During graduate school, I woke up one Saturday morning craving cinnamon rolls. As I rolled out of bed, slipped into workout clothes, and laced up my running shoes, visions of cozy spiced spirals filled my head, and I thought about that airy, buttery dough encasing them as my feet pounded the pavement on my 4-mile route around the neighborhood.
When I arrived back home and started stretching my legs to cool down, I tried distracting myself by listing the other available breakfast options in my pantry and fridge: my favorite Trader Joe’s cereal, oatmeal, English muffins, eggs, bread for toasting, plenty of Greek yogurt and fresh fruit…
But my out-of-control craving won in the end, so I flicked on the oven to preheat while I rushed through my shower. After throwing on clean clothes, I cracked open a can of refrigerated cinnamon rolls—when my cravings spiral out of control like that, I can’t wait two more hours to proof yeast and kneed dough and wait for it to rise… I need those cinnamon rolls right now!—and popped them in to bake.
By the time I finished responding to my organic chemistry undergraduate students’ emails (yes, I was {and still am} a science nerd!), I heard the timer ringing in the kitchen, and I sprinted through the house to slip the pan out of the oven. Just a few minutes later, I tore into the first one… Light, tender, buttery, with mesmerizing spirals of cinnamony goodness… And reached for another.
I almost always skip the icing on top… By skipping those calories, it’s how I justify eating a second cinnamon roll!
But now, I’m much more conscientious about the ingredients in the foods I eat, and I avoid those store-bought refrigerated cans of cinnamon rolls. So when that same overwhelming craving returned last week, I developed this 45-Minute Healthy Cinnamon Rolls recipe as a result!
They’re just as light and tender and full of the same cozy cinnamon spirals, but… They contain absolutely no artificial ingredients, refined flour or sugar! And when I sent some to work with my mom, one lady exclaimed that they tasted as if they came straight from a bakery—and that she’d gladly pay for them!
My heart nearly melted. That’s the best sort of compliment!
To make these clean eating cinnamon rolls, you’ll start with whole wheat flour. That’s right, just regular ol’ whole wheat flour! This is the kind I always use for a few reasons. It’s ground finer than other brands, which means that your cinnamon rolls will rise much better; it’s relatively inexpensive; and you can find it at just about every grocery store here in the US. It truly is my favorite whole wheat flour!
Next, you’ll use both yeast and baking powder. Traditional cinnamon roll recipes only include yeast because you give the dough time to rise before baking. However, we’re skipping that rising step today in order to get these cinnamon rolls on the table and in your belly much, much sooner… Which is where the baking powder comes in! It ensures that the cinnamon rolls rise as much in the oven as they would during the traditional rising step. It’s my secret trick to speedy cinnamon rolls, and it works like a charm!
As for the yeast, this is my all-time favorite. It’s the only kind I bake with! It performs perfectly in all of my yeast-based recipes, from cinnamon rolls and artisan bread loaves to pretzels and sweet rolls. It rises the best out of all the brands I’ve tried, so I highly recommend it!
For the filling, you’ll lightly brush the dough with a little bit of melted butter—only a little, I promise! Just enough to taste and give your cinnamon rolls that irresistible richness, but not so much that you need to run a marathon to burn off hundreds of calories. Then you’ll sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and coconut sugar on top.
Coconut sugar is exactly what it sounds like—sugar that comes from coconuts. However, it does not actually taste like coconuts! It has a caramel-like flavor, similar to brown sugar, but it has the same pourable texture as granulated sugar. You can find it at many standard grocery stores, health-oriented grocery stores, and online.
To slice the dough into individual rolls, you’ll use my special trick for perfectly round rolls… Dental floss! You can see exactly how I do that in this video here (located above the recipe). I know it sounds a little strange, but it’s much easier than using a knife!
Then 45 minutes later… Or 44 minutes and 32 seconds (yes, I timed myself!)…
Enjoy! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees that I’ll see the notification from you! ?) I’d love to see your cinnamon rolls and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| 45-Minute Healthy Cinnamon Rolls | | Print |
- for the dough
- 2 – 2 ½ cups (240-300g) whole wheat flour
- 2 ¼ tsp (7g or one ¼-oz package) dry yeast
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup (180mL) warm nonfat milk (100-110°F)
- ½ tbsp (7g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tbsp (12g) coconut sugar
- for the filling
- 5 tbsp (60g) coconut sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tbsp (7g) unsalted butter, melted
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and lightly coat a 9”-round springform pan or cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- To prepare the dough, whisk together 1 cup of flour, yeast, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, butter, and sugar. Mix in the prepared flour mixture. Continue to mix in the remaining flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead for 3-5 minutes or until the dough springs back most of the way when you gently press your index finger into it. Let the dough rest while preparing the filling.
