My grandma made the most amazing cinnamon sticky rolls, but her recipe was not only made with traditional wheat flour, it was also lost somewhere along the way. Or perhaps it was just always one she remembered how to make by feel and by look, without even using a recipe.
Either way, when I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I knew I had to re-create her recipe, as gluten free cinnamon sticky rolls, so the memory of those treats wouldn’t also be lost.
On another note: are they called cinnamon sticky rolls, pecan rolls, or sticky buns? I’ve heard them called so many things — all of which sound good and oh-so-descriptively perfect to me!
Spoiler alert: I’ve successfully recreated my grandma’s cinnamon sticky buns … pecan rolls … heaven on a plate … whatever you call them, and am happily sharing the recipe with you now with MANY options: made in a crockpot; made in an oven; risen overnight to bake the next morning; with or without nuts; no karo syrup (karo-free, if you will) … SO many choices!
Which is why this is a longer than ordinary post. Fee free to jump straight to the recipe: Cinnamon Sticky Rolls.
Or if you’re looking for another kind of gluten free cinnamon roll altogether, perhaps aCinna-bon type Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls are what you’re craving, click here!
Mindy’s Cinna-bon style gluten free cinnamon rolls.
If you’d love gluten free cinnamon rolls in under 1 hour (yeast-free and vegan, too!), my 52 minute gluten free cinnamon rolls are just the thing!
If you’re searching for a pull-apart gluten free cinnamon bun recipe, click here!
Gluten Free Cinnamon Sticky Buns Family History
For years (ok, decades) I thought that there was NO way I could ever replicate my Grandma’s cinnamon sticky buns/pecan rolls. No way. And thank goodness I didn’t have to! Christmas came and went every year, and Grandma’s rolls were something we could all count on.
I remember as a young girl lingering in Grandma’s kitchen, but I had already missed the true excitement: the kneading of the dough, the hours of rising and covering and baking. Nothing to see here … move along.
All I distinctly remember from those Christmas mornings was that I and my younger cousins were relegated to being served the “hard” parts of Grandma’s rolls — the crispy outsides. The coveted insides (the yummy soft rolls) were fought over by the older generations, and there were certainly none left for us young-uns!
Not that we complained (much), since the outer (crunchy) rolls were still awesome, it’s just that in comparison to the supreme deliciousness of those inner rolls …. (ok, I apologize … I am seriously digressing into family issues/rolls.).
To hear my radio interview with Shirley (GlutenFreeEasily) about gluten-free holiday baking & more on my Grandma’s Cinnamon Sticky Rolls, click here for the podcast!
Back to the point: to me these sticky buns were up there with every other Christmas tradition. Of course we would always have Grandma’s rolls! It was unthinkable to contemplate the possibility that Christmas could occur without them!
… I know, I understand. This sounds really bad. Christmas isn’t about sticky buns/pecan rolls!!?! What were we thinking!?? Agreed. But you know what? Looking back at my Christmas memories (what Shirley’s “Home for the Holidays, gluten-free style” is all about!), my Grandma’s cinnamon sticky rolls were IT!
I was with my extended family (which only happened once or twice a year), and we all congregated Christmas morning to share the ritual pecking order of who got the soft, gooey insides of Grandma’s cinnamon sticky rolls. That was our tradition.
So when Shirley asked each of us to think of what recipe meant the holidays to us — of course this recipe was my choice.
Christmas couldn’t really be Christmas without Grandma’s rolls.
Except that Christmas somehow happened without those rolls when Grandma got sick, and after she passed away. But Christmas took on a totally different taste to us all since Grandma didn’t leave a recipe for her famous rolls, and no one in the family had a clue how to start over. So we all made due on memories, which frankly, didn’t cut it.
About that same time, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, so I was obviously out of the “how to recreate Grandma’s rolls” loop. It was just another in my long line of emotion-laden foods that I could expect to never enjoy again. It was also another reason for my multi-year food depression which marked my first several years post-CD-diagnosis.
At some point (a story for a different day), I parted the curtain of my despair and determined to recreate the most important of my family’s recipes. Of course, Grandma’s rolls were a major challenge, considering that none of us even had a glutenous recipe starting point–just the vivid memory of the taste of those amazing rolls, as you closed your eyes and slowly savored the unmistakable flavors of Christmas….
