cinnamon roll

Rolls of cinnamon.  Nomnomnomnomnom.  They’re even good for breakfast the next day, which can occasionally lead to someone else eating the last ones before you’ve even rolled out of bed in the morning, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.  🙂

The only thing that isn’t paleo in these cinnamon rolls is the cream cheese in the topping.  🙂  I used as little agave nectar as possible in this recipe; I needed it to give bulk to the filling, and to balance the strong kick of the cream cheese (stevia just doesn’t have the fightin’ gloves for it), but not in the dough, which worked fine with just stevia.

You’ll need parchment paper (not wax!) to roll up the log of dough successfully, but that’s the only tricky part about this recipe.  I love these things, and you should too.  🙂

Grain-Free Cinnamon Rolls

Yield:  8 rolls

Ingredients:

for the dough:

for the filling:

  • 1/4 cup agave nectar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg

for the topping:

  • 2 oz cream cheese, softened (if it’s cold you can microwave it about 8-10 seconds to soften it)
  • 1 T agave nectar
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 T cashew milk

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

2.  First, let’s make the dough.  In a small bowl, warm up the cashew milk in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, then whisk in the yeast and 1 T of the paleo dough mix, then set aside to proof.

3.  In a medium-to-large mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients for the dough (the remaining paleo dough mix, the tapioca starch, the almond flour, and the salt).  Use a pastry cutter to cut in the palm shortening until crumbly.

4.  Once the yeast mixture is foamy, add the liquid stevia to it, then add that mixture and the egg to the dry mixture and combine with a fork until fully integrated.

5.  Get a round glass cinnamon roll pan, a rectangle of parchment paper a bit bigger than a piece of paper, and a rolling pin; dust all three lightly with tapioca starch.

6.  Gently roll the dough into a rectangle that nearly fills the parchment paper, re-dusting your rolling pin often so the dough doesn’t stick to it.  Once the dough’s rolled out, lift one end of the parchment paper just a little, to make sure the dough will come off the parchment paper easily like it should.  If it does, pat it back down for now; if it doesn’t, scrape the dough back together, dust a new piece of parchment paper, and try again.  Don’t worry, I’ve never had any problems with this step, I just get nervous if I don’t check it!  🙂

7.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the filling ingredients (agave nectar, cinnamon, and nutmeg).  Drizzle the filling over the dough rectangle, as evenly as you can, leaving a small margin of un-drizzled dough on all four edges.

8.  Gently and slowly lift one end of the parchment paper up, at a steady rate, so as to slowly roll the dough rectangle into a “log.”  (Some filling will inevitable ooze out; that’s okay.)  Using a large chef’s knife, cut the log carefully into eight equal sections; carefully turn each section sideways and lay it down in the dusted glass pan — that’s a cinnamon roll.  🙂

9.  Position all eight rolls in the pan as equally spaced as you can manage.  There’ll be plenty of space between them, which is fine.  Bake them in the preheated oven for 25 minutes and they’ll come together to make pull-apart cinnamon rolls, like this:

cooked cinnamon roll pan

10.  While the rolls bake, whisk together the topping ingredients in a small bowl (cream cheese, agave nectar, vanilla extract, and cashew milk), and put in the fridge to chill if need be.

11.  Once the rolls come out of the oven, let them cool a few minutes, then frost and serve.  🙂

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