rolls even more, making up for the very small amount of brown sugar inside the rolls themselves. Really, I’m not kidding when I say I’ll never make them without doing this hack ever again.

Add even more to the center: Want to get creative with the flavor of your cinnamon rolls? Before breaking them apart, roll out the dough on a clean surface and add any other fillings you desire for these rolls. Orange zest? Chocolate chips? Finely chopped strawberries? Spread them evenly, then roll the dough back up and break them apart like you normally would.

Serve immediately: The icing for these upgraded cinnamon rolls will seep into the dough when they are warm. So I highly recommend either serving them immediately after adding the icing, or to wait until they are cooled slightly before icing the tops.