Dairy Free Cinnamon Rolls That Don’t Suck
You guys! I am getting really excited for Easter this weekend. It’s one of my favorite holidays. Obviously, being Christian it has deep personal significance for me. Then, on top of that I also love getting together with family to celebrate and all the fun traditions we have with the kids. Of course, there’s the ever messy, but beloved dyeing of Easter eggs. (Which means that my counter will have random rainbow colored splotches here and there for the next three months. Why does that stupid dye stain so badly?) There’s the making of the uber cute/but tasty spring goodies (cupcakes with pastel frosting!). And of course there’s the kiddos big candy hunt and Easter baskets.
In recent years my side of the family has been doing a celebration brunch right after church services. I always end up doing some kind of big egg casserole, Belgian waffles or some dish in the pancake family, a big fruit salad, bacon, sausage links, and maybe pastry or cinnamon rolls. I know a lot of people do cinnamon rolls around Christmas, but I feel they are totally Easter brunch friendly too.
I’m very excited, because this year I finally have an awesome dairy free cinnamon roll recipe that I’m going to make for brunch. Now Tristan can have a cinnamon roll too! To be perfectly honest, I’ve been working on this stupid recipe since Christmas. It took a long time to get it right. But, I felt like it was totally a necessity to develop. I know there are a few dairy free cinnamon roll recipes out there already, and I’ve tried several. I’m going to be brutally honest with you. They suck. No insult meant to anyone out there; a good dairy free version for something that usually relies so heavily on butter is really, really challenging.
Anyhow, after trying a few of these not so good recipes, I finally decided to start testing to come up with one of my own. Let me tell you, I had some really awful (read:toss in garbage immediately) test batches myself. For a number of my attempts I was working with Earth’s Balance Butter (dairy free, vegan), since it it is dairy free but behaves similar enough to butter for baking purposes. After some of those awful test batches, I finally realized that I HATE the flavor of Earth’s Balance, and that it makes particularly horrid frosting. (In fact, once I realized this it made me decide I totally needed to go back and edit my dairy free croissants post!)
I finally decided to substitute Smart Balance instead of Earth’s Balance in my cinnamon roll attempts. I had never tried it before, because it’s not recommended for baking. Fortunately it behaved perfectly in my cinnamon rolls; and it made killer frosting that actually tastes like it’s supposed to: creamy, buttery, vanilla-y goodness! (However, do be careful when you are purchasing Smart Balance because they make several versions, some of which are dairy free and some of which are not.) I knew I nailed it when my husband, who is pretty much a cinnamon roll addict, started taking the rolls to work for breakfast each morning, and never realized they were dairy free. Now that meets my criteria for dairy free baking: so good everyone wants to eat it, not just the people who need to eat dairy free.
Like my Best Ever Cinnamon Rolls (contains dairy), this recipe is an overnight rise, so start it the day before you need them. Also like my Best Ever Cinnamon Rolls, this recipe takes some time, and has the “extra” pour over step. I assure you, it is soooo worth it, so take the time and do it because you’ll end up with a cinnamon roll recipe that tastes just as good as it’s dairy filled cousins (score!). Hopefully cinnamon rolls will now grace your Easter bunch tables as well. Enjoy!
Dairy Free Cinnamon Rolls That Don’t Suck– Yields 12 cinnamon rolls.
Dough
- 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water + additional as needed
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup canola or other neutral oil
- 3 and 1/2 cups flour + additional for rolling/dusting
Filling
- 4 tablespoons Smart Balance Buttery Spread, melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
Pour Over
- 2 tablespoons Smart Balance Buttery Spread
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoons cinnamon
Frosting
- 6 tablespoons of Smart Balance Buttery Spread, chilled*
- 2 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1-3 tablespoons soy milk
Dough/ Assembly
1. In the bowl of a large stand mixer add the yeast and sugar, then cover with warm water, swirl gently. Allow to stand for 10 minutes until foamy. Add the salt, eggs, vanilla, oil and flour and mix on low (3 on a Kitchen Aide) until a shaggy dough begins to form. Continue to knead on low for 3-4 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and pulls away from the bowl. The dough will be fairly sticky. If the dough is too dry and doesn’t become smooth add an additional tablespoon of water at a time until the dough has smoothed out.
2. Cover the mixing bowl loosely with saran wrap and place in a warm location to rise for a hour, or until doubled in size. Meanwhile prepare the filling by mixing together the 1/2 cup brown sugar and cinnamon. Prepare a 9×13 pan by greasing with canola oil.
3. When the dough has doubled in size, gently punch down, and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 9 X 24 inches.
