Vegan Cinnamon Roll Recipe

I love this recipe so much!!  All I want to do is curl up with a blanket, cup of tea, a good movie AND a warm vegan cinnamon roll. 

With everything going on, this time at home has me reconnecting with my beloved kitchen!! It has been such a wonderful therapeutic distraction.  I’ve really enjoyed cooking AND baking comfort foods that I know the girls and Mike will enjoy.

If you’ve been following along on stories then you know I’ve been busting out all kinds of plant based goodness daily. I can safely say my cinnamon rolls have been a runaway HIT!!  First and foremost, I love cinnamon!! Secondly, I love doughy yeasty breads. Then slather those 2 with yummy vanilla frosting, I mean what could be better?! Oh and in case the word VEGAN turns you off ask yourself why??  Remember when the word ORGANIC had this yuck thought for most people??!!  Well, vegan simply means it has no animal ingredients.  These rolls have tons of flavor and I bet you will never know they’re VEGAN!!  

Vegan Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Rolling pin
• Large Mixing Bowl
• Small Mixing Bowl
• Tea Towel
• 8×8 Baking pan

Ingredients:

FOR DOUGH

• 1  Cup Oat Milk or your preferred plant based milk
• ¹⁄₂ Cup Vegan butter, I use Earth Balance  
• 1 pack fast acting yeast
• ¹⁄₄  Cup Sugar (+1-2 TBSP if you want it your dough sweeter)
• ¹⁄₂ tsp Salt
• 4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 TBSP Olive oil or Coconut Oil
• **Cooking Spray for pan

FOR INSIDE FILLING

• 2 TBSP Sugar
• 2 TBSP Cinnamon

FOR VANILLA FROSTING

• 1 TBSP Soft room temperature vegan butter
• 1 TBSP Pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¹⁄₂ Cups Powdered sugar
• 2-4 TBSP Water

TO MAKE DOUGH:

1. Pour milk into sauce pan, add butter
2. Heat over low heat until butter melts. Mixture should be warm NOT HOT. You should be able to touch and feel that it’s warm.
3. Remove milk mixture from heat and pour into a large bowl.
   
4. Sprinkle yeast over milk mixture.
5. Gently stir.
6. Let stand for 10 minutes.
7. Add sugar and salt.
8. Add flour in, about a cup at a time. Gently mix between each additional cup of flour. DO NOT OVER MIX!!
9. When it gets too tough to mix, turn out onto a floured work surface. Gently fold in the rest of the flour.
10. Knead 4-5 times.
11. Clean & dry large bowl; Add oil to the edges of bowl.  Place dough inside.
12. Cover bowl with tea towel.
13. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

TO MAKE ROLLS:

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
2. Spray pan with vegetable based cooking spray.
3. Turn risen dough out onto a floured work surface; Dough should be super soft, fluffy, and it should be kinda warm.
4. Knead 4-5 times.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a rectangle. Dough should be about a ¼” thick.
6. Gently tack down opposite edge of dough to ensure it won’t budge as you roll. Firmly roll (not aggressive!!) 
7. Mix sugar & cinnamon into a small bowl; Sprinkle over rolled out dough. I like to go close to the edges to maximizes the swirl.
8. Score cut marks along the rolled dough, about 1 ½” wide. This should yield 14-16 rolls.
9. Place cut rolls into the greased pan.
10. Bake for about 20 minutes, until it begins to turn golden. My trick for not over baking them is to pry the edge of a roll from the pan, it should be a rich golden brown.  The edges will be more golden than the top.
11. LET COOL!!!

TO MAKE FROSTING:

1. While baked rolls are cooling, in a small mixing bowl add butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and 2-3 TBSP of water.
2. Mix. If it is too thick add a bit more water, if too thin add more powdered sugar.  
3. Frost rolls when cool to the touch. I take mine out of the pan but you can totally leave them in.

If you’re looking for me for the next few days, you can find me in my nook enjoying one of these bad boys. Any one else spending extra time in the kitchen these days? What’s cooking in your kitchen?