Healthy Treat For Today: Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
ByI’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 cup water
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 teaspoons honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
4 teaspoons sea salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
Ingredients for the “innerds” of your cinnamon rolls:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup rapadura or sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice) (you can use white sugar if you want)
1/2 Tablespoon 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 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon 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!
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Excellent! I love your recipes, they’re healthy and my guys usually like them.
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LOTS of work and LITTLE taste. Tasted like CARDBOARD, actually
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Laura Reply:
May 19th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Aw, I’m so sorry these didn’t work well for you. Very disappointing, I’m sure! :(
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I am going to have to go with Jackie on this. I love whole wheat and bake a lot of whole wheat pastries…and seriously, these were terrible :)
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Laura Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Such a bummer! These always turn out so well for us. Sorry they didn’t work for you. :(
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Evie Reply:
January 9th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
I don’t understand about these comments!! I found this recipe when I was 12, and I made them all by myself! They were DELICIOUS!!!! I’ve made them many times since, and they have been fabulous each time! (except for once, when I didn’t kneed them enough, then they turned out a bit too tough.)
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Sabrena Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 9:12 am
I’m with Evie – these are a favorite of mine to make. I love the recipe, I think they taste fabulous!
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I don’t know what went wrong for the other reviewers, but these were great! I did use spelt flour instead of wheat, and I had to add another cup or so of flour. Then I used the cream cheese frosting recipe I found on this blog…. sooooo good. They were soft and just perfectly sweet.
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I don’t know what happened with everyone else either! I used sprouted flour and coconut crystals and these were amazing!
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By far the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve been making them since I can remember. I added some freshly ground cinnamon and flaxseed to the dough and it was absolutely perfect. The dough was impossibly fluffy and smooth despite being whole wheat (I used white whole wheat). Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe, it will be the only one I use from now on!
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What about if you want to soak the dough? Have you tried it doing that first? Will it work at all?
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Laura Reply:
June 26th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
I’ve not soaked the dough for these, so I’m not sure. You could maybe substitute buttermilk for the milk and go from there?
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I used sprouted flour for it. It took a bunch more flour but worked out nicely.
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If you’d like to make these and freeze them…should you freeze them before or after you bake them? I’m a single person and I would never get through a whole pan before it spoiled.
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Laura Reply:
June 29th, 2011 at 11:36 am
You could do either one, but it’s more fun to freeze them before you bake them so that you can have freshly baked cinnamon rolls any time you want one! Just freeze the shaped cinnamon roll before you allow it to rise, then put a few on a baking sheet the night before you want to bake them – put them in the fridge to thaw, then bake the next morning!
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These tasted great! My whole family loved them. Thanks for the recipe.
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I thought this was absolutely amaaaazing!!! I too have been searching for the ultimate-whole-wheat recipe for cinnamon rolls and until now, was unsuccessful. I was so close to giving up and your recipe was my last try. Thank you so very much. I have to say that there is a huge taste difference when using fresh milled wheat instead of the store bought wheat flour and I wonder if that might be where some of the negative reviews are coming from. Anyway, thank you again!! : )
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Thank you for the great recipe! Easy, delicious, and as healthy as cinnamon rolls can get. We enjoyed them.
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These were “to-die-for-delicious!” My husband and I had to agree to freeze some of these or they would have been gone within 3 days!!!
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What kind of wheat do you use? I just bought a bucket of Hard White wheat. Would I need to use Soft White wheat for these?
Thanks so much.
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Laura Reply:
September 10th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Hard white wheat is perfect – that’s what I use for these. You actually can’t use soft wheat for these – soft wheat doesn’t work in recipes that call for yeast. :)
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Coupon Cook Reply:
September 10th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Wow, great to know that tip. Eventually I’ll work through this bucket. It arrived yesterday along with my brand new wheat grinder. The first recipe I will be trying are your pancakes . ~Amber
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I made these last night (added blueberries to one of the batches) and it was great. I didn’t have powdered sugar, so I made a simple caramel sauce and poured that over it. It was great! I’m so glad to have a recipe that I can use and modify to make cinnamon buns (and sticky buns, which is my plan for the dough the next time).
