These Honey Butter Cinnamon Rolls are made with leftover or store-bought pizza dough, which means you don’t have to wait for them to rise before baking them! Perfect for hungry mornings!
There’s not much better in this world than fresh, homemade pizza. Especially when it comes straight out of a wood-fired brick oven. We’re pretty lucky because Nick’s cousins happen to have such an oven in their back yard. So we make homemade pizza quite frequently. And it’s still just about the best thing ever.
On lazier days, we’ll buy store-bought pizza dough and pile the pies high with fresh toppings. Buffalo chicken and pesto with lots of veggies are among the favorites. When we’re feeling a little more motivated, we’ll make homemade dough from scratch.
Not too long ago, we made some homemade dough. We made 2 batches, and then realized that each batch made 4 crusts. Since we didn’t quite need 8 pizzas to feed our group, I ended up with a few extra dough balls. A couple nights later, I made calzones for dinner. But after pizza and calzones, we were kind of Italianed out.
So I started thinking about what else I could use the pizza dough for. I always, always want to make cinnamon rolls but there’s one problem. With most recipes, you need to make the dough, let it rise, roll the cinnamon buns, let them rise again, and then bake. Who wants to wait that long for breakfast!? Unless you get up before the sun, your cinnamon rolls aren’t going to be ready until lunchtime.
So I wondered if you could just use pizza dough? They may not turn out as fluffy as traditional cinnamon rolls, but surely any freshly baked dough covered in butter and cinnamon has got to be good, right? Kinda like breakfast garlic knots!
I decided to use honey instead of sugar. First, because honey butter is the best. And second, because Nick’s sister orders honey at pizza places to dip her crust in… and honey-covered pizza crust is pretty much magical. Do other people do this? I had never heard of such a thing but the pizza places never seem to blink when she asks!
Anywho, these little nuggets of deliciousness turned out fabulously. I ate a few with my coffee the first morning and then decided I didn’t need to sugar-crash all week so the rest became dessert! Whether you eat these for breakfast or dessert, they are perfect little easy treats.
You can use this homemade pizza dough recipe if you need one!
- 1 lb pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ⅓ cup honey, plus extra for drizzling
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan or an 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick spray, or grease with extra butter.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 16x10-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle it with cinnamon and drizzle honey over it.
- Tightly roll the dough into a log starting from one long end. Cut the log into 12 rolls, about 1½-inches each. Arrange rolls in the prepared baking dish.
- Bake the rolls 25 to 30 minutes until the rolls are lightly browned and centers no longer doughy.
- Serve warm.
What a great use of pizza dough. These are making me hungry. I’ve never heard of dunking pizza crust in honey before, but it definitely sounds like something I need to try.
How cool to have a wood fire grill nearby. It’s my dream to have one someday. ?
Homemade pizza is definitely the best! How fun that you can use that type of oven whenever you want! And these cinnamon rolls are seriously the cutest! Such a great idea, Jess! I would gladly save some pizza dough for these cinnamon rolls. And I have no doubt that I would devour this ALL in no time! Yum!
You know someone with a brick oven in their back yard?! OMG, I’m jealous! I LOVE these rolls, girlfriend! Honey butter and pizza dough?!! YAHS! I want to eat a dozen of these for breakfast! Cheers, girl!
I know!! It’s pretty awesome!! Thanks, Cheyanne!
We eat a ton of pizza too and I love the idea of using pizza dough to make these cinnamon rolls!! And the honey butter parts sounds pretty amazing right now! How about we have pizza for dinner and then these pizza cinnamon rolls for dessert?!
Yes, please!! 😉
Wow, these are so quick and simple and look absolutely delicious!! I looove homemade pizza – I’m so jealous you have family with one in their backyard! This was a wonderful use of the extra dough 🙂
What a great idea to use the pizza dough in the cinnamon rolls, Jess! I love that you used honey in them too, I’m a huge honey butter lover. I’m kind of wishing I had a batch of these right now 🙂
This is SUCH a genius way to use up a surplus of pizza dough! I almost always have some in my freezer. 😉 That honey butter sounds SO good too!
I’m totally jealous about this backyard brick oven situation! Eight pizzas does sound like a lot and this cinnamon roll idea is the perfect use of all that extra! I’ve never tried dipping my pizza crust in honey. I usually just toss it aside because all the good stuff is gone. 🙂 Love the honey butter cinnamon combo!
I know!! Someday I’ll have one in my own backyard!! 😉 Thanks, Rachelle!
Okay I am literally drooling while looking at these…I should really stay away from here when I am hungry! This is such an awesome idea – I can’t wait to try it, Jess!
Thanks, Annie! They are soooo easy. And you can’t go wrong with fresh-from-the-oven dough. 🙂
I am so jealous of your easy access to a wood-fired brick oven! That is awesome!
I’d never heard of dipping pizza crust in honey before, but it really sounds like a delicious idea, now that I think of it, and this recipe would be so great for leftover dough. Can’t wait to try it out!
It’s pretty amazing. Somehow we don’t ever get sick of pizza, either! The honey was awesome– definitely try it!!
Honey is absolutely a favorite food of my husband’s and he dunks all rolls and biscuits in it. Never pizza though! I’ve not tried that or heard of it for that matter. He dunks his in ranch.
I think you’re on to something here.
Kinda hooked on Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough, so that’s what I used. Spread with passionfruit honey butter from Sam’s and a tad brown sugar and lots of Penzeys cinnamon! In the oven now…