Crescent Roll Cinnamon Twists

Week 390. Fall 2023. I am 40 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like cinnamon and falling leaves and this is my life. This is the life I built.

I went for a run this morning — the Saturday routine, the greenbelt, the river, the particular meditation of feet on a path and lungs filling and the body doing what it was told it couldn't do. The running group meets rain or shine.

Mason is 12 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 10 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made caramel apples this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

The caramel apples were already made and cooling on the counter, but the cinnamon smell in the kitchen kept pulling me back in — and that’s how the Crescent Roll Cinnamon Twists happened. They’re not fancy, and that’s exactly why they belong to this kind of week: the steady, ordinary, grateful kind, where you just want your hands busy and your house smelling like something warm. Mason ate three before they were fully cooled. Lily didn’t even look up from the barn long enough to notice — until she did, and then they were gone.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 22 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent roll dough
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for glaze)
1–2 tablespoons milk (for glaze)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix the cinnamon sugar. In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon until combined. Stir the vanilla extract into the melted butter.
Prepare the dough. Unroll the crescent dough on a lightly floured surface and press the seams together to form one flat rectangle. Brush the entire surface generously with the vanilla butter.
Add the cinnamon sugar. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the buttered dough, covering all the way to the edges.
Fold and cut. Fold the dough in half lengthwise, pressing gently so the layers hold together. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to slice the dough into 8 equal strips.
Twist and place. Pick up each strip by both ends and twist it 3–4 times, then place on the prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Press the ends lightly onto the pan so they don’t unravel.
Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the twists are puffed and deep golden brown. Watch them closely in the last 2 minutes — they go from golden to overdone quickly.
Make the glaze. While the twists cool for a few minutes, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk, adding milk one teaspoon at a time until you reach a thin, drizzleable consistency.
Glaze and serve. Drizzle the glaze over the warm twists and serve immediately. They’re best eaten the day they’re made, still slightly warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Crescent Roll Cinnamon Twists — The Thread That Connects Every Version of Me