Cinnamon Knots with Cream Cheese Icing

Published July 17, 2018

Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon buns, cinnamon twists, monkey bread — who doesn't love gooey, sugary, straight-from-the-oven goodness? 

After an insane Monday, and long weekend of travels, I needed something homey and comforting. 

Cinnamon rolls have been on my "to-make" list. As you've seen these past few weeks, I've thrown away the home-cook perfectionism and have jumped into baking (which isn't my strong suit).

So this week I decided to tackle cinnamon rolls (which I've renamed to cinnamon knots). 

The History of the Cinnamon Roll 

Cinnamon buns/rolls have global influence. The British, Germans, French, and Dutch all have their own versions of dough-based treats that are said to have influenced the creation of the cinnamon bun.

The Swedish are (mostly) credited for combining the first cinnamon bun ingredients. Depending on the country, you will not always find the rich, sugary icing and spices that are known to classic American cinnamon buns.

Inspiring My Recipe | Cinnamon Roll Research

Of course, I started with Pinterest to find a good cinnamon roll recipe. I began my search by finding easy recipes that didn't require yeast (which adds to the baking process). 

From there, I selected a basic recipe to tweak and build upon. 

Cinnamon Knot Ingredients

When I first started this recipe, I thought I was making cinnamon rolls. But they didn't really turn out that way, so I'm going to call them cinnamon knots from now on.  

Here's the main list of ingredients to start with. As always, I added more or less of these ingredients as I began baking. Sometimes I needed more flour. Other times I thought there was too much sugar.

I tweaked the recipe as I went (follow the video for the most accurate measurements). Feel free to use the complete recipe or edit as you go along! 

Cinnamon Knot Instructions 

It was fairly easy to create the dough and filling. The difficulty for this recipe comes when you're handling the dough. 

I kept a small bowl of flour nearby. When the dough became tacky or ripped, I swiped flour across it to repair. 

My Overall Thoughts

The final cinnamon knots with cream cheese icing turned out surprisingly well. 

Since I put less sugar (and also had my dough sit on the counter for an hour), the texture was more like a cake than an airy dough. Which was fine by me, but if you're going for the Pillsbury Cinnamon Bun texture, this recipe isn't for you. 

My cinnamon knots did have a good flavor (rich cinnamon and butter, yum!). But you really need the cream cheese icing to add to the sweetness. You'll see that I didn't add the complete bowl of sugar to my recipe because I thought it would be way too sweet.

My next time making these cinnamon knots, I'll be sure to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar into multiple layers of the dough as I rolled it. I also think I'll try to add more butter to give it a richer flavor.

Overall, for my first time I'm impressed with how these came out! 

K. Martinelli Makes Cinnamon Knots with Cream Cheese Icing 

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