Review - "Pillsbury Halloween Cinnamon Rolls"

Over the past months my family has started a tradition of trying different rolls and flavored coffees each Saturday morning. We usually buy store brands of rolls, but most recently, we found "Pillsbury Halloween Cinnamon Rolls" on sale for $2.50 at Hy-Vee. For eight servings of one roll each the price wasn't bad, and they looked like fun, so we decided to give them a try.

"Pillsbury Halloween Cinnamon Rolls" come in a bright orange tube festively ornamented with bats, ghosts, spiders, and Frankenstein's monster. Also pictured is the smiling Pillsbury Doughboy holding a cinnamon roll with bright orange frosting. I assume that other than the orange coloring in the vanilla frosting that this is the same product as their regular cinnamon rolls.

"Pillsbury Halloween Cinnamon Rolls" are easy to prepare. You can just pop them into a greased, round cake pan and bake them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. We actually use a glass pie plate instead of a cake pan and this works just as well. For faster baking you could also spread them out on a greased cookie sheet, but we have never used this method. Either way, when you take them out, just spread on the icing so it melts down into the cracks, and let them cool a bit before eating.

"Pillsbury Halloween Cinnamon Rolls" are pretty good. Their frosting is especially nice, with a good texture and a hint of vanilla. The rolls themselves are a bit different than others I've tried. Most cinnamon rolls I've had have the flavoring between the layers. Pillsbury cinnamon rolls have little nuggets of the cinnamon flavoring all through the dough, sort of like chocolate chips in cookie dough. I suppose the theory is that the flavor would be more evenly distributed in each bite. For me though it actually had the opposite effect. The nuggets didn't really melt though the dough, so the taste of the rolls and cinnamon were very separated for me. You also didn't get that nice "middle of the roll" effect where you have a nice buttery, flavorful last bite.

So for my money, Hy-Vee's store brand cinnamon rolls, which are regularly priced at less than $2.00, are a better value and a better roll. "Pillsbury Halloween Cinnamon Rolls" were good though and kids (and adults) might get a kick out the orange frosting on this seasonal variety as a Halloween treat.