We Tried And Ranked 7 Store-Bought Cinnamon Rolls — Here's The Best One

Steven Luna/Mashed

Even making an easy cinnamon roll recipe from scratch is a bummer when you consider how many different kinds of store-bought cinnamon rolls are out in the world. Even the pop-and-bake cinnamon rolls take time and make a mess of your countertop. Why would you fire up your oven and risk stumbling into the mistakes everyone makes when making cinnamon rolls if you could buy them pre-made instead? It's the home cook's answer to baking smarter, not harder ... Only in this case, there's no baking involved whatsoever.

If you haven't gazed at the glazed wonder that is the grocery store cinnamon roll market lately, let me tell you: There are some real dazzlers taking up shelf space these days. It makes choosing a proper treat all the more difficult, though it also provides a glut of great options in case your first choice turns out to be a sugar-coated dud.

I scooped up all the cinnamon rolls I could find, apologized to my circulatory system, and took a bite of seven different selections to get a grip on the best rolls around. The sugar flowed, the buzz ensued, and the impending crash was well worth the trouble, because now I know which cinnamon rolls rock and which ones fall flat on their frosted faces.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Bake Shop treats from Aldi are usually pretty dependable goodies; everything I've had from the chain so far has been a thorough delight. That is, until I swept through for a pan of Bake Shop cinnamon rolls and discovered that not only is it possible for the brand to disappoint, but it's also capable of entirely misunderstanding what a cinnamon roll is supposed to be. There I was, all fired up with my best-ranked Aldi coffee ready and waiting to enjoy these cinnamon rolls. Too bad it didn't happen.

It's possible I picked up a bad batch of these rolls and that other shoppers have had a happier time with them. But even looking at them peering up at me through the plastic clamshell made me twitch a little, thanks to a layer of glaze that looked more like skin than sugar. I tried breaking off a single roll to try, but it was impossible to pull them apart. Even using a knife, I had to saw through a super-tough bottom layer of dough that made me think they might have burned in the oven. It turns out they hadn't, but it didn't make much of a difference. The texture was difficult to chew, and the flavor was bland at best. Instead of a plateful of joy, all I ended up with was a sore jaw.

The best I can say about my experience with Bake Shop cinnamon rolls is at least the coffee didn't disappoint.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Marketside's cinnamon rolls win top prize for Most Stylish Presentation, which is totally on-brand for Walmart's deluxe bakery label. The rolls are pristinely arranged with their cinnamon filling peeking out of the coil. A perfect zigzag drizzle of glaze crosses over the tops to give a restrained stroke of sweetness that leaves all the good bits showing through the plastic clamshell package. It's quite an artistic job for a mass-produced product.

There's a calculus that needs to be used in making a cinnamon roll to ensure that every bite has equal representation of cinnamon, dough, and frosting. Marketside may have been sleeping through that lesson in bakery math; the balance of components is completely off, which makes for a messy and overly dough-heavy cinnamon roll. It just goes to show you that pretty décor may get you into the grocery cart, but it doesn't win you any prizes for enjoyment in the world of baked goods.

I wish I had better things to say about Marketside's super-pretty cinnamon rolls. But it turns out there's no substance behind the style. They're not the worst Walmart bakery item ever, but they come pretty close.

Steven Luna/Mashed

With its lacy lines of sugary glaze and fluffy, well-rounded pastries, this stylish eight-pack from Kroger-owned Fry's makes the Bakery Fresh-branded bakes look more like traditional Danish than cinnamon rolls. It's not likely to impact the tasting experience, but it can make finding them in the bakery section something of a challenge. Reading the label was a must on this one to make sure I didn't pick up raspberry pastries by mistake.

These rolls seem to let their pretty appearance stand in the way of being tasty. The frosting on top isn't as flavorful as I would have hoped. There's quite a bit of cinnamon when you reach the center of the roll, but without the corresponding vanilla or cream cheese punch that usually comes from the glaze, it ends up just being a strip of bread rolled around in spices, powdered sugar, and milk.

You may be fooled into grabbing this eight-pack thanks to its snazzy presentation. But if you're in the cinnamon roll game for a good-tasting pastry, you won't find it here.

Steven Luna/Mashed

There's nothing particularly bad about Freshness Guaranteed cinnamon rolls, but there's also nothing noteworthy to recommend them above your better options. Sure, you get eight square rolls with an abundance of glaze on top, but the dough is standard and the cinnamon-sugar is scant.

Gauging by all the cream cheese frosting slathered on top of these bad boys, there's no telling if a cinnamon roll is even part of the equation. It takes slicing into the eight-roll set to find out where the separations occur. The glossy sheen lent an air of freshness, which could have been an illusion. I tried to stem my excitement, just in case these rolls were actually tough spirals of dough disguised as fresh and tender treats.

