Banana Cinnamon Roll Bites with Pecans

These are welcome little banana, cinnamon-roll like treats that are quick to make and devilishly addicting.   I came across the idea of these mini cuties from another food site that made full sized rolls, layering the ingredients like you would an upside-down pineapple cake (butter, sugar then fruit before the batter) – but they used instant biscuit dough (like the Pillsbury canned biscuit dough) stuffed inside each regular-sized muffin cup/well.   Instead, we’re making our own dough and rolling the filling in it.   I’ve added nuts to both the sugary goodness  for the topping and within the rolled dough.   You could omit the nuts altogether and maybe add raisins.

Serve these warm or at room temperature.   Perfect pairing with any morning beverage.   Wouldn’t these be perfect for brunch and serving to the kids?

Warning: These will vanish so quickly. Because they’re mini and supposedly portion-controlled, you won’t even realize that you’ve just popped five of these little gems in your mouth.

• Work with room temperature ingredients.
• Avoid refrigerating the dough. It will dry it out and you won’t be able to slice it without the dough falling apart.
• Like raisins? Adding some raisins to the sugar mixture instead of pecans might be another alternative.
• Chop the pecans small.
• I originally used 3/4 cup of chopped pecans.   Too many pecans made it more difficult to roll, but it was still doable.   In the recipe below, I took it down to 1/2 cup.
• When placing the rolled dough into the muffin cup, gently press down on the dough so that it makes contact with the topping ingredients below.
• When removing the rolls from the cups you need to do this quickly and right out of the oven before the sugar on the bottom cools. The sooner the better because when it’s hot, it more easily lifts out of the cup. It will take a couple to practice with.
• Don’t get discouraged if the some of the sugary goodness on the bottom or the banana slice stays behind when unmolding. Gently scoop up and smooth into place on the warm, mini-roll.
• I would suggest using two pans of 12-mini cups and baking them one right after the other.  Reason: You want to unmold these little rolls immediately when pulling from the oven.  Working to unmold 12 versus 24 at a time is more manageable before they cool on the bottom.