Healthy Treat For Today: Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
By Laura on Jun 17, 2008 in Natural Sugar Treats
I’ve been baking all my life (give or take). I can bake in my sleep. I can bake along with the best of ‘em.
But I have had the hardest time coming up with a good cinnamon roll.
I’ve tried many different recipes and they always end up being too bready, too heavy, too doughy or too dry.
I just about gave up, figuring I must have the incurable CRBD (Cinnamon Roll Baking Disorder)….
But I tried just one more time.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Must be because I also suffer from GGDS (Good Grief Duh Syndrome) and sometimes have a hard time seeing the obvious.
It finally occured to me that since my homemade soft pretzels are so, so good…maybe that dough recipe would make a good cinnamon roll. And BOY was I right! Yumm-eee.
It was one proud day when I finally made a good cinnamon roll. And the fact that it was made with whole wheat and honey was an added bonus! Healthy and delicous…what a deal!
So, just in case you also have CRBD (see above to remind yourself what that is if you have GGDS and can’t remember)…here’s the recipe that finally worked for me!
Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
1 c. water
2 T. yeast
2 t. honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
4 t. sea salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
butter
salt
Ingredients for the “innerds” of your cinnamon rolls:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar juice) (you can use white sugar if you want)
1/2 T. ground cinnamon
Melt your butter and set it aside. Mix together the rapadura and cinnamon in a bowl.
Ooey-Gooey Frosting
1/4 cup butter
3 T milk
1/2 t. vanilla
1-2 cups powdered sugar to make the consistency you like
Melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, milk and powdered sugar. Whisk together until smooth.
Okay, here’s how to make the dough…
In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, 2 T. yeast and 2 t. honey. Stir this together and kind of mush the yeast around. Let this sit for a few minutes while you do the next step.
Melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup honey, 4 t. salt and 2 1/2 cups of milk. Heat this to 120 degrees.
Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir. Stir in 8 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time. (add more if you need it)
Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. Plop it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.
After dough is nice and fat, punch it down and knead out all it’s bubbles. Cut the dough in half, setting one half aside.
On a well floured surface, roll dough into a nice big rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick.
Use a pastry brush to spread 1/2 of the melted butter all over the rectangle. Sprinkle 1/2 of the rapadura/cinnamon mixture all over the butter.
Roll up the dough.
Cut into thin slices, about 1/2 inch thick.
Place rolls side by side on baking pan.
Repeat process with other 1/2 of dough.
Allow dough to rise about 30 minutes.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown at 350 degrees.
Allow rolls to cool a bit, then drizzle lots and lots of ooey-gooey frosting all over them.
Happy cinnamon roll baking!! Be sure to look through the “Natural Sugar Treats” section of my blog for more great recipes like this one…using great wholesome ingredients to make great treats!
Thanks to The Happy Housewife for hosting this Hot Breakfast Challenge!
You must enjoy torture! I’m sure that’s why you keep posting pictures of those delicious looking rolls! If I wasn’t so busy this week I think I’d actually bake them! I guess I’ll just have to wait a couple of weeks and get a grano(that’s a funny spanish word, slang I’m sure, for when you want something but can’t eat it!)!!
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Marie | Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the recipe. We can’t wait to try them.
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Melissa | Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
They looks so delicious!
I’ve been hoping you would post this cinnamon roll recipe! (I think I have CRBD too…) 
I’m looking forward to trying this one out!
By the way, I have your applesauce bread recipe in the oven right now. I used Apple-Blueberry Sauce. I haven’t had the batter yet, but I licked the beaters, and it was yummy!
Thanks!
Blessings,
Michele
http://www.frugalgranola.blogspot.com
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Michele | Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
Oh, I’m making these tomorrow, for sure! Thanks for the tip.
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World's Greatest Mommy | Jun 17, 2008 | Reply
Ohhh those look delicious! Adding those to my list of recipes to try!
Lady, you crack me up….CRBD & GGDS!!!
Thanks for the laugh!
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Sonshine | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Those look fantastic! I’m looking forward to trying them out (and the soft pretzels!).
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ames | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Thank you oh great one! I look forward to trying this!!
Do you have any help more CCCD (Chocolate Chip Cookie Disorder)?
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CC | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
I’m pretty sure I have both of those disorders. Do you suppose there’s a government program for us sadly disabled folks that will provide a new
Suburban and annual vacations to Aruba? Hey, stranger things have happened.
But, seriously, I’m gonna try the recipe next week. Thanks!
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Jenny B (aka Mother Hen) | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe and pictures. I’ve emailed them to myself for future use. I’ve never tried making cinnamon rolls, but yours sound like just the kind I want to try.
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Frances | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Looks and sounds delicious. I like that I could use the whole wheat dough to say that it went with our Weight Watchers’ plans.
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Jendeis | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for sharing the fruit of all your hard work. The pictures are beautiful, makes all the difference when we can see the finished product!
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Audra Krell | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Yum! Thanks Laura for another good healthy recipe! I love your like-mindedness!
Lindsay @ Passionatehomemaking.com
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lindsay edmonds | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
Oh MY WORD!!!!!!!!!! You can make cinnamon ROLLS with the pretzle dough?????????????????????????
And I thought the pretzles could’t get any better.
You make my life better.
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jayme | Jun 18, 2008 | Reply
You know me and my sweet tooth…I could not resist giving this recipe a try today!?!?!
WOW! SOOOOOOOOO good! I love the butter in these, adds alot of rich flavor!
Every last one of these are gone, (I saw to that)! I blogged about it if you wanna have a look!
Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
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Donna | Jun 19, 2008 | Reply
Laura-
Do you make these in the morning, or can you make them ahead of time? My kids wake up starving at 7 am so I can’t imagine waking up at 5 to start the cinnamon rolls.
Toni
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The Happy Housewife | Jun 19, 2008 | Reply
Help! I need baking 101. I tried these, and they barely rose. What kind of wheat flour do you use, b/c your pics look more white than wheat? My sweet daughter assured me that they would love them even if I wasn’t pleased with the results.
Thanks!
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Melanie | Jun 20, 2008 | Reply
Thank you for this! My kids have been BEGGING me to make cinnamon rolls ever since their grandma made some for them a couple months ago. I’ve never actually tried making cinnamon rolls before, but you type out all the steps so nicely that I will definitely give it a shot! I know my kids will be thrilled! (And wheat, too! HOORAY!!)
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Becky | Jun 20, 2008 | Reply
I finally got around to using your recipe today, and took these babies to a dinner party. They went over very well, and I really enjoyed them, too!
I don’t know if I ended up over-kneading the dough, or if this is particular to whole wheat, but I found it incredibly difficult to roll the dough out into rectangles. It kept trying to snap back into its original shape. It took a LOT of effort. Even still, once I finally got them rolled out and into the pan, they did end up turning out nicely soft, instead of being tough like I was afraid they would be.
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Becky | Jun 30, 2008 | Reply
Hi Laura,
someone once shared with me an easy way to cut cinnamon rolls, and I thought I would pass it on. If you use a non-minty dental floss and wrap it around the log, then pass each end of the floss pass eachother it works to have the perfect cinnamon roll slices.
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dana | Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
great looking recipe. thanks for sharing. my husband loves cinnamon rolls, and I know he’d love for me to make some “non-canned” ones.
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Jerri | Jul 31, 2008 | Reply
I am so excited to have this one! making cinnamon rolls should be easy! For the topping my sister always lightly browns her butter before you mix it and whoa! it is heavenly! Thanks for this one!
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Trina | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
We made the dough for these last night, then put them together for breakfast this morning. They were delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I only had 4 cups of whole wheat flour on hand, so ours were half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour. And I used regular sugar. AND I doubled the frosting…
YUM!!!!!
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Tamie | Sep 1, 2008 | Reply
Laura.. I make mine using my bread dough recipe and brown sugar *Usually i make extras and freeze them not baked in pans for later use but Hubby seems to have used the last batch last weekend and *gasp* didn’t tell me* but my grandmother makes THE BEST Cinnamon Rolls.. she uses her recipe for homemade biscuits and rolls it out puts the innards on the dough she uses dark brown sugar and then rolls back up cuts them bakes them and makes this fluffy cream cheese frosting.. ummmmmm Ok Pregnant Lady cravings now kicking in..lol Almost as good as her doughnuts *Which she will only make at christmas.. beleive me we count down to doughnut day in Our family.. Its the only time she uses her deep fryer ..they are sooo good.
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Crystal | Sep 2, 2008 | Reply
Thank you they turned out great. I used xgave for the sugar {builds bones and low gycemic index} I used my meat thermometer, it starts at 130 so I just let it rise to almost that, worked great. I am trying honey powder this time, and 1/2 of the dough I made into sticky buns. Well see if everyone is happy this time?
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sherelle | Nov 9, 2008 | Reply
Hi there!
Love your site by the way…
Can these scrumptious-sounding rolls be made the night before? I would love to pop them in the oven on Christmas morning!
Best,
August
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August | Dec 7, 2008 | Reply
sorry – my computer crashed and I think I posted twice! Can you tell I’m excited about these rolls?? (ha)
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August | Dec 7, 2008 | Reply
Have you ever tried freezing the second batch prior to the second rise for a later baking date?
I love to do this with bread loaves and cookie dough for fresh-from-the-oven goodness. These look like good candidates.
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Laura Lee @ Wasted Textbooks | Feb 27, 2009 | Reply
Oh my gracious! I just tried these for the first time (I’ve had it bookmarked since you posted it…) and they are the best cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten!! I tried a different recipe a couple months ago and it was a total flop, but these were soooo easy and turned out wonderfully!!
Thank you so much for the recipe.
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Laura V. | Apr 12, 2009 | Reply
I used my Breadman breadmaker to make mine and it came out fabulous! I didn’t alter the ingredients. I put 1st 3 ingredients in breadpan. In separate bowl, nuked the butter, added the rest & nuked some more, then added to yeast mixture. I then added flour and set to “dough”. The icing is completely essential! I had some leftover Veggies links and used the same dough to make a couple “unpigs” in a blanket and they too came out great!
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Cyndi | Apr 28, 2009 | Reply
These turned out great and rose beautifully! Thanks for the recipe!
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Hannah Garrison | May 2, 2009 | Reply
Hi Laura!
I had a dream this afternoon while I was napping with the baby about cinnamon rolls (at McDonald’s of all places – we never go there!) and woke up wanting some.
We just started working through the alphabet, one letter a week, with our two year old and I think this would be fun for the letter C. Quick question though….Can these be pre-made the night before? Or whenever before and then frozen? Our days start really early (the two year old gets up at 430! i don’t suppose you have any suggestions for that, do you?) and I don’t really enjoy baking at 430 in the morning. 
Thanks!
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annie | Jun 29, 2009 | Reply
These rolls can DEFINITELY be made ahead of time, then be refrigerated or frozen until you’re ready to bake and serve them! If they are frozen, allow them to thaw overnight, then bake in the morning!
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Laura@HeavenlyHomemakers | Jun 29, 2009 | Reply