The intoxicating aroma of fresh-baked bread mixed with the sweetness of cinnamon brings back childhood memories like no other. A special treat in our home growing up, my sisters and I fought our way to the kitchen as soon as they were finished on Christmas morning. The biggest always went to my father, but if we were first at the table we had dibs on the ooo-iest and goo-iest we could dish out of the pan.
Over the years I’ve included them in our holiday breakfasts as well, but it’s been a very long while since we’ve had such an indulgence. Due to my husband eating gluten-free as well as our need to cut back on sugar consumption. While I still believe we should be feeding our bodies highly nourishing foods, I also think there is room for cinnamon rolls during a holiday brunch.
Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe: Cinnamon Rolls {Gluten Free}
Ingredients
- Roll:[b/]
- 4 Tablespoons butter softened
- 1/2 cup sucanat or whole cane sugar
- 1 cup milk slightly warmed
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup sorghum
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1 1/2 cups arrowroot flour/starch also works well with tapioca or corn starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 teaspoons baking powder aluminum free
- 4 teaspoons xanthan gun
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast if not instant, place in warmed milk with a touch of sugar while you ready the ingredients
- Filling
- 1 cup sucanat or whole cane sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- Icing
- 3/4 cup powdered sucanat make your own by grinding in a blender or coffee grinder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- milk for consistency
- 4 oz cream cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Combine butter and sugar until well mixed and creamy. (best results when using a mixer)
- Add in the milk, eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and add to the wet mixture, beating on high until no lumps remain. (start slow and work up to high – lest you have a mess on your hands)
- The dough should resemble a bread dough at this point, but will be slightly soft and wet. You should be able to tough with your fingers, leave an indentation, but not have it stick to you. If the dough is to stiff, you can add milk at 1 Tbsp increments until the right consistency is reached.
- Lay 2 pieces of plastic wrap, waxed or parchment paper on the counter(overlapping by a few inches), place 1/2 of the dough onto it and cover with another layer of wrap.
- Roll the dough out between the layers of wrap with a rolling pin until it reaches about 12 inches by 12 inches square in size.
- Take the top layer of wrap off.
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup of sucanat and 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon over the dough.
- To roll, lift the edge of the wrap and help the dough roll over itself.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into eight even pieces and place into a buttered 9×13 pan; leaving room for the rest of the rolls.
- Repeat with the second half of the dough.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- While they cool slightly after you remove them from the oven, mix together the icing.
- Mix powdered sugar and vanilla, adding just enough milk to get the consistency you desire. You’re going to look for a pourable icing, but not to thin.
- Add the softened cream cheese and mix until well combined.
- Pour icing over cinnamon rolls while they are still hot.
- Serve warm
- Enjoy
Perfect dough consistency:
How to roll:
Just one more tip for making these – if you are feeding a large family or bringing to a holiday gathering, please….make the whole recipe. If you are making this for just a couple/few people – cut the recipe in half. Because it is very easy to continue eating these. Or, pop half of them in the freezer, uncooked, for Christmas morning.
Please check out the other recipe for the Whole Foods for the Holidays: Breads over at Diana’s blog – A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
*adapted from Gluten Free Homemaker‘s recipe
Donielle Baker
Spelt Berry Salad with cranberries
Donielle,
I am totally impressed that you found a GF dough recipe to roll out for cinnamon rolls. And I have never heard of nor been to the Gluten Free Homemaker blog. THANKS!
I will be making these very soon for my husband.
What is sorghum? I googled it, and it says it comes as a grain or syrup. Which would I use here? Also, where would you suggest I purchase it?
@Kellie, Sorghum is a grain, just like wheat, it’s just gluten free.
In this recipe you want to use it as a flour, or ground grain. I purchase mine from either our local health food store or in the gluten free area of our super market. Both places sell the Bob’s Red Mill brand that you can also buy online at many different retailers. If you google it, you should find it easily!
These look incredible. Making gf cinnamon rolls has been on my to-do list for a while; thanks for making it easier for me to do so!
Beautiful job, Donielle! I agree that there’s room for some cinnamon rolls on the breakfast menu from time to time. 🙂 I don’t eat sorghum so I’ll have to try your recipe with millet some time.
Thanks!
Shirley
These are totally drool-worthy! A great holiday treat to be sure! Love the GF goodies!
I was thinking they looked an awful lot like mine! I’m glad you could work with the recipe and make it your own. This year I’ll have to make them dairy free so I’ll be playing with the recipe more too. I like the addition of coconut oil.
YUM! I love that you used sucanat for the icing. I would love to try that. I really like using sucanat and love the taste. Cinnamon rolls rock, my sister and I share fond cinnamon roll stories too 🙂
These are amazing!! for higher altitude i had to use more flour than what it called for but other than that it was delicious! sooooo good!!:))
Thank you for this! We’re at about 4000 ft and I was wondering why I’ve had to add at least 1/2 c. more flour. Thought I was just tired and measured wrong. 😉
I made this dairy free with half rice half coconut milk (unsweetened) and replaced the butter with more coconut oil .. and made a different non-dairy icing (maple) – had to bake longer and grease the waxed paper to get it to not stick while rolling.. not sure what i did wrong there, i tried adding flour and it was still sticky but this worked fine – also had to add about 10 mins to the cook time and cover with foil to keep the tops from burning – anyway – thanks, once i finally figured it out they were amazing!
Do you need to let these rise at all? I have a birthday boy who wants there for breakfast 🙂
@Stephanie M., you can, sometimes if I have time I’ll leave them out for 20 minutes, but they do rise enough without it too.
I have to use millet flour instead of brown rice flour. these sound great!
Thank you.
Bev
Hey Donielle. I have used this recipe several times and it has ALWAYS come out perfectly. It’s been a year, I usually make them for the holidays, and I have tried TWICE this week and both times the batter has been so runny I can’t’t pick it up. I just checked to make sure I have the exact correct recipe, and I do. I’m in tears! I’m craving these rolls!! They were fool proof. Any clue what I might be doing wrong? I’m going to try to add some brown rice flour to it and see if I can get it to the right consistency. Anyway… just thought I’d reach out and ask. Hope you’re doing well!!!
Maybe letting it sit for 5 minutes to help the xanthan gum soak up the liquid a bit? I don’t know! I guess the only way to know for sure is to make a few more batches. 😉 Mmmmm….cinnamon rolls. 😀