This is where my mother stepped in again, as the amazing inspiration she has always been for me. She was also a cinnamon roll addict (weren’t we all?!) and she challenged me to figure out how to replicate Grandma’s rolls, but to do it gluten-free. So we worked and worked (the taste-tests were brutal!) until we achieved sweet success!
Impossible to resist, aren’t they?
I think it’s because these gluten free cinnamon rolls mean so much to me, sentimentally, that I am so touched whenever readers share their photos of this recipe and their reports of widespread happiness with whomever they share.
Here’s Taylor O’s Christmas morning success. And here’s to wishing you and your family the happiest of holidays, or any day you decide to make these amazing gluten free cinnamon sticky rolls.
And now, without further ado, onto these Cinnamon Sticky Rolls!
How to make Gluten Free Cinnamon Sticky Rolls
Steps 1/2: Make the dough according to my directions in the recipe below.
Steps 3/4: Pat or roll out the dough onto a surface dusted with lots of gfJules Flour to keep it from sticking; it should be a rectangle no thicker than 1/4 inch.
Step 5: Spread with melted butter or vegan butter then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
(optional, but even better in my opinion is to do 3/4/5 steps twice! Spread/sprinkle, then fold over the dough like an envelope and then do it all again so that the dough has TWO layers of yummy butter, sugar and cinnamon rolled up inside itself. See photos below these notes but just above the recipe card for the “double rolled” look of these rolls!)
Steps 6/7/8: Cut down the middle of the dough so you’re dividing the dough in half and it’s easier to roll up into two separate logs. Each log then rolls into two which are then cut into approximately 4 rolls each. Lay each roll into prepared pan, cover, rise then bake, flip and enjoy!
Overnight Rise Option
One more time saver for you, since we’re all looking for ways to enjoy these without having to get up quite so early in the morning. You can make these gluten free cinnamon sticky rolls the night before, allow them to rise for an hour or more, then cover them tightly and put them in the refrigerator overnight.
Here’s the parchment-lined pan with the toppings before you’ll put the dough into the pan to rise:
Get them out and allow them to come closer to room temperature before baking. This is what they should look like when they come out of the refrigerator:
It will take a bit longer to bake them since the dough will be cold, but since they’ll have risen already, that’s ok! After baking:
Then flip the pan and enjoy!!!
Gluten Free Cinnamon Sticky Rolls Recipe
Gluten Free Cinnamon Sticky Rolls Recipe (Oven or Crock Pot)
Heaven on a plate? That's a great name for these melt-in-your-mouth gluten free cinnamon sticky buns / pecan rolls. You'll wonder what took you so long to make them and when you'll be making them again!
Ingredients
Dough Ingredients:
- 2 cups gfJules All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
- 1/4 cup powdered gluten free Vanilla Pudding Mix like Jell-o Brand
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 cup shortening (I use Spectrum organic Palm Oil Shortening)
- 3 Tbs. honey OR agave nectar OR pure maple syrup
- 2 eggs (OR 2 Tbs. flaxseed meal steeped in 6 Tbs. warm water)
- 1 cup vanilla yogurt, dairy or non-dairy (So Delicious® Vanilla Coconut Yogurt)
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/4 tsp. rapid rise yeast (one yeast packet) – Red Star® Quick Rise Yeast
Crumble Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup butter or Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks
- 1 cup light brown sugar or coconut palm sugar
- 1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
Topping Ingredients:
- 4 Tbs. melted butter or Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup OR agave nectar (light rolls pictured with agave) OR dark karo syup
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar OR coconut palm sugar
- 1 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
Instructions
1- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, except yeast. Cut the shortening into small pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a dough paddle attachment on an electric mixer or a pastry cutter by hand.
2- In a smaller bowl, stir together the liquid ingredients until combined. Slowly add liquid mixture to the dry ingredient bowl and mix with the paddle attachment. Add in the yeast, mixing on medium-high until smooth. The dough will be very wet.
If baking in the oven, lightly oil, then line with parchment an 8x8 or 9-inch round pan.
