These low carb and sugar-free cinnamon twists are the perfect keto pastry for breakfast, snack, or dessert. Made with keto fathead dough, they are tender and delicious.
This recipe for Keto Cinnamon Twists was originally posted in July 2016. Now I’ve made them even easier to make, and I’ve got a new video to show you how.
Keto mozzarella dough really is magic!
Oh, oh, this keto mozzarella dough. Honestly, this stuff is a total low carb game changer for me and I am having way too much fun messing around with it to create new keto recipes. There’s nothing quite like it in the world, a stretchy, flexible low carb dough made out of mozzarella cheese.
It’s not perfect for everything but it works like a charm for any kind of keto pastry, and it makes an ideal keto pizza crust. I’ve used for everything from keto garlic knots to braided chocolate-filled bread.
Seriously, though. Who sat down one day and said to themselves “I am going to make keto dough out of cheese and see if it works”? Because while I am incredibly creative and innovative with my recipes, I am also quite certain I never would have thought of this. They deserve my kudos.
But that’s the nice part about the low carb recipe creation world. We can all learn from each other and build on each other’s work. I’ve put my own special twists on fathead dough now, and I think it gets better each time.
Perfecting keto fathead dough
This dough isn’t exactly tricky to make, but there are some tricks to getting it right. And so, at the request of several readers, I have created a video that walks you through the steps. Scroll down to the recipe to see the full video.
There are any number of ways to make fathead dough, and every time I make it, I find I learn something new. I actually have a few different versions of it, including this dough that’s made with both almond flour and coconut flour, and an all-coconut version as well.
I have found that fathead dough that’s made with all almond flour is too soft and spreads too much during baking. While you can indeed make it that way, and it’s good for people with coconut allergies, it’s quite a bit harder to work with. It simply lacks the proper structure.
One reader gave me another little trick that saves one step and one bowl, and that is to melt your butter right in with your mozzarella. Less mess and less to clean up afterward! That worked beautifully for me in these low carb cinnamon twists.
These little pastries make a wonderful breakfast treat. I’ve made them several times and my kids keep asking me to make them again. So if you’ve been itching to try the low carb mozzarella dough, just dive right in. I hope you find my video and all of my tips helpful.
How to make keto cinnamon twists
The video walks you through all the steps but here are some things to remember:
- Silicone mats are easier to work with, as they don’t slide around the counter as much as parchment paper does. If you use one big silicone mat to roll out and form the twists, you can simply slide the whole thing onto a baking sheet at the end.
- The conventional wisdom is that fathead dough turns out best with pre-shredded, part skim mozzarella. Although it does contain a little starch, it’s not enough to really raise the carb count, and it gives the dough more structure.
- You can melt the mozzarella and butter in the microwave, or on the stovetop. If you use the stovetop, remember to take your melted cheese and butter off the heat before adding the remaining ingredients.
- Fathead dough turns out a little differently every time. It can depend on your almond flour, your coconut flour, the size of your eggs, and the brand of cheese. So if it turns out a bit sticky, simply work in more almond flour, a little at a time, until you have a nice cohesive dough.
- I’ve updated the filling of these keto cinnamon twists to include the new Brown Swerve, for more of a cinnamon roll flavor. If you don’t have any, you can still use regular granulated Swerve.
- Let these keto pastries cool at least 10 to 15 minutes, as they are very soft when they are fresh out of the oven. If you want to warm the leftovers up a bit in the microwave, 10 seconds or so is enough for a delicious warm cinnamon twist!
Ready to make some delicious Keto Cinnamon Twists?
More delicious keto fathead recipes
- Keto Fathead Bagels
- Keto Pepper Jack Crackers
- Keto Pretzel Bites
- Keto Spanakopita
- Fathead Pizza Pockets
- Fathead Lasagna
Keto Cinnamon Twists
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1/2 cup (56 g) almond flour
- 1/4 cup (30 g) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (45.5 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 6 ounces (170.1 g) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup (56.75 g) butter, cut into pieces
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Filling
- 1 tbsp Swerve Brown
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
Glaze:
- 2 tbsp powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 - 1 tbsp Water
Instructions
Dough:
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a large baking mat with a silicone liner or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, sweetener, and baking powder. In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the cheese and butter. Melt on high in 30 second increments until it can be stirred together. (Alternatively, you can melt the cheese and butter in a saucepan over low heat).
- All at once, add the almond flour mixture, egg, and vanilla extract and stir to combine. Use a rubber spatula to really knead the dough up against the sides of the bowl. It will still have some large streaks of cheese.
- Turn the dough onto a silicone mat or directly onto a kitchen counter and knead until uniform. If the dough is quite sticky, work in another tablespoon or two of almond flour as you knead it.
- Cover the dought with parchment paper and roll out to a 10x10 inch square.
Cinnamon Filling
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sweetener and cinnamon. Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter, then sprinkle with about two thirds of the cinnamon mixture.
To make the twists
- Use a knife or offset spatual to gently loosen the dough from the silicone mat. Fold the dough over in half and cut into 10 strips with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.
- Hold both ends of one strip and twist gently in opposite directions two or three times. Lay the twists on the prepared baking sheet and brush with the remaining melted butter. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon "sugar".
- Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool.
Glaze:
- In a small bowl combine the powdered sweetener, vanilla extract and just enough water to achieve a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cooled twists.
Video
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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I followed the recipe to the letter but what a mess! The dough is so crumbly i coudln’t pick it up or twist it. It’s in the oven now, but I can’t imagine it will come together. What did I do wrong? Should I have chilled the dough for a bit before rolling?
No chilling necessary. When this happens, it usually comes down to your ingredients. What brand of almond flour did you use? What kind of cheese?
