Mmmm – gluten free cinnamon rolls. Just the name makes me drool a little — how about you?
We hear every day from readers who have used my gfJules® Gluten Free All Purpose Flour in their favorite family recipes, and how overjoyed they are to be able to enjoy these special recipes again with their families.
When Mindy G. wrote in to share these drool-worthy pictures of her gluten free cinnamon roll recipe though, I knew other readers would definitely want to try the recipe too! (What’s the difference between cinnamon rolls and cinnamon buns, by the way? I think these could safely be called either one ….)
What I didn’t know was just how many other readers would be clamoring for the recipe to make these gluten free cinnamon rolls when we shared her yummy pictures!
Lucky for all of us, Mindy was happy to share her family cinnamon rolls recipe. Mindy says she used her tried and true recipe “with only your gfJules Flour subbed in :)”
She also reports, “My gluten free friends I shared them with when I made them are begging for more! I told them to order your flour and they can make their own ;)”
Another reader shared her photo on Instagram (above) and reader Laura O., shared these photos of her before and after cinnamon rolls made from this recipe. She rolled hers even thinner and loved the results!
I’ve now made this recipe many, many times myself, and have added my notes and some process photos for your reference.
If you’re put off by the large amount of flour required to make this recipe, or you and your thighs don’t want that many cinnamon rolls sitting around begging to be eaten, simply halve the ingredients — it works great! I’ve added the half recipe amounts I used in (parenthesis) next to each ingredient for your reference….Although, then again, why halve this recipe? You’re just going to wish you’d made more!
Check out the video below to watch me walk you through making these yummy gluten free cinnamon rolls, step-by-step (so there’s no excuses not to make them yourself!)
Here’s another Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls recipe from This Vivacious Life. Looks like it requires some advanced planning, so budget for time, but one can never have too many amazing cinnamon rolls recipes, can one? 🙂
The steps (as you saw in the video are really simple when you’re using my gfJules Flour because it stretches and makes it easy to roll out and up! (Don’t try this recipe with store-bought rice-based blends or bean-based blends or the rolls won’t taste good and it won’t be easy to roll out and roll up)
Simply roll out the dough and sprinkle on the fillings. Then roll it up on itself ….
Then you just cut them into the size rolls you prefer ….
Then set them aside to rise ….
Then bake them ….
Then ice them!
Then just look at this gorgeous result!
Many thanks to Mindy for sharing her now famous Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls recipe! I can’t wait to see YOUR gluten free cinnamon rolls! And speaking of sharing, what recipes do you wish you could make again, gluten free? What are you waiting for? With my gfJules Flour, anything is possible!
Do you have a family favorite that you’ve already converted to gluten free just by using my gfJules® Flour? I’d love to hear all about it, or better yet, share a picture in the comments below!
Here’s one more look at these drool-worthy gluten free cinnamon rolls. I whipped these up in no time on Easter morning. They really are just TOO EASY. You’ll see when you make them and wonder where they’ve been all your life!
2 Make Ahead Options for Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
Refrigerate Unbaked Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls Overnight
For this make ahead option, rise the gluten free cinnamon rolls as the recipe specifies, then cover with oiled cling wrap then foil. Make sure the pan is sealed well to keep moisture in, but don’t smash the rolls! Refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, remove the pan to come to room temperature for 30 minutes while preheating the oven, then remove the foil and wrap before baking. The rolls may require extra bake time if the dough is still cold, so test with a toothpick before removing from the oven and cover with foil, if necessary, to prevent the tops from over-cooking.
Freeze Unbaked Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
For this make ahead option, roll and cut the rolls as the recipe specifies and rise them, then wrap loosely with oiled cling wrap until they come to room temperature (unless you rose them at room temperature). Then wrap on top with foil, sealing well. Freeze them in the pan (make sure there’s room in your freezer!). They can stay in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. The night before you want to bake them, place the pan in the refrigerator overnight.
