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These gluten-free cinnamon rolls are out-of-control delicious! They taste like Cinnabon copycats, but with zero gluten. They’re soft and tender with a perfect swirly filling and cream cheese frosting. Perfect for Christmas morning breakfast or anytime!
What Makes This Recipe So Good?
- We love having cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, and these are perfect when you are catering for overnight guests. For a stress-free morning, you can also make these ahead of time.
- These cinnamon rolls taste just like the ones from Cinnabon, but they are 100% gluten-free. Because they are GF, they won’t rise as much as dough with gluten would, but I promise you they taste exactly the same! The cream cheese frosting is to die for! Seriously, it’s so good, this is the only cinnamon roll recipe you will need!
- They can be made ahead of time and reheated for an easy breakfast or brunch option. Keep them in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days; 5 days in the fridge. To reheat, warm in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Microwaving produces more moist and more tender reheated cinnamon rolls than the oven.
Can You Freeze This Recipe for Later?
Absolutely! I’m all for getting ahead of the game. I recommend doing this one of two ways:
- You can freeze the rolls, baked but unfrosted. Later, you can thaw them out, warm them for just a few minutes in the oven, and ice them while warm.
- If you’d rather freeze the cinnamon rolls completely iced and finished, you can do that, too. Just allow them to cool, cover them with plastic wrap and foil, and pop them in the freezer.
Chef’s Tips
- Make sure your warmed milk and melted butter are not too hot; they should feel warm to the touch but not hot.
- Gluten-free flour behaves differently from brand to brand! You may experience different results based on your gluten-free flour. Use the recommended flour from Bob’s Red Mill for the best results.
- If your dough seems overly sticky or unmanageable, gradually add in more flour. Start with just one tablespoon, and add more by the tablespoon as needed.
- Take care not to over-bake the gluten free cinnamon rolls! It’s easy to do and will throw off the taste and texture.
For More Gluten Free Recipes
- Gluten Free Stuffing
- Gluten Free Cornbread with Honey
- Perfectly Crispy Gluten Free Fried Chicken
- Gluten Free Paleo Blueberry Muffins
- Perfect Paleo Brownies (Gluten Free)
- Crispy Gluten Free Onion Rings
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls (Cinnabon Copycat)
These gluten free cinnamon rolls are out-of-control delicious! They taste like Cinnabon copycats, but with zero gluten. They're soft and tender with a perfect swirly filling and cream cheese frosting
cinnamon rolls
Equipment
- Large bowls (2)
- Stand mixer with bread hook (or knead by hand)
- Medium bowl
- Fork
- 9×13 baking dish
- parchment paper
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 1 cup warm milk or alt-milk (like almond, oat, macadamia milk), warmed to 110°-115°F, see Notes
- 1 packet active dry yeast 2 ¼ teaspoons
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled until just warm to the touch, about 110°-115°F, see Notes
- 2 eggs whisked
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 ½ cups Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour see Notes
- 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum only if flour doesn't contain it already, see Notes
- 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Cinnamon Filling
- 1 packed cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons cinnamon
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, or margarine
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 6 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add the white sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer (or large mixing bowl if you prefer to knead by hand) and pour warm milk over. Stir to combine. Sprinkle the yeast over and set aside until bubbly or frothy; you should see a sort of film on the top of the mixture at least. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Add the melted butter (About 110º F; warm to the touch but not hot) to the yeast mixture. Stir in whisked eggs and apple cider vinegar. Add in gluten-free flour, baking powder, salt, and xantham gum if your gluten-free flour does not contain it (See Note). Attach the bread hook to the mixer and mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl and is soft. It should not feel dry but a bit sticky. See Note to mix by hand.
- Lightly oil a large mixing bowl and transfer dough to bowl. Cover and place in a warm spot. Let rise 1 hour. If your spot is cooler, it may take a little longer to rise, but the dough should be a bit puffier and should leave an indentation when poked. It will not double in size.
