Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls

Name: Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls
Prep time: 90 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 120 min
Ingredients: 4 1/3 cups all purpose gluten-free flour with xanthan gum; 1 package active dry yeast (2 teaspoons); 1 cup milk (we used skim milk, any will do); 1 cup mashed (cooked potato); 5 tablespoons butter (cut up); 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 eggs; 3 tablespoons butter (softened); 1 cup packed brown sugar; 2 tablespoons cinnamon; 2 cups powdered sugar; 8 ounces of cream cheese (room temperature); 4 ounces of butter (room temperature)

The best GLUTEN-FREE Cinnamon Rolls! Developed specifically for gluten-free flour, they have an amazing soft & fluffy texture, great flavor + luscious Cream Cheese Frosting! Plus incredibly SIMPLE and relatively quick recipe!

An easy recipe for the BEST Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls!

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For Easy Gluten-Free Dinner Rolls, click here.

Update Fall 2021… At the request of so many of you, I recently tested if they could be a day ahead, left in the refrigerator overnight and baked the next morning. And yes! It works great!!

I’ve updated the recipe with that option.

And don’t forget there’s a cooking video on this page so you can see how simple they are to make!

Enjoy!

Original post..

So excited to finally share our recipe for Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls and a cooking video so you can see how easy they are to make!

As with all our recipes, there is a printable recipe at the bottom of the page with exact measurements and directions.

Cinnamon Rolls have been one of the most requested dishes and over the years, we’ve tried various recipes. The ones we tried were good, but always a little dense and none of them were ever good enough to share.

So this year I was determined to make a Gluten-Free Cinnamon Roll that had that amazing, soft texture you want in an cinnamon roll.

After a few tries, we did it!

You might have seen me share some of these on Instagam stories earlier in the month because were soooo excited by the texture we achieved!

Soft and fluffy, and bready, and soooo yummy!

Well, since then, I’ve made them countless times, and one of my most trusted recipe testers has as well!

The final recipe is so simple and quick compared to regular, full gluten, cinnamon rolls and they are so good!

And now we can’t wait for you to make them!

So let’s make them together!

A little background on the recipe itself… This recipe is adapted from a Better Homes & Garden recipe and uses a frosting from Baking with Babish.

The Better Homes & Garden recipe was suggested by my sister in law, who has also been trying to make great tasting gluten-free cinnamon rolls, and we love the secret ingredient they use! And of all the cinnamon rolls we tried over the years, we loved the Baking with Babish frosting, so decided to stick with it!

The key we’ve learned through all our recipe testing is that the very nature of working with gluten-free flour and yeast, means the properties of the dough are different and the process of making the cinnamon rolls needs to be treated differently….

But the good news, is that it’s EASIER!!

Bet you didn’t expect me to say that, did you?

Yes, it’s easier!

With regular full gluten cinnamon rolls, you might be aware the recipes call for letting the dough rise twice, lots of kneading, punching the dough…. but if you do all that with gluten-free dough, you’ll punch the rise right out of it!

SO with this recipe, we’re going to make the dough (which is soft, not sticky at all!, and rolls beautifully), roll it out and make the rolls, THEN let them rise, just once and bake them!

It could not be simpler!

So let’s start with the ingredients and I’ll share some tricks and tips along the way!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour (we used GF Jules – affiliate link)

Active Dry Yeast (make sure it’s gluten-free!)

Milk

Butter

Mashed Potato (Yes! A secret ingredient I learned from a Better Homes & Garden recipe)

Sugar

Salt

Eggs

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon

Plus, Cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar for the frosting

As an aside, you may have noticed that we are affiliate for GFJules. A great gluten-free flour is extra important in a recipe like this! To learn more about why we love GFJules flour and why we have used it for 10 years, click here.

Bonus: at the bottom of that post is a one-time use affiliate Discount Code.

And importantly, purchasing through an affiliate link does not change your cost at all. It generates a small percentage of the sale for me, and purchasing through an affiliate link helps me fund this website and all the recipes I share, so thank you!

Back to the Gluten-free Cinnamon Rolls….

They are so simple to make and come together quickly for cinnamon rolls!

The first thing I like to do is mix together the filling so that it’s ready to go, because like I mentioned above, we are going to make the dough, roll it out and make the rolls, then let them rise.

