The Luscious GF Cinnamon Roll Recipe of Your Dreams
Updated: Aug 28
Coincidentally, today is National Gluten-Free Day and today’s memories from 1 year ago on our Facebook page are my luscious gluten-free cinnamon rolls. It took roughly 1½ years of work and fine tuning to get my recipe to the point where it is now. I developed my cinnamon roll recipe concurrently with my gluten-free flour formula, using my cinnamon roll recipe as a test to help me craft my flour blend.
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It's no secret that gluten-free cinnamon rolls are tricky to get right. It’s hard to replicate that soft, gooey texture everybody goes crazy over—the kind where you can unwind it into a tender ribbon, all the way to that soft, gooey, cinnamony center. There were a lot of failures. Even when I thought I had finally nailed down the formula, I needed to solve the shelf life problem: they wouldn’t stay soft after cooling. Eventually I solved the problem by incorporating tangzhong into the dough.
Tangzhong is a technique that involves cooking a small amount of flour and liquid (usually water or milk) to create a paste that is added to yeast bread dough. This paste helps the dough retain more moisture and makes the bread softer, fluffier, and longer-lasting.
The trick to making the perfect cinnamon roll is to not proof the rolls too long. Overproofing the rolls causes them to be too airy, which can make them feel bready. Most cinnamon roll connoisseurs want a roll that they can unwind, allowing them to be able to eat it as a single ribbon, inch by inch all the way to its center. So please resist the temptation to let them rise until doubled.
When it comes to cinnamon rolls, a little impatience can actually be a virtue, both during the proofing process and during baking. Take care not to overbake your cinnamon rolls. Some people even prefer their cinnamon rolls slightly underbaked. Resist the temptation to bake them past the golden stage. Most gluten-free baked goods are a shade or two lighter than golden brown when they’re completely baked. That’s due to properties of the components of some gluten-free flours. Erring on the side of less baking time also helps ensure that your rolls will retain more moisture.
I built layers of assurance of achieving soft, tender, and gooey cinnamon rolls into my recipe. First of all, the dough itself is formulated with enough hydration and fat to create a moist roll. The addition of tangzhong enhances that quality even more. Secondly, I use brown sugar in the cinnamon filling. The molasses contained in the brown sugar helps the rolls retain moisture. (For an extra decadent treat, you can increase the filling amount up to double, if you prefer.) Before baking the cinnamon rolls, I pour a nice warm splash of heavy cream over the rolls and let them sit for about 5 minutes. This makes extra luscious and gooey, like Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. It’s just divine how the heavy cream bakes into the cinnamon filling to create almost a cinnamon caramel flavor to the rolls. The addictively creamy vanilla-cream cheese icing simply takes the rolls over the top by locking in and adding to the moisture of the rolls. For best results, follow my instructions to ice the cinnamon rolls while the rolls are warm. Doing so will allow some of the icing to melt into the rolls, and it makes them look even more tempting.
For best results, use instant yeast for this recipe.
I recommend that you use Cup4Cup 1:1 GF flour for this recipe. Cup4Cup contain milk powder to enhance tenderness, flavor, and ability to brown.
Here's a few hints on making the best cinnamon rolls using my recipe:
If you're using Cup4Cup, use 120 grams for a cup. I wrote the flour measurement in cups because there are many 1:1 gluten-free flour blends available, and every one of them is different, which means that they will weigh differently. Using 120 grams for a cup, 2 ⅓ cups is 280 grams.
Make sure to use room temperature ingredients.
Don't overbake them.
I prefer to use 50% more filling in my rolls, but that's just personally. You can use up to double what is written in the recipe. The same goes for the cream cheese icing. Some people like double the amount of icing than I do. 😊
Happy Baking!
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