The morning you intend to bake the rolls, take the pan out of the refrigerator, remove the foil and loosen the cling wrap so it’s just laying gently on top of the rolls. Set out while you preheat the oven, then bake according to the directions. The rolls may require extra bake time if the dough is still cold, so test with a toothpick before removing from the oven and cover with foil, if necessary, to prevent the tops from over-cooking.
Mindy’s Famous Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Mindy's Famous Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
There's hardly ANYTHING better than a homemade cinnamon roll. And these gluten free cinnamon rolls are no exception! Light, airy, sweet and melt-in-your-mouth delicious ... just like they're supposed to be!
Ingredients
DOUGH {Half Recipe amounts noted in parenthesis}
- 1 cup {1/2 cup} room temp buttermilk (or non-dairy milk with 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice or white vinegar added)
- 1/4 cup {2 Tbs} melted butter (or vegan butter like Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
- 3 Tbs* {1 packet} quick rise OR regular yeast like Red Star® or Fleischmann’s® (Jules’ note: do NOT use Red Star® Platinum yeast, as it is not gluten-free)
- 5 1/2 cups (=742 grams) {2 3/4 cup = 371 grams} gfJules® Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup {1/4 cup} sugar
- 1/2 Tbs {1 tsp} salt
- 2 eggs OR 2 Tbs. flaxseed meal steeped in 6 Tbs. warm water {1 egg OR 1 Tbs. flaxseed meal steeped in 3 Tbs. warm water}
- 1 cup+ {1/2 cup+ 3 Tbs.} warm water
FILLING
- 4 Tbs butter, melted {2 Tbs} (or vegan butter like Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
- 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup {1/4 cup+} brown sugar
- 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup {1/4 cup+} sugar
- 2 Tbs - 3 Tbs. {1 Tbs+} cinnamon
FROSTING
- 1/4 cup {2 Tbs} butter, softened (or vegan butter like Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
- 3 cups {1 1/2 cups} sifted powdered sugar
- 1 tsp {1/2 tsp} pure vanilla extract
- enough milk to make spreading consistency
- dried cranberries or raisins (optional)
Instructions
Pro tip: Open a separate window and watch my how-to video to follow along with this recipe!
- Preheat oven to 200 F to rise the rolls.
- To make vegan buttermilk, add lemon juice to vegan milk and set aside.
- If using regular yeast: Mix together buttermilk, 1 Tablespoon sugar, melted butter and yeast in a bowl. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. The mixture should be frothy at this point, if not, discard and start over because the yeast is not active. Then whisk these dry ingredients in a separate bowl: gfJules® Flour; remaining sugar ingredient; salt.
- If using quick rise yeast: Whisk yeast in with these dry ingredients: gfJules® Flour; sugar; salt. In a separate bowl, mix together buttermilk and melted butter.
- Whisk eggs together in a small bowl or prepare flaxseed meal and water egg replacement.
- Slowly stir dry ingredients into liquid ingredients, adding eggs or flax egg together with water ingredient last in order to keep the flour from flying out of the bowl. If needed, add extra tablespoons of water in order to get the dough to be soft and pliable as shown in the video.
- Mix just until ingredients are integrated and the dough is soft, then mix 2 minutes more if using a stand mixer and paddle attachment. If mixing by hand, mix well until the dough is soft and smooth. Do not allow the dough to rest after mixing, but begin the rolling out process immediately afterwards so that the dough can rise in the shape of the rolls.
- Prepare your filling by mixing together brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon and melt butter to brush on the dough.
- Roll the dough out into a rectangle approximately 12x16 inches on a clean surface floured with gfJules® Flour to keep it from sticking. Knowing that the dough will rise, roll the dough thinner if you prefer less bun and more filling.
- Brush on melted butter then sprinkle sugar + cinnamon across the rolled out dough.
- Roll the dough up into a spiraled log by rolling up from the long end. A bench scraper makes this easier. Cut into 12 rolls (6 -9 if making a 1/2 recipe).
- Place rolls on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper OR into a well-oiled or buttered baking pan or one lined with parchment. Cover rolls loosely and place in preheated 200°F oven TURNED OFF; allow to rise for 30 minutes.