Since they're passable if you have a Walmart in your area and you're too low on energy needed to conjure up 5-ingredient TikTok cinnamon rolls, this thoroughly average roll gives you something sweet for the table. But that's about all it does.

Steven Luna/Mashed

I wasn't convinced I'd find much to dazzle me when I dug into a Favorite Day cinnamon roll, especially since these treats are labelled as "cinnamon swirl donuts." If there's any difference, I couldn't tell, and I'm guessing most shoppers won't find one, either. They even look just like cinnamon rolls, though the icing is more modestly applied.

Experience has taught me not to expect a lot from this Target house brand where baked treats are concerned. Most of the products feel like stopgap solutions that let Target provide bakery items without having to add a full-service bakery to its superstore grocery sections. It also feels like the brand generally does the bare minimum with many of its recipes. But I was pleasantly surprised by how well the mash-up of donut and cinnamon roll worked. The dough was just donut enough to make its personality known, while the cinnamon twisted between the layers lived up to its promise. The glaze that doesn't show in fancy frosted stripes awaits just below the surface, infusing a tasty vanilla essence throughout the whole roll.

I'm happy to report that Favorite Day cinnamon twist donuts are a great stand-in for traditional cinnamon rolls. Their design even lets you trade them out one-for-one in your brunch display without having to explain yourself.

Steven Luna/Mashed

The Albertsons website promised full-sized cinnamon rolls with a generous spread of cream cheese frosting. But my location didn't get the memo, apparently; the only rolls I could find were miniature twists from Upper Crust, a collection that comes prepackaged instead of being baked on-site. It wasn't the coolest compromise in the world, but at least there was a selection to fit the brief. And miniature cinnamon rolls sometimes turn out to be perfectly sized and frosted to satisfy without overwhelming the palate, so I was pretty okay with the substitution.

I'm so glad I didn't pass them up when I had the chance. Indulging in these two-bite twists is more like eating a cookie, but you get the entire cinnamon roll experience in every nibble. It's like having a box full of what I call the cinnamon roll heart, the tightly bound core where the biggest flavor awaits. Usually, the heart has cinnamon smushed around the outside too, but that didn't move the needle. With their dense yet easily chewed dough, fair cinnamon-sugar distribution, and generous sugar glaze, these were easily the second-best cinnamon rolls I could find. That sounds like a jab, but it's not; I really did like them.

The one drawback: they looked incredibly dry, even with a hearty helping of glaze heaped on top. But once you give them a few seconds of heat in the microwave, they fall right into line.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Sprouts doesn't skimp on the sweet stuff, as attested to by the puddle of frosting pooled around and over top of all four of these decently sized cinnamon rolls. It almost looks like a mistake, like someone in the bakery got a little too carried away with the frosting bag and overdid their task. It also makes for incredibly sloppy removal from the package; there's no getting around the excess frosting, even if you remove them with a spatula — bad news if you're thinking of moving them to a prettier plate for serving.

Having said that, I must say that the excess frosting actually works. There's a decent flake on the dough, wrapped in a snug, multi-layered coil hugging abundant cinnamon and sugar filling in the center. The frosting lends a light vanilla flavor and provides proper moisture to help make the dough even softer. And because of the winding structure, the core of the roll is a royal treasure that's well worth working through the gooey labyrinth to find.

Am I too emphatic about loving Sprouts cinnamon rolls? Perhaps. Is it because of all the sugar I've eaten? Very likely. But are these super sweet-and-spicy spirals bound to become your favorite cinnamon rolls if you give them a try? There's no doubt in my mind that they will.

Steven Luna/Mashed

I was convinced there couldn't be much difference among the cinnamon rolls I tried. I was prepared to gauge the appearance first, naturally, since it's hard to buy something that doesn't look attractive. The range of designs used to make a store-bought cinnamon roll varied from elegant to overwrought, my first clue that this taste test would be more of a revelation than I'd anticipated.

Once I had the rolls home, I was able to assess the frosting-to-roll ratio, an important aspect that impacts both the aesthetics and the enjoyment. This is crucial for anyone hoping to embellish their dessert or breakfast tray with rolls that end up flopping out of the box and making a mess. I did the one-bite sampling method, concentrating on freshness, taste, and texture, while I also kept my senses peeled for how home-baked they tasted overall.

After working my way through seven wildly different versions of the store-bought cinnamon roll, I consider myself schooled in the possibilities that exist. And to be clear, nothing on the list comes close to a copycat recipe of a Cinnabon. But buying them at a grocery store is still easier than making them myself. Note taken.