The filling is just brown sugar and lots of cinnamon, which we will place on top of the dough with butter.

Ok, now to the dough. It helps to have your ingredients out and ready to go because this too comes together quickly!

The first thing to do is add a portion of the flour (1 1/2 cups, see recipe details below) and a packet of yeast into a large mixing bowl and mix together.

Just a note on yeast, please make sure it’s gluten-free. We have used both Fleishman’s and Red Star Active Dry yeast which are gluten-free but be careful because some yeasts (like Red Star platinum) contain wheat and rye.

Then in a medium sauce pan you heat on low to medium low heat, the milk, mashed potato, sugar, salt and butter (cut into pieces).

A note on the mashed potato — it’s literally just mashed potato. I’ve boiled and mashed them, and I’ve baked them and spooned out the potato and mashed them. There are many ways, so do what works for you!

Anyway, you’ll combine and heat the mix until its 120 -130 degrees F using a kitchen thermometer OR if you don’t have a thermometer, you’ll know it’s ready because the butter will just be melted.

Next, add the warmed mixture along with eggs to the flour/ yeast and mix till combined. Then mix at high speed for about a minute until smooth and fluffy.

You may have noticed I used the paddle attachment of my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer (affiliate link) to mix this so far.

But now it’s time to add in the flour and I’m switching to the bread attachment.

If you don’t have a bread attachment, you could mix it by hand.

Then add in the rest of the flour in stages… I like to add 1 1/2 cups, then 1 cup then the final 1/3 cup, each time scraping down the sides as needed and making sure it is combined but not over-mixed.

A note…I have always needed the final 1/3 cup but my recipe testers felt the dough was ready without it sometimes….

You want the dough to be soft, pliable and ready to roll. When you add in the final amount of flour, it should not be sticky.

Ok, your dough is ready so let’s roll it!

Again, we will NOT be kneading this dough. We do not want to knead out the air and rise.

So we just roll the dough and using a roller and my hands form a 12×18 inch rectangle.

Then spread the remaining 3 tablespoons softened butter generously on the dough.

Top with all the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1/2 -1 inch border along on of the long sides.

Then roll it tightly, pinching the seam when it’s done, and cut it into 1 1/2 in pieces.

You want them to be cut as evenly as possible so they all look the same when cooked. So I often mark the 1 1/2 inches first, then slice with a sharp knife.

See how quickly these come together??

Then place the sliced rolls into a well oiled pan. You want the pan to be oiled because you want the moisture to help with the rise.

I even use my hands to spread a touch of oil around the outsides of the rolls.

Then over with a well oiled piece of plastic wrap, and with a towel and place in a cupboard for 1 hour to rise.

An hour later….

They look amazing and are ready for the oven!

See how quick this is?!

They bake for just about 30 minutes, until the tops are golden and the cinnamon sugar is sizzling.

Your house will smell amazing!

Then let cool a little and add frosting!

Some in my family ate lots of them without frosting but I love the cream cheese frosting!

The frosting is a simple and unbelievably yummy mix of cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar, which I just mix in a Kitchen Aid until well combined and smooth.

Then when you can’t wait any longer (about 10 minutes here!), add frosting as desired and enjoy!

Just take a look inside at the layers of cinnamon and the amazing texture!

So yummy!

Pro Tip: Like all cinnamon rolls, these taste best fresh out of the oven.

They will harden, as most cinnamon rolls will, over 24 hours. To preserve the “just out of the oven texture”, freeze (in simple sealed glass container) any you’re not eating in those first few hours. Then de-thaw but letting come to room temperature naturally, then heat in the microwave for 30 seconds just to warm up a bit.

Pro Tip: The recipes halves well! So if you know you don’t need all 12 cinnamon, make 6!

Tips on halving the recipe:

If making 6 you can literally cut the recipe in half.

Just note that instead of needing a total 4 – 4 1/3 cups flour you may be ok with 1 3/4 – 2 cups.

You will roll the dough into a 12×6 inch rectangle. And when you roll, roll on the 12 inch side.

Place cinnamon rolls in a small pan. I used an approximately 9×7 pan but a pie pan works well too as seen here made by one of my recipe testers.

Hope you love them as much as we do!

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