Easy Cinnamon Sticks made from Pizza Dough
on Feb 23, 2012, Updated Jul 02, 2024
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These warm, easy cinnamon sticks are SO good. They taste a lot like Pizza Hut’s cinnamon sticks, but not as greasy on the bottom.
Y’all ever have the cinnamon sticks from Pizza Hut? Admittedly, we’re not huge fast food eaters over here, mainly due to our tucked-out-of-the-way home in the country, but also because I just find it easier and more enjoyable to make some of my favorite fast food “staples” at home. These cinnamon sticks are a perfect example right here. They are so wickedly delicious, and so easy to throw together when you’re already making dough for pizza night.
I could honestly put butter, sugar, and cinnamon on top of any carb and be a happy camper. It’s great wrapped inside flour tortillas and on top of plain white bread (are my Midwestern roots showing yet? ). Baking it atop pizza dough with a buttery-sweet dipping sauce is pure heaven, I tell ya. It’s like a deconstructed cinnamon roll in the best way possible. I can’t wait for you to try them and love them, too.
And as long as you’re making pizza dough, you should try some of these other family favorite recipes: Perfect Pepperoni Pizza Sticks, Homemade Supreme Pizza, and Easy Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Quick and Simple: These are straight-forward, easy to make, and so delicious!
- Economical: You probably already have all these ingredients on hand so you can whip up some cinnamon sticks anytime!
- Kid-Friendly: Everyone loves to eat something they can dunk, especially kids. They can even help you make them.
Ingredients
For the dough
- Water
- Yeast
- Sugar
- Salt
- Olive Oil: If you don’t have olive oil, any kind of vegetable oil will work
- Flour
For the cinnamon topping
- Butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Cinnamon
For the dipping sauce
- Butter
- Powdered Sugar
- Milk
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Homemade Cinnamon Sticks
Step #1. Make the pizza dough according the recipe instructions and let it rise. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Divide the pizza dough in half. Set one half aside for pizza.
Step #3. Spread the melted butter across the dough. Sprinkle the sugar and then the cinnamon over the top. Bake 15-18 minutes until the bottom is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes. Cut into 1.5″ strips with a pizza cutter then the cut the opposite way so that you have 4″ long strips.
Step #2. Roll the other half of the dough out on a piece of parchment paper until it is 1/2″ thick. Slide it onto a rimmed baking sheet. Use your fingers to make deep dimples all across the dough.
Step #4. Make the dipping sauce by mixing the butter, powdered sugar, and milk together. Serve the warm cinnamon sticks with the dipping sauce.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! These keep well in the fridge for up to a week. Just let them cool completely before putting them in an airtight ziploc baggie or container. Store the dipping sauce separately in an airtight container in the fridge.
You certainly can to make it a little more warm and gooey. Heat the sauce in a small saucepan over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly — it won’t need much and you don’t want to risk scalding it.
Reheat leftover cinnamon sticks by placing them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and reheat them in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes or until warmed to your liking!
Expert Tips
- Make sure the butter goes from edge to edge on the dough so that the cinnamon and sugar have something to stick to. A silicone brush is a great tool for spreading it out.
- To make it easier to cut the baked cinnamon sticks, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet onto a cutting board then use the pizza cutter to cut them to size. The pizza cutter will run into the edges of the rimmed baking sheet otherwise.
- If you want to use all the dough for cinnamon sticks, be sure you double the topping amounts as well as the dipping sauce.
- If you make your dough ahead of time, or purchase refrigerated dough from your local pizza place, be sure to let it come to room temperature before using it.
More Pizza Dough Recipes to Consider
Easy Appetizers
Bosco Sticks Recipe
Pizza
Cheese Pizza
Pizza Dough
Brooklyn Style Pizza
Pizza
Stuffed Crust Pizza
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
Easy Cinnamon Sticks
Ingredients
Favorite pizza dough:
- 2 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 to 6 cups flour
Cinnamon topping:
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Simple dipping sauce:
- 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 to 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Allow mixture to stand for 5 minutes. Add one cup of flour, and mix to combine. Add another cup of flour, and mix to combine for 1 to 2 minutes. The dough should be the consistency of cake batter. Mixing a bunch at this stage helps the gluten to develop.
- Add another cup of flour, and mix to combine. Add flour until you can’t mix it by hand very easily. Sprinkle some flour on your table, and turn the dough onto the table. Knead the dough by hand until it is smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed. This should take 6 to 10 minutes of kneading. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it rise in a warm place for 15 to 60 minutes. (This time varies a lot for me. I just let it rise according to how long it is until dinner time).
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough in half. Use one half to make a pizza and use the other half for cinnamon sticks! Roll the cinnamon stick dough out on a piece of parchment paper until it is about a half-inch thick. Slide the dough and parchment on a rimmed baking sheet (don’t use a rimless because the sugar mixture may drip off and make your oven smoke). Use your fingers to make deep dimples all over the surface of the dough. Pour the melted butter over the dough. Sprinkle the sugar and then the cinnamon over the butter. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the bottom is golden-brown. Remove from the oven, and let cool for 5 minutes. Use your pizza cutter, and slice the dough into 1 1/2-inch wide strips, and then cut them again down the middle (you’ll end up with sticks that are about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide). Serve with the dipping sauce.
- Mix the butter for the dipping sauce with the powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon milk. Add milk until it is the desired consistency.
Notes
- This recipes is for two batches of cinnamon sticks OR one pizza and one batch of cinnamon sticks. For my family, I’ll often make a double batch of the dough and make 2 pizzas, bread sticks, and cinnamon sticks.
- Keep a close eye on the cinnamon sticks toward the end of baking time to make sure the cinnamon sugar topping doesn’t get too dark or burn.
- If your dough is too sticky to work with, sprinkle it lightly with flour and try again. But be careful not to use TOO much flour.
- Feel free to adjust the cinnamon. Some people may like a little less.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in 2012, and has been updated and rephotographed in September 2019.
Can you do this recipient with a stand mixer?
For sure, just let the dough knead in the mixer about 4-6 minutes.
One box of cinnamon twists from dominos it’s not enough for us. I’m trying your recipe tonight. Thank you!
We’re the same, and I love you LOVE these!
These are better than pizza!!!!! Oh my word…..absolutely delicious!!!! I added some vanilla bean paste to the icing….almost ate it all before the sticks were ready! Thanks!!!!!!!
And now you have ME craving some. And I just ordered some more vanilla bean paste because you made me 🙂
Oh my……my heart always speeds up when cinnamon and sugar are mentioned! Gotta do this!
And that icing puts it over the edge!
Writing one teaspoon as 1t and 1tsp was horribly confusing what was the need to do it both ways it just implies that there’s a difference between how much should be used at first glance.
Agree! That’s why I’m in the middle of updating over 1300 posts to get rid of things like that that I did a long time ago, this post is getting redone as we speak 🙂
if u do not have parchment paper
Just grease a pan well so that it doesn’t stick! And yes, they are fine made ahead of time, you might want to reheat them just a bit before serving because they are delicious warm, but that isn’t a must.
if u want to make the pizza dough the next day cd u and what u have to do.
thanku so much am 13 and am goin to try to make this cinnamon sticks
if u want to make the pizza a next day cd u and what u have to do.
what 1t means in the cooking
1 teaspoon!
Will you marry me?
LOL. I come with 4 kids… that’s a little bit too much baggage for most people 🙂 Thanks for stopping in. You totally made my day!