Can Cinnamon Rolls With Gluten Free Flour Replace The Standard Cinnamon Roll?

We love cinnamon rolls whether they come from the store or are home made. We have a wonderful recipe that we love which I think tastes better than what you get in restaurants, even the iconic Cinnabon, but my daughter disagrees with me. Anyway, we were getting ready to make wonderful, flaky, fluffy, tasty cinnamon rolls at home with the smallest bag of baking flour we found at Costco and to our surprise, the dough was crumbly and just wasn’t rising. We thought maybe the yeast wasn’t activated so we tried again using less flour to make it less crumbly only to realize it wasn’t the yeast, it was the gluten free flour we had inadvertently purchased.

I stand by the recipe below. It does make wonderful, pillowy cinnamon rolls, but not when a gluten free flour is used. But if you want to use a gluten free flour for dietary reasons, substitute 2 1/2 cups of a gluten free flour with xanthium gum for the 3 cups of bread flour.

Ingredients:

For the Dough

¾ cup warm milk 125°F $0.09
2 ¼ tsp yeast (¼ oz package) $0.83
¼ cup granulated sugar $0.07
1 egg + 1 egg yolk room temp $0.31
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted $0.46
3 cups bread flour, more for dusting $0.75
3/4 tsp salt $0.03

For the Filling

2/3 cup brown sugar $0.38
1 ½ tbsp ground cinnamon $0.28
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened $0.46

For the Frosting

4 oz cream cheese, softened $1.15
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened $0.35
¾ cup powdered sugar $0.20
½ tsp vanilla extract $0.43

Total $5.77

Full Video Tutorial

Preparation:

Warm milk to around 125° F or whatever the package of dry yeast tells you.. I like to do this by placing milk in a microwave safe bowl and microwaving it for 40-45 seconds. Transfer warm milk to the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Add in sugar, egg, egg yolk and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Wait 5 minutes or so to make sure the yeast activates, you should see yeast bubbles forming on top.. Next stir in flour and salt with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.
Place dough hook on stand mixer and knead dough on medium speed for 8 minutes. Dough should form into a nice ball and be slightly sticky. If it’s TOO sticky (meaning it’s sticking to the bottom of the mixer, add in 2 tablespoons more bread flour.) If you don’t want to use an electric mixer, you can use your hands to knead the dough for 8-10 minutes on a well-floured surface.
Transfer the dough ball to a well-oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour to 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in size. This may be more or less time depending on the humidity and temperature in your home.
After the dough has doubled in size, transfer dough to a well-floured surface and roll out into a 14×9 inch rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough, leaving a ¼ inch margin at the far side of the dough.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Use your hands to sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough, then rub the brown sugar mixture into the butter.
Tightly roll dough up, starting from the 9-inch side and place seam side down making sure to seal the edges of the dough as best you can. You will probably need to cut off about an inch off the ends of the dough as the ends won’t be as full of cinnamon sugar as we’d want it to be.
Cut into 1 inch sections with a serrated knife or floss. You should get 9 large pieces.
Place cinnamon rolls in a greased 9×9 inch baking pan or round 9 inch cake pan. (I also recommend lining the pan with parchment paper as well, in case any of the filling ends up leaking out.) Cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel and let rise again for 30-45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Remove plastic wrap and towel and bake cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges. Poke one or two with a toothpick and see if it comes out clean. If the toothpick does not come out clean, keep baking until it does so that you know that the dough is completely cooked. Allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes before frosting. Makes 9 cinnamon rolls.
To make the frosting: In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine softened cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Spread over cinnamon rolls and serve immediately. Refrigerate leftovers for later. They will still be yummy for about 1 week or more.

Kitchen Items used in this recipe