I had a cinnamon roll at a bakery in Chicago that was truly remarkable. It was made with some kind puff pastry instead of a yeasted dough, but the texture was what really made it unique-- flaky, sure, but also crunchy and quite sweet. It was a nice deep amber color, with a shiny and inviting crust that was perhaps a super thin caramel. I’m guessing that it was almost like a kouign amann, with sugar laminated into the dough itself? And then … glazed… with something?
I tried recreating the recipe using straight up puff pastry and came up with something tasty but more like a croissant than what I had at the bakery.
Bakers out there, any thoughts?
Probably brushed with egg before baking.
Like an elephant ears, perhaps? That’s made with puff pastry. (Ina Garten’s recipe.)
That’s what an elephant ear is in the northeast. There are lots of recipes online.
Ina Garten also has a puff pastry cinnamon roll recipe. I’ve tried it. It’s… meh. The rolls have a tendency to unspiral while baking, which isn’t good, so make sure you roll tightly and seal.
This is pretty close to what I made with puff pastry, and while it was tasty enough it’s not the same. The one from the bakery was practically shellacked in a thin caramel. I think some sort of cinnamon roll / elephant ear hybrid, like the posters above mentioned, might be on the right track.
because i can’t seem to just let anything go… research indicates that what i ate was more like a morning bun and less of a cinnamon roll (even though the bakery called them cinnamon rolls.) playing with one of these recipes and then perhaps brushing on a little sugar syrup during the last 5-10 minutes of baking may come up with something close!
This sounds like a pastry I’ve had at a German-style bakery. It’s called schnecke, which they told me is German for “snail.” It’s similar to a croissant, but rolled into a spiral. The bakery I go to has several different varieties–cinnamon is excellent, and almond is also delicious.
Brioche dough makes the best cinnamon rolls. I used to get caramel rolls with brioche dough, and they were out of this world. Sadly they do not exist any more. 
On the other end of the spectrum, I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls made with canned crescent roll dough. I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but I’m sure it’s as good as Velveeta fudge.
And in Austrailain pattiseries, it’s labled “escargot” – but they’ll sell it to you if you ask for a “snail”.
From the description, I was thinking something more like baclava.