The Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls (Plant-Based/Eggless)

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The most pillowy soft, heavily spiced cinnamon rolls finished off with a swirl of cream cheese glaze

Show me someone who does not love a Cinnabon! Growing up, no trip to The Pavilion was complete without stopping by to grab a trio of mini-Cinnabons – the original, the caramel pecan and the chocolate. It therefore feels odd that I do not have a recipe for these – let’s fix that, shall we!

There is something quite magical and therapeutic about bread-making and yeasted doughs, which I have recently really been enjoying. A simple, few ingredients come together to make a buttery, soft, caramel-y, warmly spiced carb-bomb that anyone would want to cuddle up to this winter.

Throughout my journey of baking my motto has always been that flavour is at the forefront – I do not care how good it looks (naturally, I do want it to look somewhat decent, we do eat with our eyes first afterall …. especially in today’s social media driven world) if it tastes flat and one-dimensional. Wrongfully, I have therefore tended to stay away from “free-from” baking because I thought that you could never replicate the same dough using a gluten-free flour, or achieve the same fudge factor in brownies without that additional egg-yolk, as examples. This is a great pain point to my mum, in fact, as she is a vegetarian who also does not include eggs in her diet – this means that she can eat very little of what I actually bake.

On my trip to London last year, I was determined to buy Ruby Bhogal’s new book – One Bake, Two Ways. The concept of the book is genius – a traditional bake is paired together with a plant-based counterpart with the idea that “everyone gets a piece”, irrespective of your dietary requirements. This served as the source of inspiration for wanting to make my cinnamon rolls plant-based. I have a few “friends” on Instagram who often request vegan/ gluten-free or eggless recipes and sadly these are in limited supply.

I have therefore based this recipe off Ruby’s, making a few minor tweaks for my personal preference, trying to get the right quantity of dough for the perfect dozen and also trying to give a bit more detailed instructions on the cutting and shaping of the rolls. If you are someone who loves baking, I seriously urge you to consider buying the book.

The secret to these cinnamon rolls, is a tangzhong – part of the flour and liquid in the dough is pre-cooked which forms a gelatinous paste. This produces an incredibly lofty piece of bread and ensures that the rolls stay softer for a bit longer. (The honest truth are that these rolls are best eaten on the same day of baking, but should they linger around for a bit longer, a few seconds in the microwave will restore them to pillowy perfection).

I give a bit more detail on the baking process below and also link to the ingredients which I have used in making these. There are quite a number of vegan ingredients surprisingly, and I must be honest and say that I am still very new to all of this. I would love to hear if you made any swaps or additions to the below.

WHAT SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT MAKING THESE ULTIMATE CINNAMON ROLLS?

Does the recipe need to be completely plant-based? No, I have tested this recipe with dairy milk and dairy butter and dairy cream cheese and can confirm that it tastes as good with it. It will remain an eggless recipe though, as if you include eggs in the recipe, the proportions of ingredients should change slightly.

What plant-based ingredients did you use? I bought my cream cheese and milk from Woolworths and the butter from Checkers. The butter is Flora Plant Bake, the milk is this Organic Unsweetened Oat Drink and the cream cheese is the Macadamia Nut Cream Cheese.

Can I use a plant based spread instead of butter? I have not tested this with a plant-based spread, but I do suspect that the results will NOT be the same, as the spread only has a 50% fat content whereas the butter has a 75% content (which is closer to most dairy butters in South Africa, which has an 81% fat content). I therefore recommend that you use the plant-based butter.

I have not worked with yeast before, what important things should I know? I have done quite a bit of reading on this – it is important to remember that yeast is a living organism, whose performance is impacted by the environment around it. Important to remember is that too much sugar and salt in a recipe and it could damage or hurt the yeast. Similarly, temperatures above 40 degrees celcius could kill the yeast.

Can I knead the dough by hand? In theory, yes. I do think you may be able to find some techniques online to assist you with how to make a dough by hand, but be warned, this does require a fair bit of elbow grease, so you could be kneading for a good 30 minutes.

How much kneading is too much kneading (whether by hand or machine)? The “windowpane test” (again google will throw up many videos) is a great visual and tactile clue. The aim of kneading is to develop gluten in the dough. If you stretch a piece of dough and can stretch it thin enough to let a light shine through it, without the dough tearing, then it is likely that the dough is well-kneaded.