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So I know this post was forever and a day ago but I thought I’d comment anyway. After reading the reviews I think the ones that didn’t turn out probably didn’t knead the dough enough. Kneading is so important to get the gluten working; if you don’t put this bit of hard work in the bread will not have the proper crumb. Try a little more elbow grease next time!
I love your blog and have found many great recipes on here. The breakfast cookie was an especially big hit!
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hate to be added to the naughty list :( – but these came out terrible here too. Dense, and not the best flavor dough. I still like your website tho! :) just wont be doing these again… not sure what went wrong.
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These were wonderful. I have tried another recipe about 3 times and was unsuccessful with the dough and the flour adding part. But, I was able to use the 8 cups and add about a cup extra of flour. I also used a little bit of applesauce along with the butter, cinnamon/sugar mix. They were great. I am sticking with this recipe. Oh yeah and I mixed it in my bosch mixer. Love it, thank you so much for all your healthy recipes.
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Awesome recipe! Turned out great for me :-) Perhaps some of those batches that didn’t turn out too great…yeast expired? Didn’t rise long enough? Rose in a cold room? Not enough kneading?
My kids – all 4 of them – are going to be SO excited to see homemade cinnamon buns when they get home.
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MMMM, made these today and they were delicious! I subbed maple syrup for the honey (since I am allergic) and I made them last night, put in the fridge, then pulled them out this morning while my oven preheated. I used white wheat flour from the store. My hubby said they were better than the canned kind (which is high praise from him!). :) :)
I will say that I had to hand knead, which kinda sucked, since I only have the Artisan mixer and it couldn’t handle that much dough.
Oh and this recipe makes a LOT of cinnamon rolls – I froze over half and we still only ate half of what was left this morning (to be fair, it’s my husband and I and two very small girls).
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Bread is bread. In and of itself it tastes like…well…bread! Those who felt these lacked flavor are probably having problems with the star of the dish – the cinnamon/sugar. Try increasing the amount you sprinkle on the dough before rolling. Also, try using dark brown sugar mixed with cinnamon. So much more flavor! I plan on making these tonight to eat for b’fast. Oh, who am I kidding. I’ll eat some tonight AND in the morning!
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So That was soo cool to knead warm dough.. Neatest thing ever lol. Doesnt take much to make this momma happy.
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So i dont know what I did wrong, they were really hard and didnt rise? Im not sure what I did wrong?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
December 7th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
It is possible that the yeast was killed. If the warm water/yeast mixture turned out frothy
looking then it probably was working…I am wondering if the next mixture iwth the
butter was too hot and it killed your yeast.
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Candice Wade Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 10:45 am
I wonder??? I wanna try it again :0) Needing more too maybe ??
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Hi, this looks just what i’m after, but one question; what kind of yeast do you use, fresh or dried/powdered????
please let me know I want to try them out today :-)
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Laura Reply:
December 7th, 2011 at 11:38 am
I use Red Star Dry Active Yeast.
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so, I tried half the recipe, but sad to say it didn’t rise, I used instant dry yeast. ;-( real bummer, I really wanted to make a healthy c.roll
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Please unsubscribe me. Thanks!
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I am planning to make these Christmas morning, but can I prepare them the night before so I don’t have to get up soooo early? What steps can I do the night before? Can I let the dough rise overnight? THanks in advance!
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Laura Reply:
December 21st, 2011 at 10:30 pm
I would prep them but put them into the fridge after shaping them before they rise. They will rise slightly in the fridge, then bake them in the morning. They should poof up a little bit more in the oven. They won’t be super fluffy, because that’s not how these rolls are, but I’ve done it this way often and it does work!
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Tracy N. Reply:
December 29th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
We keep our house 60 degrees at night. Could I set them out of the freezer on the countertop overnight and then bake in the morning or should I refrigerate them? Thanks!
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
January 14th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
I have always refrigerated them. I am not sure what would happen if you left them out overnight but I doubt it would be bad. I am guessing it may even turn out the exact same. The only thing I would do is watch the time they bake the next morning so they don’t burn.