- To prepare the filling, stir together the coconut sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- On a clean, well-floured surface, roll the dough out into a 16x10” rectangle. Brush with the melted butter (from the filling ingredients), leaving a 1” border on the two longer sides. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1” border on the two longer sides again. Carefully roll up the dough into a log, starting at one long edge and rolling towards the other one. Pinch the free end onto the roll to seal. If the dough won’t stick together, gently brush the second longer edge with water before pinching to seal.
- Slice the log into 12 pieces using dental floss or a sharp serrated knife. Place the rolls into the prepared pan. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 17-20 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the sides feel firm. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before serving.
For the flour, I use Gold Medal whole wheat flour. It performs the best out of the majority of the whole wheat flour brands that I’ve tried. White whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour may also be substituted. All-purpose flour may be used as well, but the cinnamon rolls will no longer be clean-eating friendly.
For the yeast, I used Red Star® Quick Rise Yeast. It performs the best out of any yeast I’ve used, so I highly recommend it!
For a vegan version, substitute your favorite non-dairy milk and Earth Balance buttery sticks in place of the butter. Coconut oil will also work in place of the butter, but it won’t have quite the same flavor.
Brown sugar may be substituted in place of the coconut sugar, but the rolls will no longer be clean-eating friendly.
I prefer a springform pan because the sides are taller, which allows the rolls to rise higher, and the sides are removable for easy serving. A regular 9”-round cake pan may be substituted instead.
For more tips on kneading the dough and slicing the cinnamon rolls, watch my video here located above the recipe.
{clean eating, vegan option, low fat, low calorie}
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You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Healthy Slow Cooker Cinnamon Rolls
♥ Healthy Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls
♥ Healthy Classic Cinnamon Rolls
♥ Healthy Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
♥ Whole Wheat Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls
♥ Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Healthy Cinnamon Roll Scones
My cinnamon buns didn’t rise at all :(. The only thing I did was use coconut milk instead of no fat milk.
I made these exactly as described with all the recommended ingredients. They were just okay. A little dry. And the ratio of dough to filling felt off (too bready). Usually I can pass Amy’s recipes off as regular dessert (no one realizes it’s meant to be healthy!) but these cannot pass as regular cinnamon rolls. The upside is that they were so so easy to make and so fast that I’m not terribly disappointed with the results since it wasn’t a huge time investment!
Hi!
I just made these Cinnamon rolls today. They taste good, but they didn’t rise, the cut up rolls occupied more or less the same space as they had before baking, with gaps between the pieces. I used the exact ingredients the recipe asked for, but the dough couldn’t take all the flour. I think there was like a whole cup of flour left from the total quantity mentioned in the recipe. Help please! 🙂
Mine didn’t rise either…
I also had the sad experience of dough failing to rise. I think this would have been better with conventional treatment of the yeast (letting it grow for 5 mins in liquid). Also, baking powder seems to make these tougher (U cheated and used white flour these were still very tough). To be positive, the coconut sugar was a nice idea and would have worked really well witg dough that rose.
Spending 45 minutes on this recipe was worth it! The rolls taste so much better than the ready-made ones. I’m going to use this recipe everytime!
I’m so glad you loved these cinnamon rolls, Kaylee! That’s the best compliment there is, if you think you’ll make this recipe every time. Thank you for taking the time to let me know!
Although I used and followed the exact ingredients and steps, the dough failed to rise.! Waste of time and ingredients.
Will stick to the old good conventional method.
It means a lot that you tried my recipe, Rose! That sounds disappointing and not like how these cinnamon rolls should turn out at all, so I’d love to work with you to figure out what happened. 🙂 In order to do so, I have some questions for you!
Did you make any modifications or substitutions to this recipe, including those listed in the Notes section?
What brands of whole wheat flour and yeast did you use?
How did you measure your flour and milk? Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups? If the latter, can you describe how you used it to measure the flour?
What temperature was your milk?
In Step 2, did you just add 1 cup of flour to start (the cup you mixed with the yeast, baking powder, and salt)?
How much more flour did you mix in before the dough started to pull away from the sides of the bowl?
What was the texture of your cinnamon rolls like after they were fully baked?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but I’ll have a much better idea of the culprit and how to fix it once I know your answers to all of them!
Hi Amy, I really want to try these but want to make the dough a day ahead and bake the next morning. Do you think I can have the rolls prepped and cook the next morning?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Megan! I haven’t had the best luck with that overnight method; the cinnamon rolls don’t seem to rise quite as much or turn out quite as fluffy. If you’d like to serve them warm (without spending all that time preparing them first thing in the morning!), then my recommendation would actually be to fully bake them the night before but leave them in the pan. The next morning, if you’d like to serve them warm, then tightly cover the top of the pan with foil, and put them in the oven on your oven’s lowest temperature setting until they’re fully warmed through. (The foil should prevent the tops from drying out while you reheat them!) Does that make sense? 🙂
Just noticed how everyone says their dough doesn’t rise. Mine also didn’t rise. Easy recipe, but doesn’t work.