I love cinnamon and like to use it in my cooking and baking whenever possible. Now that fall is approaching, the warming and homey qualities that cinnamon imparts into anything made with it is especially nice.
Here are 15 of my favorite cinnamon recipes where there’s no mistaking it’s robust flavor:
Breads and Pastries with Cinnamon
Cinnamon Bun Pie – Big crumbly pieces of cinnamon-sugar streusel topping add to the flavor of the cinnamon rolls and they use shortcut so hey’re ready in no time
Cinnamon Sugar Crust Cream Cheese and Jelly Danish Squares – The crust is hardened and crisp layer of cinnamon, sugar, and butter and the middle is filled with squishy cream cheese and jelly. They taste like an Entenmann’s brand danish and are easy
Strawberry Jelly Rolls – You’ll never believe what these rolls start out as and what they become in 15 minutes flat
Pumpkin Banana Bread with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting – The flavors of fall are in full force and between the pumpkin, banana, and molasses, the bread is so soft and moist
Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze – If a Cinnabon cinnamon roll met a donut, this is what it would taste like, except it’s baked rather than fried and you can make it at home. They can be made as muffins if you don’t have a donut pan
Coconut Spice Cheesecake Bars – A layer of spice cake topped with a layer of cheesecake and only takes 5 minutes to put together before it’s baked
Rice Pudding with Raisins – This creamy and sweet rice pudding can be made with anything from cream to sweetened condensed milk to coconut milk
Vegetables with Cinnamon
Sweet Potato Graham Cracker “French Toast” Sticks – Don’t judge a book by its cover because you’ll miss out on how to make sweet potatoes taste like French toast sticks, complete with baked-in crunchy streusel bits
Caramelized Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Chickpea “Peanuts” (vegan, GF) – This is how to make ‘peanuts’ from chickpeas, and how to make beans taste like candy. I eat half the tray standing in front of the oven while burning my mouth because they’re that good
Coconut Oil Fried Cinnamon Sugar & Ginger Plantains (vegan, GF)- Plantians are bigger than bananas and usually sold near the bananas. Slice them and fry them up in a little coconut oil or your favorite oil, season with cinnamon and sugar, and you’ll wonder why you’ve never tried plantains before
Roasted Peanut Butter Coconut Ginger Carrots (vegan, GF) – A marinade of peanut butter, coconut oil, ginger, and cinnamon is used to coat baby carrots and it turns crunchy while baking
Snacks
Coconut Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Almonds (vegan, GF) – Can’t go wrong with homemade roasted nuts engulfed in a cinnamon-sugar coating
Cookie Butter Spread Ginger Molasses Cookies (no-bake, vegan, with GF option) – A cross between a spice cookie, a ginger cookie, and a molasses cookie, all rolled into one little no-bake cookie ball
Cinnamon Sugar Chocolate Pretzels (no-bake, vegan, GF) – Highly addictive, especially if you love a good salty ‘n sweet combo and take about 5 minutes to make, both a blessing and a curse
Cinnamon Raisin Bread Smoothie (vegan, GF) – Like drinking a piece of cinnamon raisin bread toast
Did you know that:
Cinnamon has many health benefits from reducing cholesterol and blood sugar levels to boosting memory to boosting immune system function
There are different varieties of cinnamon from Ceylon to Cassia to Vietnamese
Most cinnamon sold in the U.S. is cassia, which isn’t actually true cinnamon
You can buy organic premium cinnamon in bulk for a fraction of the cost of what you’d spend on individual jars of it in the grocery store – Use code AVE630 to save an additional $5 on your order (One pound for $10 bucks versus a little 2 ounce jar in the grocery store for 5.99 – no brainer for me the way I go through it)
Do you like cinnamon?
I love it and if I read a recipe which calls for 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, I use about 1 1/2 teaspoons. If the recipe says 1 teaspoon, that means almost 1 tablespoon for me.
Don’t worry, when I write recipes for my blog, I list the cinnamon in noticeable yet reasonable quantities because I realize that not everyone may love it quite as much as I do. However, it’s almost a guarantee that I’ve used more for what I made than what I wrote because I’m a cinnamon fiend. Really, any warming spice – pumpkin pie spice, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, allspice – I am very heavy-handed with all of them.
The same is true with vanilla extract. Boy, do I ever go through some cinnamon and vanilla.
Thanks for the Cooking With Trader Joe’s Cookbook Giveaway entries and next post…Pumpkin!
Hi Averie, I love cinnamon (and pumpkin pie spice) too, can’t help but to add more…I do that with vanilla as well. I buy cinnamon at Penzey’s–fun to try all the varieties…the mom and pop Penzey store is just down the street from where I live. Lucky me! This recipe is awesome…https://www.therawseed.com/2011/03/raw-banana-bread-walnuts.html
Cinnamon rules!! Thanks for the roundup!
Wow. These all look so good. I really want to try the coconut cinnamon sugar roasted almonds. I always have almonds at my desk at work, none of which look as good as these. I guess I’ll have to do some cooking soon!
Thanks for stopping by and hope you make those nuts!
what a great breakfast :) love anything cinnamon!
I love these! I have a mini cinnamon collection from Penzy’s; I love how different types have subtle yet different flavor profiles.
I am jealz of your mini collection!
Hehe, we are the same when it comes to cinnamon conversion-I always add tons!
Averie, you’re killing me here! I’m trying to shed off some weight but I seriously am going to make all of this over the weekend, and then devour it all!
I do like cinnamon and one of my favourite desserts of all time is a cinnamon bun.
I love cinnamon! Especially Vietnamese cinnamon. I now pour about a 1/2 Tbsp in my Papa New Guinea coffee grounds every morning before I pour my boiling water through it. So delicious! I also never measure cinnamon. I liberally pour it in every thing I make that calls for cinnamon and often when a recipe doesn’t call for cinnamon or I am making oatmeal in the morning from scratch for the boys, I pour in cinnamon, in their pancake and waffle batters, their yogurt parfaits and their smoothies! We go through LOADS of cinnamon and vanilla as well! All of those recipes (including my morning coffee), get a splash of vanilla. The two were meant to go together! I love the look of those donuts!!! :-)
Yeah, I kinda like cinnamon. ;)
I double it (at least) in every recipe. I add it in where people *obviously* forgot it on the recipe list. If I buy the cheap stuff, which I have been known to do on occasion but not lately, I triple it. That stuff is weak and I need my cinnamon to be strong like bull.
The way I feel about cinnamon is how most bloggers feel about pumpkin.
I love cinnamon, please pass one of everything!
wow, I can’t decide which recipe I want to make first, they all look amazing as usual!
Look at all of that deliciousness!!! I love it!
Pumpkin! Yes! Can’t wait! I saw a round-up of Fall Flavors on Marla’s site and I love that you’re doing a round-up as well – with cinnamon being front and center! I will confess that after moving to Arizona and discovering Mexican canela, I much prefer it over cassia cinnamon. The cassia cinnamon that I find in American grocery stores seems so strong to my palate now, so I just use less if I’m baking or cooking with it. But either way, canela/cinnamon remains a FAVORITE flavor for Fall in my casa!!!
P.S. Can’t WAIT to try your Cinnamon Raisin Bread Smoothie!!
Marla’s roundup was crazy amazing – I can’t imagine how long that took her! And you know, I have never tried Mexican canela but now I HAVE to have it! And I can’t believe, still, that I lived in AZ (briefly) and my whole experience there would have been 100x better had I known you!!!
Cinnamon is the best spice! It just fits in so many places. Yum!