- (If there is any extra melted butter left from the filling, brush it on the rolls before baking to help them brown!} Uncover and bake at 325°F for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the rolls comes out with only some dry crumbs.
- Remove to cool for a few minutes before icing.
To prepare these gluten free cinnamon rolls in advance, make the dough and rise it according to the recipe. Cover with well-oiled plastic wrap and cover again with foil and place in the refrigerator overnight. Bring to room temperature by removing from the refrigerator for 30 minutes, then remove the plastic wrap and foil and place in preheated oven, baking according to the recipe directions. (It may be necessary to bake longer to fully cook the rolls after they've been in the refrigerator overnight, so be sure the toothpick has dry crumbs on it and/or the rolls are not squishy on the bottom before removing from the oven.)
___
To prepare icing, sift powdered sugar and bring butter to room temperature or soften gently in a microwave. Mix together with vanilla and 1-2 Tablespoons milk, adding more milk as needed to create icing consistency. Spread on rolls just before serving.
Notes
* regarding yeast: I have found that with Mindy's full recipe, 3 packets of yeast is sufficient; with a half recipe, only 1 packet of yeast is actually sufficient.
If using non-rapid rise yeast, proof the yeast first using the proofing methods outlined in this article; if using rapid rise/quick rise yeast, the yeast can be added directly to the dry ingredients.
and I KNOW you’re gonna want to pin this for later!
When you’re craving cinnamon rolls you make cinnamon rolls! What a delicious treat for a New Year’s Eve Day brunch. Everyone needs to get some gfJules flour just to try this amazing recipe! I’ve made these many times and they come out perfectly each time. I’m commenting again to include some pictures I took today.
Rolls with my icing
So delicious.
Your pictures are amazing – you have me wanting to run back into the kitchen to make more gluten free cinnamon rolls now!! SO glad you loved them so much for a NYE brunch treat!!!
~jules
This is my second attempt to make gluten free cinnamon rolls using Jules’ recipe. The first time I made the ones with Earl Grey in the rolls and icing. It turned out pretty well…they got eaten :). This time I chose to make the Mindy’s recipe and used English goat butter instead of the Earth Balance sticks (cows don’t like me). One reason I chose this recipe was to make a bigger batch. As you can tell by the picture, by the time I took it, my wife, a daughter, and I had already consumed several of the rolls! Delicious, and FAR better than anything store-bought (if you can find it!). Thank you, Jules! I also want to tell you how EXTREMELY helpful it is to have the videos with you demonstrating the best methods! I’ve dabbled in cooking for many years, but didn’t really do much baking until we recently finished a COMPLETE kitchen remodel/expansion, which now FINALLY gives me room to bake!!!
I failed to mention this in my first post, but one of the main KEYS to success has been using Jules’ flour…I have tried MANY gluten free flours, and nothing comes close to yours for the taste, consistency, workability, and results!
I’m so excited for your new kitchen and new baking adventures! These gluten free cinnamon rolls (what’s left of them!) look fantastic! I love that you’re working your way through several recipes and that my videos are helpful! It’s always good to hear that kind of feedback and know that the time spent is worth the effort! I’m also thrilled that you’re loving my gfJules Flour and finding that it’s really making a difference in your gluten free baking. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your baking success and your yummy photo!
Happy baking!
~jules
Hi Jules, I made your cinnamon rolls and I watched your video while making them. They turned out so pretty and I thought I did a really good job, but after I took them out of the 200 degree oven, turned off, they were all broken apart and the filling was all over my pan, what did I do wrong? Should I have put them in a Pyrex close together, so they would’ve run into each other and not broken apart? I don’t know, I was so disappointed, maybe from that description, you could tell me if I did something wrong.
Hi Angie, it sounds like perhaps they were a bit spread apart, but they still need room to rise. What kind of pan did you use? Did it have sides? If so, it really doesn’t matter if the filling was spread all over the pan, as it would still bake into the rolls while cooking. How did they turn out in the end? Did you put icing on top (icing covers up any unattractiveness, anyway!!). Hoping that they still tasted amazing!