How long does the dough take to proof? This is determined by various factors and so rather than giving exact times in the recipes below, I have given visual guides to understand how to check if a dough is ready. For the first proof, the dough would have noticeably almost doubled in size and have a slightly smooth domed top. If the top starts to wrinkle and cave in a bit, it is likely that you have over-proofed the dough. If your dough does not double at all, it is likely that your yeast is dead. For the second proof, the dough needs a short time and in this time, the rolls become more puffier and expanded. They may not completely touch one another, as is seen in the final baked images, but will further expand in the oven.

RECIPE TIMELINE

Where recipes are time intensive and seem overwhelming, I try to break down the recipe into different steps to make it more accessible.

Make the Tangzhong – Make the Tangzhong and let it cool to room temperature. (5 minutes of hands-on time, plus 30 minutes cooling).
Make the dough – Make the dough and let it have its first proof. (20 minutes of hands-on time, plus a further 2 – 3 hours of resting).
Make the cinnamon butter – Whilst the dough is rising make the cinnamon butter. (5 minutes of hands-on time).
Roll and Shape the rolls – Roll out the dough, spread on the butter and cut and shape into 12 cinnamon rolls (20 minutes hands-on time).
Proofing rolls for a second time – Allow the rolls to proof for a second time. (1 – 2 hours for proofing).
Bake the rolls – Prepare the oven and bake the rolls (25 – 30 minutes baking time).
Make the cream cheese icing – prepare the cream cheese icing to add onto the buns (5 minutes hands-on time).
Cooling and Frosting the rolls – allow the baked rolls to cool a bit, before adding in the cream cheese. (5 minutes hands-on time, plus 20 minutes cooling time).

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar.

FOR THE CINNAMON FILLING

50g muscavado sugar
75g brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoons cake flour
125g plant-based butter, at room temperature (dairy butter works as well)

METHOD

Prepare the dry ingredients – Whilst waiting for the dough to undergo it’s first rise, make the cinnamon butter filling. Place all the ingredients except the butter into a bowl and whisk to combine.
Add butter to the dry ingredients – In another bowl, use a hand-held electric beater to beat the butter for about a minute, until it is light. Then add the rest of the ingredients and beat until the butter and sugar comes together.

FOR THE CINNAMON ROLLS

50g white bread flour
150ml oat/soy/almond milk
30ml water

450g white bread flour
50g caster sugar
10g salt
12g yeast
210ml oat/soy/almond milk
85g plant-based butter
100ml dairy-free cream (optional)

