Low Carb Cinnamon Rolls

Before Keto, I used to love making a can of cinnamon rolls. A warm cinnamon roll (or 3) and a hot cup of coffee was the perfect breakfast for a relaxing Saturday morning. Obviously, traditional cinnamon rolls are now a thing of the past, and bread and sugar are big no-nos. I had been seeing recipes for low carb cinnamon rolls for a while, and had several saved with the idea of making some one day.

That day ended up being St. Patrick's Day. We had originally planned to go hiking, but the weather forecast had enough chance of rain that we decided not to chance it. The eldest went to spend the day with her grandparents, so we had the option NOT to visit Dunkin Donuts for breakfast (that's the only place Abbi wants to eat on Saturday mornings). I decided that this would be the morning I would finally try out one of the cinnamon roll recipes I had been eyeing. Earlier in the week, we had made low carb pizza with fathead dough. For those who have never had fathead dough before, it's a combination of mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, almond or coconut flour, eggs, and various seasonings. It's also called miracle dough because it really is just that- a miracle for those who are low carb. You can use it to make all kinds of delicious things- pizza crust, bread sticks, bagels, cinnamon rolls, and other assorted pastries. It's surprisingly close to normally carb laden treats- both kids love fathead dough pizza, and the eldest can't tell the difference between it and store bought crust.

Coconut flour has just a hint of coconut flavor to it, no matter what you do. Almond flour is much more neutral, but I find it to be a bit grainy. In this case, I knew I wanted to use coconut flour b/c I thought the hint of coconut might be tasty with cinnamon rolls, and because it makes a smoother dough. Most of the recipes I had saved were for recipes using almond flour, so I had to combine a few different recipes to reach my desired results. First the dough- you take the mozzarella and cream cheese and melt them in the microwave. You want the really melty. Then you add the eggs, coconut flour, and some baking powder so the rolls will rise. You combine all that and it makes a sticky dough. To work with the dough, I find it easiest to use your hands. I like to spray some cooking spray on my hands before touching the dough, so my hands don't end up coated in dough. After shaping the dough into logs, you add the cinnamon filling, roll them up, and pop them in the oven. The smell from the oven was making my mouth water- they smelled just like cinnamon rolls should smell!

They were a bit small when I put them in the oven, and I worried whether they would rise much. They weren't the size of canned cinnamon rolls by any means, but they ended up decent sized
and were plenty filling. After we made the filling with water, I read a footnote on the recipe that said you could replace the water with butter. I think next time I will do that, as I think the richness of the butter will only add to the deliciousness of the filling. Also, I think I will add a little bit of sweetener to the dough next time- just to up the overall sweetness a bit.

For the icing, I modified a recipe I had found, using what I thought would taste closest to the sugary goodness that comes in the can. I haven't really found a comparable substitute for powdered sugar, but I've had cream cheese icing on cinnamon rolls that was delicious, so that's where I started. I used a little heavy cream to thin out the cream cheese, added a splash of vanilla to cut the cream cheese flavor, and a squirt of liquid stevia to sweeten things up. It wasn't quite what I was thinking, but it still tasted pretty good. I will probably continue to tweak the icing a bit, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to make it taste quite like I want it to and still keep it keto.



So without further ado, here's the recipe I came up with, along with step by step instructions. Hope you enjoy them!

Low Carb Cinnamon Rolls

Serves 2-4 people depending on how hungry you are

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1 1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tbsp cream cheese (cut into cubes)

2 large eggs, beaten

1/3 c coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

sweetener (optional)

splash of vanilla extract (optional)

For the filling: (next time I'll probably make 1 1/2 servings of the filling)

2 tbsp water (or melted butter)

2 tbsp granulated sweetener 

2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the icing:

2 tbsp cream cheese

splash of heavy cream (or other low carb milk)

vanilla extract to taste (I probably used 1/8 tsp)

1-2 squirts of liquid stevia (depending on how sweet you want it)

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 360 degrees

2) Put the mozzarella cheese and cream cheese into a microwave safe bowl

3) Heat for 45 seconds. Stir well and heat for another 45 seconds.

4) Add the eggs, coconut flour, baking powder, and any sweetener or flavor you want to add. Mix well- I find a fork helpful for this as the dough is pretty hot. You want to work quick as the dough cools quickly and gets more difficult to work with as it cools.

5) Divide the dough into 6 balls.

6) Roll each ball into a log using your hands (greasing them first helps the dough not to stick). Put each log onto a baking sheet or silicon mat and flatten with your fingers, making 6 strips of dough. If the dough starts too cool too much to work with, pop it back in the microwave for 10 secs to warm it back up.

7) Spoon the filling mixture onto each strip.

8) Start on one end of the strip and roll it up.

9) Cut each roll in half so you have 12 rolls total.

10) Bake on a well greased pan at 360 degrees for about 20 mins. You want them to be a bit golden brown, but not so brown they're burnt.

11) Top with the icing while still warm.

12) Enjoy!