- Meanwhile, make the cinnamon filling. In a medium bowl, add all ingredients and use a fork to mix very well. Alternately, beat all ingredients together with a stand mixer and paddle attachment.
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly coat a 9×13” baking dish with softened butter or cooking spray.
- Cut a piece of parchment paper to about 12×18” and lay on the counter. Scrape the dough on top. Press the dough to fit the parchment sheet; the dough should be about 12×16” as well. It’s OK if it doesn’t quite fit the entire sheet.
- Evenly spread the cinnamon filling on the rectangle of dough, leaving ½” bare at one end (short side, not long side).
- Carefully, use the parchment sheet to begin tightly rolling the dough. Use the parchment to fold over the first 1” or so of the short side with filling all the way to the edge. Continue rolling the dough by folding the parchment over to the other side. It will roll naturally.
- Cut the roll into 12 equal pieces. Place evenly into baking dish and bake 25-30 minutes. They will not puff up like cinnamon rolls with gluten in them but will become a bit fuller and should be a little golden brown. Do not overbake!
- Meanwhile, make your cream cheese frosting. Add cream cheese and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl and beat until completely combined. Cream cheese should be totally smooth with no solid lumps. Add in powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt; beat on medium speed until combined.
- When cinnamon rolls are finished baking, remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before slathering tops with cream cheese frosting (A butter knife or offset spatula work well). Serve with additional cream cheese frosting.
Video
- IMPORTANT: Make sure your warmed milk and melted butter are not too hot; they should feel warm to the touch but not hot. If they’re too hot, they can kill the yeast. Check them with a thermometer before each step in which they come in contact with the yeast for foolproof gluten-free cinnamon rolls!
- Flour: I recommend using Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour. Gluten-free flour behaves differently from brand-to-brand, so you may experience different results based on the type of flour you use. Use the recommended flour from Bob’s Red Mill for best results.
- Xanthan Gum: If your gluten-free all-purpose flour blend does not have xanthan gum, add 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum to the mixer when adding flour blend and baking powder. The recommended gluten-free flour (Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour) already has xanthan gum and does not need this ingredient added.
- Sticky Dough: If your dough seems overly sticky or unmanageable, gradually increase the amount of flour. Start with one additional tablespoon of flour, adding more as needed to make the dough workable.
- Mixer: If mixing by hand instead of using a stand mixer, add all ingredients as directed in steps #3 and #4 to a large mixing bowl. Stir with a spatula until mixed well. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 1-2 minutes. You are not creating gluten by kneading this dough, but kneading will help incorporate all ingredients as smoothly as if you used a stand mixer.
- Frosting: This recipe makes plenty of cream cheese frosting because I’m pretty sure that’s the best part! You will not need all of the frosting when glazing the cinnamon rolls in the baking dish; keep for serving and reheating!
- Storage & Reheating: Keep in an air-tight container at room temperature up to 3 days; 5 days in the fridge. To reheat, warm in the microwave about 30 seconds. Microwaving produces moister and more tender reheated cinnamon rolls than the oven.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Serving Size: 1cinnamon rollCalories: 536calProtein: 6gFat: 26gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 93mgSodium: 245mgPotassium: 56mgTotal Carbs: 74gFiber: 5gSugar: 47gNet Carbs: 69gVitamin A: 632IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 143mgIron: 2mg
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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Excellent cinnamon rolls!! Followed the recipe exactly and used my stand mixer. Let the dough rise in my warm garage (summer time.)
One tip- I used two pieces of parchment paper one under AND one over the dough as I was rolling it out just to be sure it wouldn’t stick to my fingers or rolling pin. Worked perfectly!
Will definitely be keeping this recipe on hand!
Haha, I love that you found a great use for this summertime heat! That’s a great tip about the parchment paper, too. Thank you so much for mentioning that and sharing your review with us!
This is our favorite cinnamon roll recipe! I increase the flour with an extra 1/2 cup, and I add more yeast only as I am at a higher elevation. The extra flour makes it workable without being too sticky. I have also added pumpkin and strawberry jam to this recipe in the center to make more flavorful cinnamon rolls. Best gluten free recipe by far!
