Gluten-Free Cinnamon Buns

In case you have not noticed, while I love cooking, baking is my passion. I find baking relaxing and a serious stress reliever. There is also the added bonus that 1) I love eating baked goods and 2) other people love eating them too. I have been jonesing for some cinnamon buns (think those big ooey, gooey suckers from Cinnabon...drooooool) like it's nobody's business. So, armed with my love for baking and a few gluten-free pantry basics, I went to town. These can be made with relatively inexpensive ingredients and some dedication to the bakery arts. I found an awesome recipe by Andrew Mollman on Food.com that can be found here but for simplicity's sake, I will post it here as well using my minimal modifications. I pretty much followed this recipe to a T with the exception of subbing the flour blend Andrew suggested with my trusty Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour and using fast acting yeast instead of traditional yeast. Please try these if you are a cinnamon bun lover...they are so awesome that you'd never ever guess they were gluten-free! Did I mention the cream-cheese icing? Drool.

Ingredients:

Dough:

- 1/4 cup white sugar

- 2 Tbsp butter

- 1/4 cup vegetable oil

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2/3 cup of warm milk (I used 1%, the original recipe calls for skim)

- 1 egg

- 1 1/2 cups Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- 2 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 packet of fast acting yeast (approx. 2 1/4 tsp)

Filling:

- 1/3 cup butter, softened

- 2 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

- 1 cup brown sugar, packed

Icing:

- 8 Tbsp butter, softened (1 stick)

- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

- 1/4 cup whipped cream cheese (or regular, but make sure it is softened)

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/8 tsp salt (I literally just put a dash in)

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, butter, oil, vanilla, egg and milk.

2. In a separate mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and yeast). Slowly stir dry ingredients into wet mixture. If your dough is still quite sticky, add some more flour.

3. Remove dough from mixing bowl into a greased container and place someplace warm for 45 minutes to rise. I usually cover mine with a wet paper towel to prevent drying and getting a "crusty" texture on top. 

4. While dough is rising, I used this time to combine the filling in one bowl and the frosting in another. The original recipe did not say to add the butter to the filling, but I suck at reading and did it anyway. It turned out a little easier that way, actually.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

6. Remove dough and place it between two well-floured and large pieces of parchment paper for rolling.

6. Roll dough until it is approximately 1/4" thick between parchment paper. I suppose you could do this without the parchment paper, but the parchment paper will make your life sooooooo much easier. 

7. Remove top sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle filling mixture across the entire sheet of dough with the exception of a 1" portion on one side of the dough (this will help the outside hold together). I then pressed it with my hand to smooth it out a bit but the original recipe did not call for this. I thought it helped the actual rolling of the rolls. This is also a lot of filling and will spill out the bottom of your rolls on the baking sheet you use. I thought it made a nice cinnamon-y crust on the bottom of the rolls. If you don't want this, cut the filling recipe in half.

8. Roll dough into a log.

9. Using a serrated knife, cut it into 8 pieces. If you, like me, aren't really good with eye-balling, you will probably end up with a couple less or a couple more buns like I did (I ended up with 9). 

10. Place on a greased cookie sheet for baking. Make sure it is one with sides because these babies WILL leak delicious cinnamon goo and you don't want all that stuff all over your oven. 

11. Bake for 15-20 minutes. I baked mine for 18 minutes and they were a teensy bit overdone, but all ovens will vary.

12. When they are done, allow them to cool for about 4-5 minutes and then put on the icing so it melts over them (provided you have successfully resisted the urge to eat all of the icing while your buns were baking).

Hope you enjoy. Below are some more photos of this absolutely awesome recipe (which I will be making for Christmas this year - get yourself ready, fam!)

Seriously, I didn't know Cinnamon Buns could be cute but look how cute they are!

Mmmm...notice the cinnamon spillage!