Best Breakfast Ever

Over piles of pizza on Tuesday night, some friends asked if I had made cinnamon rolls before.  Al had great luck with the "Better than Cinnabon" recipe.  I've been drooling over all the cinnamon roll food porn on the PPK and various blogs, but haven't attempted anything myself.  I just couldn't bring myself to make a batch of hot, gooey cinnamon rolls that my wheat-free partner wouldn't be able to eat.  (Also, because then I'd eat the entire batch myself).

But today is a day off of work.  The sun is shining and the animals woke me up at 8:30am.  It is a perfect day for gluten-free cinnamon rolls!

I started with the recipe here.  I subbed some ingredients to make them vegan and then switched out the flour to make them a bit more...something.  Baking with only starches (corn, potato, tapioca) makes me feel like I'm baking with a cloud or something.  It's just not sturdy enough.  So I used some millet flour in the mix.  See recipe below:

Gluten-Free Vegan Cinnamon Rolls!  

(From The Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg, with modifications from Jenn and from me)

INGREDIENTS 

2 Tablespoons Earth Balance

1/4 Cup Sugar 

2/3 Cup of non-dairy milk @ room temperature 

It should be warm enough to help activate the yeast! 

1 Packet Yeast (about 1 Tablespoon) 

1 Egg replacer egg (1.5 tsp. replacer with 2 Tbsp. water)

1/4 Cup Canola Oil 

1/2 cup millet flour

1 cup tapioca starch 

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda 

2 1/2 Teaspoons Xantham Gum 

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder 

1/2 Teaspoon Salt 

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Flavoring 

FOR FILLING 

2 Tbps. Earth Balance, softened

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar, packed 

1 1/4 Teaspoons Cinnamon 

DIRECTIONS 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In medium bowl, combine Earth Balance and sugar. Mix well. Measure warm milk and and add yeast to milk. Whisk well to fully dissolve. Add milk/yeast to sugar mixture. In another bowl, combine the flour, starch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum.  Add this flour mixture to all the remaining ingredients. Mix very well, being sure to remove all lumps. Dough will be quite soft. (I beat this in my mixer)

Take a piece of Plastic Wrap and lay it out so it covers a 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" square.  Lay ball of dough on top of that. 

You can either use a wet spatula or wet hands to smooth the dough into a flat square or use the following method:

Pull out another sheet of wrap and gently lay over the dough. 

Pat the dough down into a rough squarish pancake. Lift the top wrap up and relay it down. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough in between the two layers of wrap. Note that occasionally you'll have to lift and reposition the wrap because it gets "stuck" under the edges. I also occasionally flip the whole thing over. Make sure that when you're done you've got about a 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" square of dough. Remove top piece of wrap.  

Smear the softened Earth Balance over the dough's surface.  Combine sugar and cinnamon. Spread evenly across dough's surface, leaving about 1 inch along one edge free of sugar.

Use the bottom piece of wrap to lift the edge of the dough and start to roll it up forming a long cylinder. (Start with the sugary edge, which will be the center of your roll and roll toward the sugarless edge) 

Cut off or trim up the irregular ends of your "log".

Then cut into 9 slices of similar size, about 1 1/2" wide. Place rolls into a greased round glass pie pan or baking dish.

Bake approximately 20 minutes, until tops are lightly browned. 

Combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla flavoring to make glaze. Stir until all lumps are dissolved. Drizzle over warm rolls if desired.   (I used leftover Creamy Maple Frosting from VCTotW)

Makes 9 modestly sized rolls. Serves 9...or 2, just depending on the people.