3. Spread the melted Smart Balance Buttery Spread evenly over the dough leaving a 1/2 in margin around the outer edges. Sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture evenly across the dough, maintaining the 1/2 inch margin. Starting with the long side closet to you roll the dough up (with the filing inside) towards the other long edge. Push along the outer edges of the roll to seal the dough. If you look at the ends of the roll you should see a spiral.
5. Cut the dough into 12 even parts and place the cut pieces spiral side up into the prepared pan. Space the rolls out evenly through the pan. Do not be concerned if the rolls do not touch. Cover the pan tightly with saran wrap and refrigerate over night.
Bake/ Pour Over/ Frost
1. Preheat the oven to 350.* Remove the cinnamon rolls from the fridge and remove the saran wrap. The rolls will have expanded to fill the entire pan. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until the rolls are lightly golden brown and are no longer doughy where the edges meet. Remove the rolls from the oven and set aside.
2. In a small sauce pan melt together the ingredients for the pour over: Smart Balance Buttery Spread, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon, over low heat. Stir gently until the brown sugar has fully dissolved. Pour the hot mixture evenly over the cooling cinnamon rolls. Allow the rolls and the pour over glaze to cool completely before frosting.
1. In a large bowl use a hand mixer to beat together the Smart Balance, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add the soy milk 1 tablespoon at a time until your desired frosting constancy is reached. Frost the rolls using a rubber spatula.
*Note: Smart Balance doesn’t behave exactly like butter. It needs to be kept really cold to make a good frosting, and the frosting should definitely be kept refrigerated!!
NOTE: This post has been updated as of 11/11/19 to reflect an updated cook time for the cinnamon rolls. The original recipe called for 40-45 minutes, and honestly I believe my oven I had while writing this recipe was starting to go bad or needed calibrating.
I’m hoping the oil
Is 1/2 CUP? It doesn’t say…..that’s what I’ll add now! Fingers crossed!
Jenn,
My apologies on the error, yes 1/2 cup. Thanks for catching that. Sounds like you were right in the middle of baking there, I’d love to get out opinion on the recipe! How did it turn out for you?
Hi! What is the shortest amount of time I can refrigerate the rolls before baking? Would need to make them all in the same day. Thanks!
Ok, so I haven’t tested the recipe this way, so I can’t guarantee the results. But.. if you wanted to make the cinnamon rolls in one day, I would skip refrigerating completely and allow the rolls to rise at room temperature. They will rise much faster that way, though the flavor will be slightly different. I would suspect 1-2 hours at room temp would probably give the rolls enough time to rise properly. Look for the rolls to puff up pretty significantly and fill most of the pan. As soon as you see this bake. Leaving the rolls past this stage may end up causing them to ‘deflate’ during baking.
Hope this ends up working for you, and if you have time, I’d love to hear how the recipe worked for you with these changes!
Why not the Earth Balance Spread?
Hi Anne,
I personally don’t like the flavor of the Earth Balance Spread. It has an icky after taste to me. I think Smart Balance has a much closer flavor to real butter. However, if you don’t mind Earth Balance you could certainly give it a try. I would suspect it would behave fairly similar to Smart Balance.
Hi, thank you for this recipe. I would like to make it for my brother, who is lactose-intolerant, but it would be preferable to make them in advance and bring them with me frozen. Please could you advise if they can be made in advance and frozen? Thanks!
I think you could probably freeze them no problem! Now, I haven’t tested this, but what I would try is to follow the steps of the recipe as written all the way through the rising (steps 1-5). I would then cover the risen cinnamon rolls with plastic wrap as tightly as possible without squishing the rolls. Then I would go ahead freeze them right in the pan. I would make the the “pour over” cinnamon/sugar/smart balance mixture and freeze it in a separate container.
When you were ready to make the rolls, you could defrost them before cooking and they would most likely take the same amount of time to bake as in the original recipe, or maybe a few minutes more if they were still kind of cold…. I would just rewarm the frozen “pour over” mixture in the microwave or a pot and pour over the top rolls when they were cooked.
I don’t think I would try to freeze the frosting. I think the texture might end up changing. However, there is no reason why you couldn’t make the frosting a few days ahead and store it in the fridge.
Hope this helps!
Can i substitute rice milk instead of soy milk?
Jen,
I don’t see why not. I’ve never tested this with rice milk, which does behave slightly differently then soy milk, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. The only thing I’d watch out for is that you may need slightly more or less rice milk then you would soy milk, so add it slowly and make sure you’re seeing the consistency you’d like. Let me know how it goes if you get a chance!
Hi, thank you for taking the time to share your recipe for cinnamon rolls. I made these for mothers day and they were a big hit! No one guessed they were dairy free.
I am allergic to dairy so it was nice to be able to enjoy these along with my family.
A word of caution– may just be my oven but I baked these at 350° like the recipe suggested and luckily checked on them after only 20 minutes and they were already a little more done than I would have liked. Had I left them in for 40 minutes they would have been burned.
