Food & Drink

I Tried All the Canned Cinnamon Rolls I Could Find. Here Are My Favorites.

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Sometimes the craving for a cinnamon roll comes on like a freight train. You want that warm, soft, doughy, cinnamon-y goodness and you want it right now. Trouble is, if you make them from scratch the dough needs an hour or two to rise, which means you’re hours away from gratification. What’s a desperate cinnamon-roll lover to do? Pop open a tube.

Luckily, the refrigerator section at the supermarket holds the key to satisfying your craving. Over by the ready-to-bake cookie dough and crescent rolls you’ll find multiple brands of refrigerated cinnamon rolls in tubes ready and waiting for that freshly baked glow-up.

The Most Homemade Tasting: Annie’s Organic Cinnamon Rolls with Icing

There are five generously sized cinnamon rolls in the tube, which take some careful handling to pry apart. What’s great, though, is that they can be baked on a cookie sheet without getting hard or dried out, so you don’t have to get your cake pan out like with most other brands. The roll itself was very soft and tender, like a sweet bun should be, without the biscuit-y tang of Pillsbury. The filling was super-cinnamon-y, and the powdered sugar icing didn’t have any of that fake-butter aftertaste. These delicious doughy beauties, with no artificial flavors or colors, truly tasted like they could pass for homemade.

The Doughiest: Immaculate Baking Organic Cinnamon Rolls with Icing

These are not as easy to find as Annie’s in supermarkets, but other than the packaging, these tubes were nearly identical. Immaculate was just ever-so-slightly doughier. The ingredient list was exactly the same, in the same order. Even the way the rolls were packaged was the same, with two labels that have to be peeled off, and a squeeze packet of icing instead of a tub. Both brands are organic and non-GMO certified, and both stayed relatively soft even the next day. Most other brands were hard and dry by the next morning.

The Most Budget-Friendly: Trader Joe’s Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Icing

I’d be willing to bet money that Annie’s or Immaculate Baking makes Trader Joe’s cinnamon rolls, and that they’re all made in the same facility, because all three have the same packaging and their flavor and texture is nearly impossible to tell apart. That being said, TJ’s ingredient list is slightly different, involving a few more additives like beta carotene for color, plus these rolls aren’t organic like the other two. However, TJ’s cinnamon rolls are nearly two bucks cheaper and just as delicious.

More info: Trader Joe’s Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Icing, $4 for 17.5 ounces

The Gooiest: Kroger’s Ooey Gooey Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls with Icing

If you’re the kind of cinnamon roll lover who likes them best when they’re slathered with lots of icing and cinnamon filling, this is the one for you. Tucked in the can are just four huge rolls, plus a big packet of extra cinnamon filling to squeeze over the top before baking, and a packet of icing to squeeze over the top after. They’re tender, cinnamon-y, and finger-lickin’ messy, with a distinct butteriness that’s reminiscent of movie theater popcorn.

Do you have a favorite tube of canned cinnamon rolls? Discuss in the comments below!

Danielle Centoni

Contributor

Danielle Centoni is a James Beard Award-winning food writer, editor, recipe developer, and cookbook author based in Portland, Oregon. Her latest cookbook is “Fried Rice: 50 Ways to Stir Up The World’s Favorite Grain.”

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