Jazzing up refrigerated cinnamon buns

[Covert Ops]

Hi gang,

Last night DH was craving something sweet, so I tried the new Grands Cinnabon cinnamon buns (I know they're not new, but there was something new-and-improved about these, extra flaky maybe?) with pourover icing.

They were huge, and actually pretty good, though I would have preferred a bit more icing.

I think they need something else, though. Anyone have a good idea on how to jazz these things up? Can't really manipulate the dough too much, but I was thinking maybe adding pecans, or unrolling the rolls (this is pretty easy) and spreading more "stuff" inside.

Any thoughts?

[danna]

God Help me, this is what we made in college (and for a few years thereafter):

Canned Biscuits.
8 oz cream cheese.
Let the horror begin -

Make yourself a little assembly line of a bowl of melted butter, and a bowl of sugar/cinnamon mixture. Cube the cream cheese to equal the number of canned biscuits you have. Take a piece of cream cheese, dip it in butter, roll it in cin/sugar, place in the middle of a biscuit and fold the biscuit dough up around it. Dip entire package in butter, roll in cin/sugar, place seam side down in a muffin tin. Repeat.

We thought they were fantastic, but then again, we were comparing it do the dining hall. I have not tried this in...ahem...some years, and cannot say how it actually tastes to an adult.

[Pia]

I've done chopped sauteed apples and walnuts.

[piccola]

I could see you adding chopped dates and walnuts. Or some grated citrus zest.

But IMHO, the best thing you can do is skip the icing. If you absolutely need some, make it while the rolls bake, but I prefer them without.

[sweetTooth]

My mom used to make these - Butterscotch Pecan Rolls. The delio was after you've sliced the rolls, you bake them in muffin cups with a dab of butter, brown sugar and a few peices of pecans. Ooh the heady fragrance of those buttery caramelized bottoms... *drool*

[Karl S]

Use them for bread pudding. Basically, you can do that with doughnuts, croissants, and other pastry-bread crosses....

[HillJ]

Covert,

I've been known to embellish a few canned doughs in my time. For the Pillsbury variety I've tried adding:

ground nut ginger and orange peels over the top
essense of rose water - just a splash
brushed scotch on dough after baking
added rough chopped dark chocolate to the dough roll

but the one add-on the gets the biggest rave is: cinnamon-almond/chocolate buns

unroll the dough and brush on almond extract, re roll
when out of the oven top with toasted almonds and chocolate sprinkles to melt/heat up a bit then very lightly just drizzle the icing that comes with.

[kim shook]

I think that would be a great idea. I am no Sandra Lee ;-), but I like the idea of fixing up store bought items that I already like. I usually have candied pecans on hand and chopping and adding them would be good. I usually think those rolls are sweet enough, but adding more spice (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg) might be good, too.