Could I sub non-dairy milk without any problems? I would think it would be fine but I have come to discover that protein can be an important part of the cooking process and that is a problem when using Rice Milk.
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Laura Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
I’ve not tried that in this recipe, but I do think it should work fine!
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Linda Reply:
December 26th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
I use rice milk all the time in recipes with no problem. I use it in a different cinnamon roll recipe and
it always works great.
Linda
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I made these today and can I just say, OMGsh! these are like ‘crack’. So yummy! I’m excited (and my kids are thrilled) that I found a recipe for Cinnamon rolls – now, if i can just leave a couple for my hubby when he gets home.
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My dough turned out very hard :( I accidentally bought Quick Rise Yeast and I also see that it says to refrigerate or freeze after opening which I hadn’t done (I opened it about a month ago) do you think that affected it? I tried the hotdog buns back in December and they didn’t rise and turned out hard too….. :(
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
March 20th, 2012 at 11:18 am
That could be part of the problem. I am wondering too if the time kneeding
them was off???
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Hey Laura, I made a few tweaks to your recipe- got decent results, the rolls taste pretty good, but in a healthy way. The main difference was I used four cups buckwheat flour and four cups whole wheat flour- the dough was super wet and would not hold together. I had trouble rolling the dough…any suggestions?
The only changes I made to the dough are:
4 cups buckwheat flour (which left 4 cups of whole wheat for the rest of the flour).
Agave Nectar in place of the honey
I only used 1/4 cup butter
Andi used Fleishman’s activedry yeast.
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Laura Reply:
February 13th, 2012 at 6:55 am
I’m not familiar with how using buckwheat changes the recipe, so I’m really not sure if I can answer the question. Using agave nectar instead of honey may have effected how well the dough rose becauce typically, yeast needs a real sugar in order to be activated.
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These are amazing! I made them for my family this morning, and the first thing my husband said was, “These make Pillsbury wish they were never born! ” ;-) I was blown away by how moist and fluffy they were. For those that had issues, you may want to mention the temp your water needs to be to properly activate the yeast. I always heat mine to between 110-120 F or it will kill the yeast and they won’t rise. If I wasn’t a veteran baker, I probably would have made the same mistake. Thanks again for a great recipe. I can already tell this will become a favorite in our house! :)
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Hi!
I just tried these today, they turned out delicious! The recipe is really easy to follow too! I halved it, and it still produced ALOT of cinnamon rolls! Yummy.
I’m linking your page to my post about making them! Thanks for posting! :)
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Great recipe! I made these last night, let them rise on the counter (60degree house) and baked them this morning – yum!
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Made these tonight as part of our breakfast for dinner! The are absolutely DELICIOUS!! My whole family loves them.
Have you ever freezed them? Could I put them in the freezer at some point before they are cooked? Maybe after they are ready for the oven and instead pop them in the freezer to be cooked fresh later? Suggestions?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
April 10th, 2012 at 9:44 am
That may work out just fine. I have never tried it though! I don’t see why it would’t work though.
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Can these be made at night and not baked until the morning?
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Laura Reply:
April 3rd, 2012 at 9:16 am
Yes, if you put them in the fridge after shaping them, that should work fine!
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Brooke Reply:
April 4th, 2012 at 4:24 am
Great! Making these for our ‘special’ Easter breakfast!
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These were so awesome! Ended up putting all of the ingredients in the bread machine before bed and ran the dough cycle. When I got up I just rolled it out put in the filing and rolled it up. Everyone loved it (no cardboard here!!). I did cut the recipe in half (too much dough for my bread machine and too much rolls for two adults and two toddlers) but used the whole recipes worth of filling!
Took these with us to the Easter Celebration at the Biltmore Estate and our breakfast looked just as good as the cinnamon rolls they were selling! We spend $4 on a latte and the family of 3 in front of us spend $22 on their breakfast.
I can’t wait to make these again — hope we have some company soon to serve these!
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Is there a way to substitute out the honey for these? My littlest is still too young to have honey safely.
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
May 11th, 2012 at 6:02 am
Yes! You could use sucanat. Laura wrote a post about healthy substitutions.
I will include that. :)
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-to-adapt-a-recipe-to-make-it-healthier
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