This recipe is really a case in point. I have long despaired of having anything really resembling a good cinnamon roll after being diagnosed with diabetes. I made one early attempt, with a combination of almond flour and coconut flour, back in the early days of this blog. They were…okay. At the time, I thought maybe they were the best I could do using low carb and gluten free ingredients. A little later, I did attempt a sweet roll using carbalose flour, but that does contain gluten and I am moving further and further away from using any gluten products at all. So for the time being, I gave up. I was very pleased with my Cinnamon Roll Scones and thought that they were an excellent replacement in taste, if not exactly in appearance and texture.
And then, when I was making another recipe altogether, I recognized something about the dough I was working with that I thought might make a good cinnamon roll. It was the way it both rose and spread during baking that caught my eye, and I thought that if I rolled it out carefully and filled it with melted butter, cinnamon and granulated erythritol, it might just do the trick. Now I will tell you that these are cinnamon rolls of the biscuit dough variety. I have never attempted a yeast dough with almond flour, or with any gluten free flour at all. But traditional wheat flour biscuit dough makes wonderful cinnamon rolls and I knew that if I could just nail an almond flour biscuit dough, I could make a decent low carb cinnamon roll. And so it was, a few weeks back, that a biscuit-y type recipe turned out well enough for me to think it might just translate.
The Results: I really loved these. They were tender and moist and perfectly cinnamon-y. Again, they aren’t like yeast dough, but very similar to cinnamon rolls made with biscuit dough. They don’t rise and spread all that much, but I am not sure I really care because flavour and texture were spot on. And my kids loved them too, which is always worth some bonus points in my eyes. To be able to have a cinnamon roll with my coffee in the morning was just heavenly.
Almond Flour Cinnamon Rolls – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
Dough:
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3 tbsp granular Swerve Sweetener, or other granulated erythritol
- 3 tbsp unflavored whey protein powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling:
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 tbsp brown sugar substitute, I used Ideal
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Cream Cheese Icing
- 2 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 tbsp powdered Swerve Sweetener, or other powdered erythritol
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F and grease an 8-inch round cake pan with butter.
- In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, Swerve, whey protein, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.
- Stir in eggs and butter until dough comes together. It will be quite sticky.
- Turn out dough onto a large piece of parchment, and then pat into a rough rectangle.
- Top with another piece of parchment and roll out to about 10x8 inches. Peel off top piece of parchment paper.
- Brush dough with melted butter, then sprinkle with brown sugar substitute and cinnamon, going almost right to edges.
- Starting with the far, longer edge of your dough, gently lift away from the parchment and roll up tightly towards you. Pinch the seam to seal.
- Using a sharp knife, carefully cut into 8 equal portions. Place in prepared cake pan, just barely touching each other, and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until just golden brown. Remove and let cool 10 minutes.
- For the Frosting, beat all ingredients in a medium bowl and then pipe or spread onto warm rolls.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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Oh Carolyn! These look amazing!! Love the use of almond flour!
I enjoy your blog very much. I don’t need gluten free etc, but some of my friends do and I pass recipes along when I think someone would be interested. I love nuts any and all nuts both the edible ones and most of the two-legged variety. My problem is with a grandson who is nut sensitive, the edible kind. This of course means a lot more reading of labels. grocery shopping can be a pain, and it seems nut free is a license to steal even more than the gluten free products. Sad.
Sorry about your grandson. Nut-free is hard to find and hard to do! It’s so limiting. For my kids, their schools are nut-free so I often have to come up with recipes that have no nuts or nut flours.
I love the process by which you go through to get your recipes just right. You’re an inspiration to “wing it” type bakers like me! Another winner, my friend! Hope you are having a wonderful summer 🙂
Awesome, Carolyn – that sounds like a breakthrough recipe!
The recipe looks great!
I really need to go out an explore some other flours. I play it safe with white, wheat and oat. I know I am missing out.
Wow great job on making these low carb… it’s so hard to resist breads but now we can eat these with no guilt thank you!
Hmmm. Delicious sounding (and looking). Now, if only I had some heavy cream in the house….
I’m looking forward to trying these, but I am curious, does the protein powder serve a baking function? Or does it just up the nutritional content?
It does, actually. Gluten is a protein and in its absence, a substitute protein helps baked goods rise and set properly. There are other protein powders, like hemp and soy. I’m not a fan of soy, and personally would much rather use whey. I’ve never tried hemp.
Can you substitute anything? I don’t have plain protein powder right now, just chocolate.
That might be a little strange…but it could be tasty!
I can’t do any dairy, including whey. Not a fan of protein powder. Any other subs? Would coconut flour work……?
I have read somewhere that dry milk powder helps gluten free baked products rise higher—maybe you could sub that for the whey protein powder?
Carolyn, you are the queen of recreating regular treats into low-carb treats! These look amazing.
I can’t express how delighted I am with your timing. It’s my birthday next week and I was just deliberating on what to do. I was gonna make your cinnamon pecan streusel bread… til I saw this!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
You are most welcome! They really are yummy. And kid-approved too!
Do you have the rest of the nurtrition info. on this? Training for a body building competition and looking for options. Thanks!
They sound great! I was just thinking about making cinnamon rolls. 🙂
Oh my word. I am utterly *delighted* you’ve posted this recipe!
The almond dough alone is delicious enough, let alone when it’s drizzled with cheese icing!
I think these sounds like a wonderful alternative. I’m very sensitive to sugar (major rush followed by a major crash) so it would make sense for me to incorporate more recipes like this into my diet.
I reflect back now and I realize that I was really sensitive in that way to sugar too. Just keep your eye on that, you don’t want to end up with diabetes like me! 😉
These sound amazing! I love that they use almond flour, definitely going to have to try these!