~jules
We love this recipe!
You sure make this recipe look delish, Michelle!!!!!!!
~jules
I love your flour! I have been wanting a piece of Starbucks lemon loaf. So I used the copy cat recipe online by yellowblissroad and it came out perfect! The whole family loved it! Next, I made a Coca-Cola cake from a church cookbook my grandma gave me. I have also made my mom’s chocolate pound cake. Everything I have ever made has come out perfect and my husband and daughter keep ordering more so I keep baking for us. That is the ultimate compliment to how good this four really is.
OH WOW, Kim, that’s so fantastic!!! That’s true, that the highest compliment for my gfJules Flour is that you can rely on it to use it in anything and trust that you can just grab a regular recipe and GO! I’m thrilled that you were able to bake all those wheat flour recipes with my gfJules Flour and they turned out so well. Congrats on all the baking wins. SO happy for you, and for your lucky family!!!!!!
~jules
I have been making these for years as my husband and daughter have celiac disease. Fast forward a few years after their diagnosis and my son is diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes 🤦♀️. But I STILL make these as my family and I LOVE them!! In case anyone else is out there struggling with diabetes as well, here’s how I broke down the carbs:
I followed the recipe for the HALF measurements and ultimately got 12 small-ish rolls as you see in the photo (prior to baking!). Not as big as Jules makes, but that would be totally fine too! EACH roll is about 38 total carbs (WITHOUT frosting!).
Of note: I used almond milk to keep it dairy free (regular milk will add a few extra carbs). I also weighed all my ingredients. (So, for example, 1/4 cup sugar weighs 50 grams and is also 50 grams of carbs).
For the frosting, I used 100 grams of powdered sugar, about a tablespoon of vegan butter, splash of vanilla and almond milk as needed. This is 100 total grams of carbs and I found this to be just about right for the 12 rolls. So, was life is perfect and the frosting was evenly divided among all rolls, the frosting adds about 8 carbs to each roll.
But life is messy, and so are ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls! Not each roll is EXACTLY the same size with EXACTLY the same amount of frosting. I more or less counted each roll as 45 total carbs (if it looked a bit bigger, I added some carbs; smaller and I took a few carbs off).
I hope this is helpful if anyone else out there also has to battle with diabetes! Keep up the fight 💪🏻👊🏻
Sarah thank you SO much for sharing all this super helpful sugar/carb breakdown of info for those who need it. Everyone deserves a delicious gluten free cinnamon roll, so this will bring many people closer to the joy of having one! THANK YOU!!
~jules
Hi Jules, I made your biscuit recipe yesterday, the one that uses a little bit of pudding mix. They were by far the best gluten and dairy free biscuit I’ve made in the 12 years I’ve been cooking gfcf.
Then I saw the spinach-artichoke pull apart bread recipe. I decided last minute to toss in slightly less than a tbsp of pudding powder in that and wow! Tender on the inside, a slight crisp edge and just perfect.
I had already planned to try this cinnamon roll recipe, but decided to try those using the same bread dough as your spinach artichoke pull apart bread, I used a little more than a tbsp of pudding because it was the last of what was in the envelope. The Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls are by far, hands down the best baked goods I’ve ever made, and I would say they are even better than the ones I used to make before needing to be gf.
I don’t know the science behind the pudding, add in what exactly it does, but the dough is amazing to work with. I used the leftover scraps from the cutting the rectangle for the Cinnamon rolls and made one test “crescent roll” to try. It too was delicious and will be my new go to bread recipe for dinners. Since I modified your recipes slightly I wanted to share the results with you. In used jello brand vanilla pudding Silk next milk Country crock plant based stick margarine (way less water content versus other dairy free ones)
I can’t believe how creative you are, Michelle! What a stroke of brilliance to use that dough recipe for these gluten free cinnamon rolls — how great to know that they turn out so well, too!!!
~jules
These look good, going to try them soon as I can. Question, Do you have the weight conversions for the rest of the ingredients? I see its for the GF Jules Flour but not the sugars and such.