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These Cinnamon roll bars feature a simple blondie recipe base with cinnamon sugar swirl and cream cheese icing for all cinnamon roll lovers.
Cinnamon Rolls are actually a favorite in our household! But they always require so much planning. Yes, there are recipes that the recipes that promise to take just 1 hour. But honestly it never works out that way. Plus cinnamon rolls always make my kitchen a mess.
These cinnamon roll bars though, are a no mess dessert. No, they won’t exactly satisfy that craving for those soft doughy rolls, but their flavor comes really close.
We start with a blondie base (they’re like brownies without the chocolate), swirl in a cinnamon sugar mixture and then top it with a cream cheese glaze when they come out of the oven.
These cinnamon roll bars are perfect snack with coffee or tea!
I love making blondies and brownies, because they are so easy to make and because they use melted butter you can whip up dessert on a whim! These pecan caramel cheesecake brownies are another dessert that don’t require a lot of waiting around!
A little about these Cinnamon Roll Bars
- They have the flavor profile of cinnamon rolls: buttery, gooey, and warm flavors from the cinnamon.
- Don’t skip the cream cheese glaze. I mean, you could. But it adds just the right amount of tang to balance the sweet and buttery flavors.
- The texture of these blondies are moist and gooey. We add both white and brown sugar and just enough flour to give it the structure to get that texture just right.
- Although we swirl in the cinnamon sugar mixture into the blondie batter it doesn’t retain the pattern after baking. So don’t fret about the swirly design!
- Once the bars are baked, wait at least about 10 minutes before adding the icing so it doesn’t melt completely.
- I initially cut them up into 12 rectangles, but they are dense and rich. I recommend cutting the rectangles into triangles.
- I recommend baking these in a 8-inch by 8-inch pan so they are a little taller.
How to make Cinnamon Roll Bars
There are three parts to this recipe:
- Blondie Base,
- Cinnamon Swirl Mixture and
- Cream Cheese Glaze
Blondie Base
The base for this recipe is a blondie base. It is a simple batter made with melted butter, brown and white sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and salt.
Try not to over-mix the batter when you add in the dry ingredients to avoid a cakey texture.
Transfer the mixture to an 8-inch x 8-inch pan. I like this pan by Wilton!
Cinnamon Swirl Mixture
Melted butter, sugar and cinnamon make up the cinnamon swirl mixture.
The pattern when swirling the mixture won’t matter, as the final product doesn’t have a swirled look.
Cream Cheese Glaze
The glaze is a simple 3 ingredient glaze: cream cheese, powdered/icing sugar, and some milk to thin it out.
The cream cheese should be at room temperature so you can whip it.
Ready to make these Cinnamon Roll Bars?
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Cinnamon Roll Bars
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter melted 113g
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil olive oil or coconut oil are fine
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar 100 g
- 1/2 cup brown sugar dark 100 g
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 90 g
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Cinnamon Swirl
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar 50 g
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup cream cheese soft
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Line an 8-inch by 8-inch pan with parchment paper.
Blondie Base
- In a medium bowl, mix together melted butter, oil, brown sugar and white sugar. Mix until combined
- Add eggs and vanilla extra, and mix until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix until incorporated
- Transfer batter to a 8×8 pan and set aside.
Cinnamon Swirl
- Melt butter, add white sugar and cinnamon.
- Drop cinnamon swirl batter by the spoonful in the pan.Using a butter knife or offset spatula swirl cinnamon sugar mixture into the base batter. The pattern won't matter, but ensure that there is some cinnamon swirl throughout the pan.
- Bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Glaze
- Beat cream cheese until fluffy.
- Add in powdered sugar and mix until combined.
- Add in vanilla and milk to thin out glaze as desired.
- Transfer to piping bag or squeeze bottle if desired.
- Allow the baked cinnamon bars to cool for about 10 minutes. Then drizzle cream cheese glaze either with a piping bag or using a spoon or offset spatula.
- To serve, cut into square or triangles as desired.
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