METHOD

Make the tangzhong – place the 50g bread flour into a medium stove-top saucepan. Slowly stream in the 150ml milk and whisk to form a paste, so that you do not end up with lumps.
Then, once all the milk is added, add in the 30ml water and cook on medium heat until the flour mixture begins to coat the base of the pan and leave a film. The mixture will almost look like a soft dough.
Allow to cool completely.
Mix the dry ingredients together – Place the remaining 450g white bread flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Place the yeast away from the sugar and salt, as it could retard the yeast’s growth. When your milk is warm, begin to mix all the dry ingredients together.
Warm the milk – warm the milk until it is just lukewarm. The ideal temperature is between 30 – 38 degrees celcius. Higher than 40 degrees celcius and you could kill the yeast, or at least damage their growth.
Combine the milk, tangzhong and and dry ingredients – add the tangzhong to the dry ingredients and set your mixer on low speed. Whilst the tangzhong and dry ingredients are mixing together, slowly begin streaming in the milk.
Mix the dough – increase the mixer speed to medium and knead for about 5 – 6 minutes until the dough is pliable and soft. It may feel like there is too much flour initially, but the dough will eventually come together. Your dough is ready to receive the butter when it is soft to touch and formed into a single cohesive mass around the dough hook.
Add in the butter – ensure your butter is soft, at room temperature and then begin to add in the butter, a tablespoon at a time. This is where things start to feel like a bit weird. The fat from the butter causes the dough to split into several pieces and look strange, but just trust the process, it will come together in the end. This step of adding in the butter a bit at a time and kneading in should take about 5 minutes.
Knead the dough – Once you have added in all the butter, increase the speed to medium-high and need for a further 4 – 5 minutes (or longer, depending on the strength of your mixer). The dough should form into a single mass and make a slapping noise against the side of the mixer bowl. If you take a bit of the dough, you should be able to stretch it quite thinly, almost as if you are trying to see through it, without the dough tearing. You then know that the gluten is well developed. This is called the “windowpane test”.
Let the dough rise – grease a large bowl (remember this dough is going to double in size, so you want sufficient room for growth) with a bit of butter. Place the dough into the bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave this in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. I switch my oven light on and set the oven to it’s lowest setting which gets the temperature to about 40 degrees celcius (I know this because I have an oven themometer. Remember that the yeast dies at around 60 degrees celcius, so if you are not sure as to how your oven works rather be patient and let it rise at room temperature. The dough typically doubles in about an hour and thirty minutes in my method. I suspect that if you leave it in a warm spot, it could take anywhere between 2 to 3 hours.
Make the filling – whilst the dough is rising make the filling as per the instructions above.
Roll out the dough– after the dough has doubled in size, punch down the dough to release the gases. Lightly flour your work surface and tip the dough onto it. Lightly flour the top of the dough as well.
I try to stretch the dough out as far as I reasonably can by hand. I have noticed for some reason that the ends of the dough tend to get a bit thinner than the middle. To get the most uniform rolls, try and stretch the dough from the center (this is not an essential step).
If you must, roll the dough out with a rolling pin until you get a 56cm by 30cm rectangle.
Apply the filling to the dough – ensure that your cinnamon, sugar, butter mixture is smooth and spreadable. If it is a very cold day and you have made it in advance, pop it into the microwave for about 5 – 10 seconds.
Then easiest is to dollop little blobs of cinnamon butter throughout the dough and use an offset spatula to cover the dough completely in the cinnamon sugar. Try to create as even a layer as possible.
Rolling up the rolls – to ensure a neat edge for each cinnamon roll, cut off a centimeter on either side of the width of the dough such that the rectangle now becomes 54cm by 30cm. Measure 12 strips across the width of the dough to be 4.5cm each.
I measure each strip to be 4.5cm at the top and 4.5cm at the bottom so that I ensure I cut a straight strip of dough. Use a pizza wheel cutter or a very sharp knife and cut 12 strips down the width of the dough.
Starting at one of the short ends, roll the dough into a spiral fairly snugly. This is your cinnamon roll! Repeat this process 12 times.
Prepare your baking tin – even though my baking tin is non-stick, I do find that I have problems with the buns sticking. So I recommend that you lightly grease the base and sides with butter and line the base with baking paper (the muscavado sugar in the recipe makes this quite sticky). Place your twelve buns in 3 rows of 4 buns. Ensure that there is enough room between them as the dough will expand.
Proof the dough for the second time – cover the tin with cling film and let it rise for around 1 hour, or maybe even longer depending on the different variables, like the ambient temperature of the room, the wild yeast in the air etc. By now, you should get the sense that this is more about sight and judgement rather than me giving you an exact time. The dough should look bigger and a bit more puffy than initially.
Do not worry if they are still not touching, I promise they will by by the time you bake them.
Optional – thanks to TikTok, most people are now dousing their rolls with whipping cream before baking. I tried this using Orley whip – it does keep the buns quite tender, but I would not faff with this step, personally. If you want to, drizzle the 100ml of cream on the buns just before baking.
Bake the buns – Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place the buns in the oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes. At around 15 minutes, the buns will likely be taking on a fair bit of colour, so cover it with a piece of foil for the rest of the bake.
Frosting the buns – Once the buns are out of the oven, allow them to cool a bit for about 20 – 25 minute. You do not want the icing to seep right in and disappear. Then liberally slather the icing over the buns and enjoy!

FOR THE CREAM CHEESE ICING

60g plant-based butter, room temperature
60g macadamia-nut cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
150g icing sugar, sifted
a squeeze of lemon juice, to taste

METHOD

Cream the butter – Place the butter and cream cheese in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
Add in the icing sugar – Add in the vanilla and icing sugarand continue to mix until a loose, spreadable icing is formed.
You can loosen the icing with a splash of milk if you like, but I do not find it necessary.