I would start with a 1/2 cup less flour and add as needed. Mine started out too dry and needed water.
Also I substituted almond milk for soy in the frosting and it worked just fine.
Thanks again and I look forward to making these again soon !
Dave,
Glad the recipe turned out well for you, and that you checked the recipe early in the cook time! Thanks for sharing that, very helpful feedback! I will say I have an older oven so it may very well be a problem with my oven rather then yours, though I haven’t had anyone else mention that they had a problem with the cook time so far. At some point I’ll try to test the recipe in a friends oven and see what kind of cook times I get. I think almond milk sounds like it would be lovely in the recipe as well! Again very glad you enjoyed the recipe.
My yeast calls for 1/2 tsp of sugar to get it to rise. Do I still need the 4 tblspoons of sugar?
Hi Anna, I would actually keep the 4 tablespoons of sugar and leave out the 1/2 teaspoon of sugar that the yeast package calls for. What type of yeast are you using?
Bakipan red star traditional active dry yeast. I have a batch rising right now, keeping my fingers crossed as I did not add the extra sugar.
I imagine they will rise, maybe a little less then normal. The biggest difference will probably be the dough just won’t be quite as sweet. The filling and frosting will probably make up for that well enough though. I bet they will turn out fine overall. Let me know!
Bakipan traditional active dry yeast
Sorry I sent that twice, I will let you know. Thank you so much
These are so good! My son has a dairy allergy and I am so excited that he can eat these!
I only had to cook mine for 25 minutes and they were perfect. I used Earth Balance because I had some here and they were delicious!
Thank you for this recipe!!!
Jenn,
Really happy to hear your son can enjoy them too! That’s always really important to me with Tristan too. Thanks for the feedback on cook time, very helpful.
When removing the buns from the fridge do you put them in oven cold?
Sandy,
Yes you can actually go right from the fridge to the oven. Though it won’t do any harm if you let them warm up first. Though, that would likely reduce your cooking time slightly so maybe check them a little early.
Do the cinnamon buns go from the fridge to the oven immediately
Thanks
Sandy,
Yes, you can go right from the fridge to the oven! :)
How long is “over night”? 8hrs? 12? Could it be more? I have to make them in the early afternoon, will they loose their rise if I leave them in the fridge for 14-18 hrs?
Thank you so much for the recipe! I’m very excited to find a gooey dairy free recipe, and so is my dairy allergy ridden sister.
Hi Olivia,
I’ll be honest I don’t think I’ve left them for a full 18 hours, so I’m not sure what they would do at that time, though I would suspect they will be fine… I’ve gone anywhere from 8-14 hours with no problem. Hope that helps and you and your sister enjoy the recipe.
The cinnamon buns turned out to be burnt and crispy after I cooked it for 35 minutes though the the recipe said to cook for 40-45 minutes. I was disappointed in the results after working hard on it for my family. Maybe you should let people know that it varies due to different ovens. Besides that it turned out well, and I made a gluten free one for a family member. Thanks for the recipe!
Hey Tirzah, sorry to hear the buns turned out burnt for you. And you are right ovens definitely do have different cook times. I tested this recipe several times and always had it turn out with in that five minute window, which is why I wrote the recipe that way. However, after feedback from you and a few others, I’m definitely wondering if the oven I had at the time I wrote the recipe was off (to be honest it was a older one) and will adjust the cook time in the recipe to reflect everyones feedback. Again sorry to hear that yours ended up burnt.
Mine are in the fridge waiting for the morning! This is my second go-round at cinnamon rolls. I had to adapt the first recipe for my dairy free needs. Excited to find the “Dairy free cinnamon rolls that don’t suck.” :) Using Earth Balance, as that is what I had in the fridge. I’ll update soon!
SUCCESS! Everything was great! Used a glaze instead of frosting. Husband couldn’t wait for the rolls to cool, so his was unglazed, and said it was amazing as-is.
So glad it was a hit! Can’t go wrong with glaze either. ?
Made these for Mother’s Day and they were great. However the pour over got hard and crunchy and didn’t get melty. What did I do wrong? I’ll probably omit it next time
Stacie, the pour over might have cooked too long or ended up cooked at too high a heat which would have crystallized instead of melted. But hard to say 100% without seeing what happened. If you decide to try it again make sure to keep the temp on the pot low and stir gently while everything melts together. Also take it off the heat as soon as it’s melted. Glad you enjoyed the recipe otherwise!
Loved this recipe! I forgot to grab dairy milk at the store, but managed to grab everything else I needed (typical). This was the perfect recipe in a pinch and I couldn’t even tell they were dairy-free! The instructions were clear and easy to follow and my family loved them. Thank you so much!
Claire so glad your family liked them! I’ve done the same thing at the store many a time myself!