Crafting some delicious pie crust cinnamon rolls is a great way to ensure leftover pie scraps go to waste. Repurpose them into decadent pie dough cinnamon rolls with butter, cinnamon, and sugar.
This is a recipe that came down from my grandma who spent many hours baking pies with my mom and her siblings when they were young, and inevitably there would always be excess leftover scraps. This was certainly not a bad problem to have; though, while some people may be content to just snack on the pie dough, my grandma rolled them into these delectable cookie-like treats with just a few simple ingredients.
What are Pie Dough Cinnamon Rolls
These pie dough cinnamon rolls are a savory concoction comprised of your leftover pie dough, a liberal slathering of butter, as well as a generous dose of cinnamon and sugar! Most people call them pie dough pinwheels or pie dough cinnamon rolls. However, my grandma called them pie dough piggies because my aunt decided they looked like pigs. I call it a great use for pie scraps!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Leftover pie dough - Or you can use a refrigerated pie crust, or make your own fresh dough from scratch.
- Butter
- Brown sugar - White sugar can be substituted.
- Ground cinnamon
How to make them
The ingredient quantities you will need will vary depending on how much extra pie crust scraps you have on hand, but don't worry, this recipe is all about eyeballing everything anyhow.
Lay out your leftover pie crust dough and roll it flat with a rolling pin, into a rectangle, using the same thickness you would typically use for a pie crust. Liberally paint soft butter over the entire crust facing up with a butter knife. Butter provides the "glue" for the cinnamon and sugar to stick to, so you want to use plenty of it.
Tip: Using room temperature, or softened butter will ensure it spreads easily on the dough. You can use melted butter as well.
Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar and cinnamon over the butter to fully coat, being sure to reach the edges. Then cut the pie dough into one and a half inch slices with a sharp knife or pastry cutter and roll them up into individual cinnamon rolls.
Bake the cinnamon rolls on a cookie sheet or sheet pan lined with parchment paper in a 350 degree oven until no longer raw, up to 45 minutes. When fully cooked they taste like a cinnamon roll with the texture of a crisp cookie, and be threatening to turn golden brown.
More Pie Desserts
- Butterfinger Pie - An absolute must for any Butterfinger lovers.
- Caramel and Chocolate Marshmallow Cream Pie - Light and fluffy and incredibly decadent.
- Classic Cheesecake - This traditional recipe will fix any craving.
- Banana Pudding Cheesecake - Easy to make, and incredibly creamy!
Pie Crust Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- Baking sheets
Ingredients
- 1 refrigerated pie crust or leftover pie dough
- 4 tablespoons Butter softened
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Instructions
- Roll out leftover pie dough into long a rectangle.
- Butter liberally on the side facing up until fully covered.
- Sprinkle the buttered dough generously with sugar and cinnamon until well coated.
- Cut into strips appx 1 ½" wide.
- Roll up strips and place on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until no longer raw.
Notes
Nutritional Information
This recipe was originally published on FoxValleyFoodie.com June 23, 2015.
EDWARD KOWALSKI
Seems okay, but totally counterintuitive to cut into strips BEFORE rolling into pinwheels. This is opposite to every other recipie and I guarrentee that it was written incorrectly as no one trying this recipe would do that.
Joycelyn
Also known as Pets de Soeurs, aka, Nun's Farts. Created in French Province of Canada, where some are simply baked and others coated with a syrup mixture and fried.
Pets de Soeurs ( Nun's Farts) are also be found in European Bakeries, France etc. but in a different form. Either way, they are delicious.
Gijip
My grandma made these when I was a girl (70 now). She made cinnamon/sugar or made them filled with her jam. She called them “do-jiggers”’. I make them for my grandsons now!
Pat Brueckner
We call them "Rollie-Pollies"-my great grandmother made them out of left-over pie dough. NOW we make pie dough to make Rollie Pollies!! 🙂
Sue
Thank you for reminding me of this wonderful childhood tradition! Mom let us make these out of pie dough scraps and we loved it! What fun we had!
Christine
My mother always does that, too. There is always enough for exactly two small pinwheels, piggy-maggigies...whatchamacallits...I had no idea they had a name. And I had never thought of ditching the leftover idea and making them the star of the show.
Dan from Platter Talk
Fun AND Yum! We love this idea, Ben!
Fox Valley Foodie
Thanks! There is so much room for creativity with this idea too. Frosting, jam, chocolate? I'm excited to experiment a bit more!
Healing Tomato
Wow! What a wonderful use of pie dough. Great recipe.
Fox Valley Foodie
Thanks so much!
Elaine
We made much the same thing , just did not go to that much work as we just thinned out the left over pieces of pie dough and sprinkled them with sugar and cinnamon and now you can buy the sugar and cinnamon pre-mixed.
Fox Valley Foodie
Sounds like great moms think alike! 🙂