Take one of your favorite breakfast flavors and turn it into dessert with these easy and delicious Cinnamon Roll Blondies. Covered in a cream cheese glaze, these chewy bars are the perfect dessert!
I love cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls, orange rolls pretty much anything that contains roll in the title. But these Cinnamon Roll Blondies really push the limit.
They are absolutely wonderful. They are all that you want in a bar plus some! A delicious blondie batter is swirled with a cinnamon sugar and baked until golden then topped with a cream cheese icing
Literally you have Cinnamon Rolls in blondie form. I really don’t think that you can do much better than that, but like I said I really love cinnamon rolls.
I really like anything cinnamon flavored. This is a great recipe all year long but when the cool weather hits I love making these Cinnamon Roll Blondies because they have this comforting aspect.
Cinnamon screams comfort food to me and that is exactly what this is, but in dessert form. I know we all can find comfort in desserts, me a little more than some.
The best thing besides the flavor of these is that they are so easy! Yes, you will hear that word a lot for me, EASY! Who doesn’t love easy desserts? That’s what I though!
Some of my other favorite cinnamon flavored recipes we have on our site include: Apple Cinnamon Cake, Cinnamon Sugar Biscuit Knots and Cinnamon Cupcakes!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- On hand pantry staple ingredients make these easy to whip up.
- The glaze really complements the blondies whether you zig zag it or spread it.
- These are soft, chewy and the perfect texture you look for in a blondie.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Sea salt
Light brown sugar
Unsalted butter
Eggs
Vanilla extract
Granulated sugar
Ground cinnamon
Cream cheese
Powdered sugar
HOW TO MAKE CINNAMON ROLL BLONDIES, STEP BY STEP:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13 baking dish with parchment paper or spray with baking spray. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
- In a large bowl stir together the brown sugar with the melted butter until combined.
- Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
- Press this mixture into the prepared baking dish, I find using wet fingers for this helps.
- Stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Pour this mixture in two lines down the length of the blondie batter.
- Using a butter knife, make swirls through the cinnamon sugar and dough.
- Bake for 25-30 until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.
- While the blondies cool, make the icing by creaming together the cream cheese and butter in a medium-sized bowl until smooth with an electric hand mixer. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla. Whip on high speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Cut the blondies into bars and zig-zag the icing on top, I like to use a pastry bag for this.
CAN I ADD ANYTHING TO THESE BLONDIES?
Absolutely! Sometimes it’s fun when you get to add other ingredients into the batter, it mixes it up a little bit. Gives it a little different flavor and texture.
Some things that you can add to these blondies are white chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, chopped pecans or walnuts. These are the ones that we have used before.
All of the additions listed really taste amazing, if you really like cinnamon then the cinnamon chips are great, we also love adding pecans because we love pecans in our sticky buns.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BLONDIES AND BROWNIES?
So the main difference between the two is the cocoa powder and melted chocolate that you would use in brownies are not in blondies. We are going for a more base for this.
Blondies are usually on the vanilla side and have a slightly different texture than brownies would. They are still chewy and gooey and obviously delicious but are more able to be flavored and adapted than brownies would be.
Another difference is that blondies usually have brown sugar and/or granulated in them where brownies usually only have granulated sugar. So you hav a more deeper caramel flavor with blondies.
DO I HAVE TO MAKE THE CREAM CHEESE ICING?
No, if you are a plain blondie fan these still have great flavor for the cinnamon sugar mixture that the icing can be left off, but to make them real Cinnamon Roll Blondies we recommend it.
You can also just use cream cheese frosting in a can instead if you want to skip a step and make it quicker as well.
HOW TO STORE:
Frosted blondies need to be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container where they will keep for up to a week.
Any leftover frosting needs to be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Any unfrosted bars can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
These can also be frozen, we recommend doing this unfrosted. Place cooled blondies in an airtight container or freezer bag and they will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Defrost the Cinnamon Roll Blondies on the countertop and then you can make your icing and decorate the tops of the bars.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- There will be a layer of loose cinnamon/sugar on top after the blondies are cooked, I like this because it adds a little crunch/texture to the blondies. If you don’t like this, you can mix in the cinnamon/sugar mixture right into the blondie batter itself. If you are doing this, I suggest adding it in step two after adding the eggs and vanilla. Also, note that the cinnamon/sugar on top can be a little messy when eating.
- If you are only doing the zig-zag design on top of the bars as shown in the photos, you only need half of the cream cheese frosting. If you are frosting the entire dish of bars in a layer of frosting, use the whole batch.
- These can be frozen, see my tips above.
- This can be cut in half and baked in a 9×9-in or 8×8-in baking dish.
- If you want a richer flavor you can use dark brown sugar.
- Feel free to add some mix-ins, see some of my ideas above.
If you are a fan of cinnamon and sugar and love yourself a good dessert, then you have to make a batch of these Cinnamon Roll Blondies, you won’t turn back.
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Cinnamon Roll Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
For the icing:
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 ounces unsalted butter softened
- 1 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper or spray with baking spray. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
- In a large bowl stir together the brown sugar with the melted butter until combined.
- Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
- Press this mixture into the prepared baking dish, I find using wet fingers for this helps.
- Stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Pour this mixture in two lines down the length of the blondie batter.
- Using a butter knife, make swirls through the cinnamon sugar and dough.
- Bake for 25-30 until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.
- While the blondies cool, make the icing by creaming together the cream cheese and butter in a medium-sized bowl until smooth with an electric hand mixer. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla. Whip on high speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Cut the blondies into bars and zig-zag the icing on top, I like to use a pastry bag for this.
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