Air Fryer Copycat Marco’s CinnaSquares (Ready in 16 Minutes!)

Air Fryer Copycat Marco’s CinnaSquares — buttery squares of pizza dough tumbled in cinnamon sugar and served with a sweet vanilla icing for dipping. If you’ve ever polished off an order of CinnaSquares in the car before you got home, this one’s for you. A can of pizza dough, a stick of butter, and your air fryer, and the first batch is out in 16 minutes.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Four ingredients. Pizza dough, butter, cinnamon sugar, and a two-minute icing.
• Uses canned dough. No proofing, no kneading, no rolling pin. Pop the can, unroll, cut.
• Cheaper than an order. One can of dough makes roughly double what you’d get in a takeout tray.
• Fixed the doughy-middle problem. See the temperature note below — this is the whole trick.

What Are Marco’s CinnaSquares?

If you haven’t had them: CinnaSquares are Marco’s Pizza’s dessert side. They’re bite-sized squares of the same fresh dough they use for their pizzas, brushed with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, baked, and served warm with a cup of vanilla icing on the side. Marco’s also runs a Chocolate CinnaSquares version with Ghirardelli chocolate sauce drizzled over the top.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Which is exactly why it’s such a good candidate for the air fryer — there’s nothing to reverse-engineer, no secret sauce, no proprietary seasoning blend. It’s pizza dough and cinnamon sugar. The only thing standing between you and CinnaSquares at home is technique.

The air fryer version came out crisp on the outside and tender inside, with a flavor that reminded us of the drive-thru favorite without feeling greasy. My family finished the first batch fast, which is usually the clearest review I’m going to get.

Ingredients

For the CinnaSquares:

• Refrigerated pizza dough — one 13.8 oz can. This is the Pillsbury-style can that unrolls into a rectangle, and it’s what I’d reach for first because it saves you the rolling. A 1-pound ball of fresh deli pizza dough works too; you’ll just need to roll it out to about ¼ inch thick.
• Butter — 4 tablespoons, melted. This is what Marco’s uses and it matters. Butter is what makes the cinnamon sugar stick and what gives you those crisp caramelized edges.
• Granulated sugar + ground cinnamon — ⅓ cup sugar to 1½ teaspoons cinnamon. Store-bought cinnamon sugar is fine in a pinch, but mixing your own lets you push the cinnamon up if you like it forward.

For the vanilla icing:

• Powdered sugar — 1 cup
• Milk — 1 to 2 tablespoons, added slowly
• Vanilla extract — ½ teaspoon
• Pinch of salt — don’t skip this, it keeps the icing from tasting flat

How To Make Air Fryer Copycat Marco’s CinnaSquares

Step 1: Preheat. Set your air fryer to 350°F and let it run for 3 minutes.

Step 2: Cut the dough. Unroll the dough onto a lightly floured board. Run a pizza cutter through it to make roughly 1½-inch squares — you’ll get about 30. Don’t fuss over making them identical; the ragged ones crisp up beautifully.

Step 3: Butter, then fry. Brush the squares with melted butter on both sides. Arrange them in the basket in a single layer with space between them — this is not the place to crowd. Air fry at 350°F for 8 minutes, shaking the basket at the halfway mark, until they’re puffed and golden brown.

Step 4: Coat while hot. Tip the hot squares straight into a bowl, brush or drizzle with the remaining melted butter, add the cinnamon sugar, and toss. Do this the moment they come out — the residual heat is what melts the sugar onto the surface. Wait two minutes and it just falls off.

Step 5: Repeat. Work through the rest of the dough. You’ll need 2 to 3 batches in a standard 6-quart basket. (Dual-basket or 8-quart models can knock this out in two.)

Step 6: Make the icing. Whisk the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt with 1 tablespoon of milk. Add the second tablespoon a few drops at a time until it ribbons off the whisk — you want it thick enough to cling, thin enough to dip. Serve warm.

The One Thing That Makes or Breaks These

Cook at 350°F, not 390°F. I know 390°F is the default for a lot of air fryer recipes and I know it feels faster. Here’s what actually happens: the outside of the dough browns in about four minutes while the middle is still raw. You pull them out looking perfect and bite into wet dough.

At 350°F, the heat has time to reach the center before the exterior goes too far. Eight minutes, and they’re cooked through.

The second half of this: cinnamon sugar goes on after, never before. Sugar scorches at air fryer temperatures. If you coat the dough and then cook it, you get bitter, blackened specks. Butter before, sugar after.

Variations

• Deep fried. 360°F in neutral oil, 2 to 3 minutes until golden, then straight into the cinnamon sugar. Very good. Very much not a 16-minute recipe.
• Chocolate CinnaSquares. Marco’s own variation — drizzle warm chocolate sauce over the coated squares and still serve the vanilla icing alongside. Ghirardelli if you want to match the real thing.
• Cream cheese icing. Swap 2 oz of softened cream cheese into the icing and thin with a little extra milk. Closer to a cinnamon roll.
• Oven method. 400°F on a parchment-lined sheet pan, 12 to 14 minutes. Butter first, sugar after, same as above.

How To Store & Reheat

Keep leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Store the icing separately in the fridge.

To reheat: 300°F in the air fryer for 2 minutes brings back most of the crisp. The microwave will make them soft and sad — it works, but you’ve lost the texture that made them good.

Freezing: I’d skip it. The coating goes gummy on the thaw and the dough turns soft. These take 16 minutes to make fresh, which is faster than defrosting them properly anyway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are mine doughy in the middle? Almost always temperature. If you cooked at 390°F, the outside browned before the inside caught up. Drop to 350°F and give them the full 8 minutes.

Why won’t the cinnamon sugar stick? You waited too long. The squares have to go into the cinnamon sugar hot, with fresh butter on them. Once they cool, there’s nothing for the sugar to grab.

Can I use crescent roll dough? You can, and it’ll taste good, but it won’t be CinnaSquares — crescent dough is layered and flaky, and Marco’s uses pizza dough. If you want the real texture, use pizza dough.

Can I make these ahead for a party? Cut the dough and mix the cinnamon sugar and icing ahead of time. Do the actual frying and coating right before serving. These are at their best within about 20 minutes of coming out of the basket.

Do I need to flip them? Shake the basket at the 4-minute mark rather than flipping individually. They’ll turn themselves.

More Air Fryer Copycat Recipes

• Air Fryer Copycat Pizza Hut Cinnamon Sticks: The other pizza-chain cinnamon dessert worth making at home — strips instead of squares, with a sweet icing drizzle.
• Easy Air Fryer Cinnamon Sugar Pizza: Same flavors, full-size format. Make this one when you want a dessert to slice instead of a snack to dip.
• Air Fryer Cinnamon Churro Bites: Puff pastry instead of pizza dough, ready in 10 minutes.
• Air Fryer Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread: Pull-apart, gooey, and made with canned cinnamon rolls.

Browse all of our air fryer recipes or the full copycat collection.