Oh my goodness, adding pumpkin? Strawberry jam? Brilliant! We’ll definitely have to try that. Thank you so much, Angela!
I’m so disappointed in this recipe! I read the comments first and saw everyone talking about the dough being so sticky that it wasn’t even workable and I should’ve listened! It was a big goopy mess! I followed the recipe exactly and used Bob’s 1:1 flour and everything and it still ended up a mess. I couldn’t even roll the dough up. I wasted hours on this recipe for a big mess and wasted food!
I’m so sorry that was your experience, Jennifer. Gluten-free baking is definitely its own sort of beast. I’d love to help you troubleshoot it if I can!
Did you add extra flour to offset the stickiness? We mention that in the Notes section of the recipe and have found it typically helps.
Was your kitchen especially warm when you were working with the dough? Were your hands very warm? You might try chilling the dough before working with it and then again before slicing and baking it, especially if you’re working near the preheated oven.
Regardless, I’m so sorry you had this experience with this recipe, but appreciate your honest review and hope you’ll give it another try.
I’ve tried this twice now. The first time I followed closely but not totally. Second time I followed to a T. I cut the rolls and minutes after putting them into the oven they had all disintegrated into mush. Yummy mush, but it didn’t hold up at all. I’ve searched high and low for a good recipe for gluten free cinnamon rolls and this is not it. If someone wants to give this a try I would suggest freezing the rolls for maybe 10 minutes before popping in the oven.
I’m so sorry you had those results, Grace. I’d love to help you troubleshoot it if I can!
Was your kitchen particularly warm while you were working with the dough? Even if it doesn’t feel too warm to a person, it may be too warm for the dough to behave quite like it should. You might try adjusting the A/C in the room or working away from windows and the preheated oven if you’re able. Or, similar to what you mentioned, refrigerate the dough before cutting it into rolls. Baking them from cool should help them hold their shape better.
You mentioned you followed the recipe to a T the second time, so I’m assuming your flour contained xanthan gum (or you added it if your flour didn’t). The xanthan gum acts as a binder to hold the dough together and improve the texture since there’s no gluten to do the job. Did you add xanthan gum yourself, though? Too much can actually make the dough slimy, gummy, and/or mushy, so it could have been too much xanthan gum added for the specific brand/type of GF flour you used. Those flours can vary wildly, performance wise, so what works well with one flour may not work at all with another.
I hope you’ll give this one another try. You know what they say – third try’s a charm!
Rosemonique, I too have had sticky dough issues. I eventually realized that I was mixing my dough near my sunniest windows where the reflected heat was changing the dough’s texture. When I moved away to a cooler part of the kitchen and gave up baking on the hottest days of summer – my dough texture radically improved. Idk if this will address your situation but wanted to share in case it might. Good luck!
That’s a great tip, Dot! Ambient temperature can definitely be a factor with dough recipes, especially tricky ones like this. Thank you so much for sharing!
Made these twice now and they are just perfect! Thank you 🙏 it’s been so long since i had a good cinnamon roll
So glad these worked out well for you!
This recipe is amazing. Your truly talented at gluten free baking. I’m excited to enjoy some of my favorite comfort foods again thanks to you!
What an incredible compliment! So glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
I had a lot of trouble with this recipe, unfortunately, and I promise you I followed it to a T, using the same brand of flour and all. I could not get my dough to become workable. The first batch was too sticky, so I ended up dumping it. The second batch, I let the yeast bloom for 15-20 mins per another reviewer, but it was still sticky by the end of it. I added almost 5tbsp of additional flour trying to get it workable, but to no avail 🙁
We’re so sorry you had this experience, Rosmonique, but we appreciate you sharing this honest feedback.
Delicious, gooey cinnamon buns!
Yes! So glad you enjoyed it!
I have made these and they were wonderful!! Was curious if I could freeze the dough or refrigerate it for a few days before I bake them?
Either should work!