I used Kirkland California superfine almond flour, Tropical Green organic coconut flour, and Kraft natural part skim shredded mozzarella.
The almond flour and mozzarella sound okay but I’ve never heard of that coconut flour. Coconut flour can vary a lot brand to brand in terms of absorbency so it may have been the issue, and perhaps less coconut flour next time would allow these to hold together and not be too crumbly.
Can this dough be frozen with success Carolyn? I’m in love with so many of your recipes and am now looking to buy your book as my little granddaughter is a Type 1 Diabetic. Thank you for everything you do to help others.
I have frozen and thawed it but it does lose a little of its elasticity.
Why wouldn’t you add some baking powder to your dough? It would help the twist rise a little and not look like they have been run over by a truck ?
There already is baking powder in the dough…
Followed everything except I used only almond flour as I can always taste the coconut. I don’t like the coconut. Looked perfect but flattened out and ? Melted in the oven.
It flattened because you didn’t use the coconut flour. Sorry but it helps!
A breakfast treat my 13 year old son requests regularly! These smell so good when cooking. Fast and easy to make. This is one of the first low carb recipes I tried, so you do not need a lot of skill to make this. Do not worry if they do not look as pretty before you bake them. They look nice after you cook them!
I butchered your recipe but it still came out tasty! I didn’t have the coconut flour, so I upped the almond flour to a cup. The flavor was still there but my twists flattened out like pancakes while baking! Lol…. I’m assuming that’s due to the absence of the coconut flour. Anyway, just wanted to thank you for sharing your recipes! I’d never survive this LC journey without them!
Well, you needed to add about 3/4 cup more almond flour…the rule of thumb is 3x the amount of coconut flour.
Do you think frigerating the dough after making the twist & before baking may help with the dough not flattening out?
Possibly!
Perfect every time. Couldn’t be any easier. love
The video isn’t working! All you get is an error message! It says: Media error, sources not supported. https://vid5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/carketch/Cinnamon%20Twists_zpsxzlxt2og.mp4?_=1
I can’t get the video to work, would have liked to see it before trying.
These turned out to be wonderful! The dough wasn’t as hard to work with as I had anticipated. (I’m impatient when it comes to dough.) I’m considering experimenting with leaving out the sweeteners to make a basic version for doing savory breakfast braids and other items that call for a bread product. Thank you so much!
Lovely flaky dough recipe. I used the dough to make a keto version of my families Hungarian Christmas cookies (“Kiflik”). The dough is cut into scalloped squares and rolled up with a ground pecan and walnut mixture. Thank you!!
mine did not turn out . all that work for nothing . what a waste
Why don’t you tell me what happened? Often I can identify the issue. It always helps to know brands of almond and coconut flour, and sweetener.
I am a first-timer when it comes to working with dough. Mine smelled delicious, bur were completely flat. I used a brand of coconut flour called let’s do organic from the Edward and Sons Trading Company. The brand of almond flour that I used was Bob’s Red Mill. After I added the flour mixture to the melted cheese and butter, they blended quite nicely into a doughy mixture. I did not kneaded the dough, but merely rolled it out. It wasn’t sticky, just wet/greasy.
I didn’t use Swerve, but Pyure sweetener, less of it, though. Maybe I should track down Swerve…
They do end up rather flat so I am not sure you did anything wrong but the coconut flour could be part of the issue.
Which brand of coconut flour has been most successful in your recipes?
I always use Bob’s Red Mill.
I’m new to these keto recipes so the texture was a bit dense and chewy for my preference (I’m still dreaming of fluffy Cinnabons!). I’m sure I’ll get used to it since the flavour was great and I’ll make them again soon! Anything to make them fluffier? Thanks for sharing these great recipes with us who hate to miss the good stuff! Xoxo
I’ve been working at it but really don’t have a good solution to the lack of fluffiness…without gluten, it’s hard to do!
I am going to try adding a tablespoon of egg white powder just as the dough get flattened out. This stuff is amazing! I’ve started using it in all my keto bread recipes and I actually can bake a full loaf of keto soul bread that resembles actual bread, it doesn’t toast up very well but it’s awesome! So any time I need anything to rise like fluffy waffles or pancakes I add a little of what I call magic white powder aka fairy dust lol…it’s really called Muskoka mornings No Yolking egg white powder it’s awesome and I think will make these extra special! Imagine no more separating any eggs any recipes that call to fold in egg whites I don’t have to do I just add the whole eggs and then a couple or three tablespoons of this stuff and you won’t believe the difference. They made my waffle iron lift the waffle lid right up as the waffles began to swell, I have never seen that ever even with regular waffles I’ve never ever had them with that kind of lift and they don’t taste eggy at all. Btw I have no affiliation with that company at all.
I scrolled and scrolled and could not find one comment about the confusing instructions on the butter. The recipe says to melt the butter with the cheese….then later it says to spread the dough with half the butter. So does that mean to melt half the butter with the cheese? This could be why so many people had flat dough? Help!
Two separate times where are you are using butter, which is why it’s actually listed twice in the ingredients list. One…when you make the dough. Two, you use a tbsp of melted butter on the already made dough. I don’t think it’s confusing as most people haven’t had an issue with that part of it.
I was so looking forward to this but then I saw as I entered in the carbs in my fitness pal that the total carbs came to 12.2gm for one serving! I used Everything that was in the recipe just different brands. I’m still going to enjoy them!
It’s because My Fitness Pal is not subtracting the erythritol carbs, which don’t impact blood sugar.
I create a food for the Swerve & subtract out the sugar alcohols from the total Carbohydrates.
HI,
Recipe sounds amazing!
Could i use stevia sachets (granulated) for sweetener?
Sure!