Prepare the topping ingredients and distribute in the bottom of the prepared pan OR in the bottom of a large crock pot.
OVEN METHOD:
If using oven method, preheat oven to 200º F, then TURN OFF.
3- Liberally dust a clean counter or pastry mat and your hands with gfJules Flour. Turn the dough out onto the well-floured surface.
4- Gently pat into a rectangle shape, about 1/4 inch thick.
5- Melt the butter and mix with remaining crumble ingredients. Spread on top of the dough.
6- Cut the dough in half, leaving two approximately equal squares of dough. Slowly roll the dough from one end to the other so that the crumble mixture is spiraled inside itself. Repeat for the other half of the dough, so that you have two long logs of rolled dough. Slice each log with a knife to form approximately 8-12 rolls in total.
7- Lay each roll onto the topping-lined pan, spiral-side down. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper or wax paper and place inside the warmed (off) oven for 25 minutes to rise.
After rising, remove the parchment paper and cover the pan with oiled aluminum foil.
Turn oven up to 350º F (static) or 325º F (convection). OR cover tightly and place in refrigerator overnight then bring to room temperature the next morning then follow bake instructions.
When oven has come to temperature, bake for approximately 30-35 minutes - longer if refrigerated overnight (remove the foil after 20 minutes). The rolls will be light brown and have risen nicely; a toothpick inserted into the center of the rolls should come out fairly dry -- if it's wet with dough, keep baking with foil on top.
When done, turn the oven off and open the oven door to let the rolls cool slowly for about 5 minutes.
8- Remove from the oven to cool for 5 minutes, then pull up on the parchment and turn upside-down on a plate for another 5 minutes. The rolls will drop onto the plate and the pan can be removed. Scrape any toppings out from the parchment and onto the rolls if they don't come out with the rolls.
CROCKPOT METHOD:
7- Lay each roll on top of the toppings in the crock pot, spiral-side down. Cover with the lid and let the rolls rise on the low setting for 30 minutes or cover and set in the fridge overnight, remove to come to room temperature then rise before baking.
After rising, turn to high setting and bake for 2 – 2 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted into the rolls comes out clean. Crockpots vary significantly -- one I used took 2 hours; another took 6! If your crockpot high temperature is in the 212° F range, it will take more like 6 hours to cook through. (Although it's a long wait, the good news is that it smells amazing and it is hard to overcook them inside the crock pot!)
8- Once cooked, turn crock pot bowl upside-down on a plate; the rolls will drop onto the plate and the bowl can be removed.
(This method is particularly helpful if you make the rolls and let the crock pot do the work for you so that they are ready after church or a last minute holiday shopping trip!)
Serve warm, but be sure to grab a roll for yourself before they’re all gone!
Yields 8-12 rolls, depending on how small you cut them.
Notes
For a dairy-free milk powder alternative, an easy solution is vanilla pudding mix! Sounds silly, but it works! Most are gluten-free, but check packaging.
So … would you choose nuts or no nuts?
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Oh my goodness, I just made these today and they are to die for! Thank you so much for the recipe. I haven’t had anything like this in over 8 years when it was determined I could no longer have gluten or dairy products. I will be making these again.
SO very happy to hear this, Jari! Thanks for leaving me a note about your success with this recipe! You can definitely enjoy wonderful gluten free and dairy free recipes like this from now on — all of my recipes are both, so have fun!!
~jules
Does it matter if the pudding mix is the sugar free or regular version?
Hi Wanda, if you’re using sugar in the recipe, the pudding mix shouldn’t matter, no.
~jules
In your gluten free cinnamon sticky rolls recipe is the vanilla pudding mix instant or cook?
Thank you
Hi Mary, I use the instant kind and have good success!
~jules
I – and all my family members – love this recipe! I wanted to make it this year for Christmas morning but my cooking/baking day was the 23rd and I wasn’t sure if that was too early to make these beauties. Did it anyway and – SUCCESS!! I just let them come to room temperature for about 30 minutes and baked for an extra 20 minutes or so.
That is fantastic, Bambi!!! We made these Christmas morning (as always!) for our family tradition, too, but wow! Now I know I can make them 2 days in advance — what a time savings!!!!!
What a sweet Christmas!!!!!
~jules