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 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!
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This recipe is linked to Life as Mom’s Recipe Swap.
I made these and the hot pretzels. Both turned out great! I have been thinking that this dough would make great mini pizza crust. It seems like it would be very versatile. I was thinking of trying to make something the shape of a bagle out of it to use as buns for sandwiches. I also used to go to a pretzel shop where they would wrap pretzel dough around turkey and swiss and bake it. That was great! I think I’ll try making that with this dough too! Thanks for sharing such a versatile and delicious recipe!
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Sophia Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Did you use eggs? Or it worked without eggs?
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Laura Reply:
March 7th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I know it seems unusual, but the recipe does work without eggs! Mmm, now I’m hungry for cinnamon rolls…
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Mrs. B. Reply:
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:09 am
Oh…take that same pretzel dough and roll a bit of it out. Then take a hot dog and piece of cheese and roll the dough around the dog n cheese. bake it until golden brown and brush with butter. Yum. We lived in NJ and the amish made and sold these for $1.50 I think. My kids were sad to leave these when we moved.
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When I tried it I intended to halve the recipe and left half of the yeast behind — AND it still worked – if only a little compact.
This is a great recipe if you don’t enjoy a diabetic coma for breakfast like many recipes out there. FOUR STARS!!! I can’t wait to try it the correct way!
THANKS!!!!!!
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Hi Laura -
I made this recipe using all whole wheat flour and it really did turn out great – I don’t understand why – but who cares?
I made the bread part exactly according to your directions but then morphed it with another recipe for caramel apple cinnamon rolls to make them into sticky cinnamon rolls with apples and pecans rolled up inside — the results were… indescribably delicious. Just one question – how would it affect this recipe to put a couple eggs in the dough — I hate to mess with it because it was so good but I just don’t feel quite right about there not being any eggs in the dough – stupid, huh…
My mom used eggs in her sweet rolls so that’s probably the root of my mindset – it can’t be right if it’s not the way mom did it…
I know – just try it and see – but thought I’d run it by you in case you have some good advise about that – like cut back on other liquids or (???) which might save me some wasted effort and ingredients. Thanks for this recipe!
Jan (Omaha)
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Laura Reply:
March 7th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
SO glad the recipe turned out so well for you! I would think it might work with eggs…I don’t think it would hurt to try!
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Jan Reply:
March 7th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
OK — Next time I’ll just put two eggs in –
everything thing else the same – and see what happens.
I’ll let you know what happens.
Thanks again,
Jan
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I just made these (stayed up late to get them finished so they’d be ready in the morning before our homeschool co-op). Of course I had to have one before bed. YUM!!! Thanks for the great recipe. The only thing I did differently was to use regular sugars. I didn’t have any of the kind you use (I never even heard of it before your blog, honestly). Anyway, thanks again!
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Laura,
Have you tried freezing these? If so, please share what you did. Paula from paulasbread.com mixes up enough dough to make her bread (5-6 loaves), pizza crusts for supper the night she makes bread, and puts a batch of cinnamon rolls in the fridge for the next morning. She gets the rolls out of the fridge 20 minutes before she puts them in the oven. I did that today so we are looking forward to cinnamon rolls in the morning. She hasn’t tried freezing hers though. Thanks, Tracy
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Laura Reply:
March 31st, 2010 at 7:01 am
I usually freeze the rolls after I get them rolled out and sliced but BEFORE I bake them. Then, I put them on a pan on my countertop all night and bake them the next morning. It works well for me!
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Recipe looks great! I am a big fan of healthy options that still taste delicious. Do you think it would work to make these the night before and leave in fridge overnight, sliced and ready to bake?
I plan to slice them in half after baking, then butter and grill them lightly on the BBQ. A great little restaurant at the lake we have visited in the summer does this and they are wonderful warm off the grill!
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Laura Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Yes, I have made them that way before and baked them in the morning and it works great!
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I figured you might like this tip. If you put one cup of liquid cream (fresher is better) and one cup of brown sugar mixed on the bottom then the rolls, then cook you will have a wonderful carmel roll. :) yummy.
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I made these this morning – Yum! I soaked them overnight, substituting buttermilk for the milk, and they turned out great!!! Thanks for this and all of your recipes! :)
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Hi Laura,
I recently made the pretzels with my son and they turned out great. However I couldnt seem to get the dough to stop being really sticky. It was really hard to get it to roll out into the snake so I could twist it into the pretzel shape. Is that normal or if not what could I do to fix those issues next time around? thanks!
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Laura Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I think it sounds like your dough needed more flour. When you mix them up next time, just be sure that the dough is nice and elastic…and if it’s still pretty doughy…add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until it isn’t doughy anymore.
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Hey! I featured this on my blog! Hope that’s ok, I wanted to share it :) (don’t worry, I gave you ALL the very much deserved credit!)
Loved these
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Laura Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Sure, thank!
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Laura Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I mean, Sure…thankSSS. Shew!
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these are awesome! thanks for sharing. i’ve made these for my family and several others. they are huge hit! posted the link to your blog on my fb.
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Delicious! I made these for my husband and several of his friends this morning and they raved about them. I didn’t think they tasted like 100% whole wheat because they were so light, which I loved (I found your blog by googling ‘whole wheat cinnamon rolls’). I did all of the prep last night and refrigerated the unbaked rolls in their pans. This morning, we let them sit on the counter for an hour to warm up/rise, and then baked them. These will definitely be in my regular rotation.
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Hello: I made these with polish wheat flour and they did not rise when baking …they were hockey pucks. What on earth went wrong I bought fresh ingredients used my kitchen aid to mix dough.I feel 8 cups of flour was too much ???????????
Thanks Martine
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Laura Reply:
July 14th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Yes, it could be that 8 cups of flour was too much. I’m sorry they didn’t work for you!
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Thanks so much for such great recipes like this one. Quick question-have you ever soaked your grains before making these? If so, how? Did you just use buttermilk instead of milk or what? Thanks so much!!!
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I have not soaked these before, but yes I think you could use buttermilk instead of milk and see how it goes!
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I made these and was very disappointed, they just weren’t sweet enough. I realize that you like to cook without a lot of sugar, but cinnamon rolls are supposed to be sweet and decadent. I did like the frosting recipe, but overall, I’m glad I halved this recipe and I would not make it again.
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Hmmm, bummer to hear that you didn’t like them. True, they aren’t very sweet…with the frosting we feel like they are just right. But they definitely aren’t what most people are used to I suppose.
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Thank you for the recipe. I made them last night, my son loves them. It looked that I did not need all 8 cups of flour and mine turned a little too dark. Yours had nicer color, what kind of whole wheet flour do you use?
Thanks.
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