Healthy Cinnamon Rolls
with Maple Cashew Icing
Have you ever craved cinnamon rolls, searched a recipe online then learned it had a million different ingredients, called for yeast (who even has that), and took hours to make?
same same.
That’s why I wanted to make a cinnamon roll recipe that utilized simple pantry and fridge staples, wasn’t going to make you feel sick afterwards and had a decent amount of protein so you could actually have it for breakfast and feel fueled for the rest of the day.
Introducing my..
Healthy & Easy Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls with a Maple Cashew Glaze (with simple vegan substitutions)
I think this is a great recipe to get your family involved with. If you have kiddos, put an apron on them and have them help out! If you have a partner, make it a cute Sunday morning date in the kitchen! Who doesn’t want cinnamon rolls & coffee on a Sunday morning? I’m in!
The best part about this recipe is that there are so many viable substitutions, so if you don’t have a certain ingredient from the list, then try one of these ingredients below! The whole point is so you DON’T have to go to the store & you can utilize what you already have at home!
Substitutions:
Gluten Free All Purpose Flour: swap it for a 1:1 ration of the following - regular all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oat flour (just pulse oats in a blender & you have oat flour), or almond flour (great for a low carb option).
Plain Full Fat Greek Yogurt: If you’re dairy free or vegan, try swapping out the greek yogurt for a non-dairy thick yogurt. The trick here is to make sure it’s thick and not runny. Kite Hill has a great almond yogurt that is pretty thick! But use what you have! If you have flavored, there’s no rules! I think a vanilla yogurt would be fine in this!
Coconut Oil: The filling calls for coconut oil but this can easily be swapped for butter or plant based butter. Most people have 1 of these 3 options in their fridge/pantry! Just swap it 1:1!
Cashews: The glaze on top is made from cashews, so it’s packed with copper, zinc, magnesium, iron and phosphorous! But you can swap it with almonds (preferably peeled), and if you are nut free, try sunflower seeds! I haven’t particularly tried the sunflower seeds, but you may need to use a food processor for blending those up!
Plant Based Milk: Use any milk, we don’t discriminate. Try cows milk, soy milk, hemp milk, almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk. Heck, there’s even a thing called banana milk now lol.
Maple Syrup: I always have maple syrup on hand but I totally get that not everyone does. Try an alternative sweetener, like honey or agave! If you’re out of liquid sweetener, try coconut sugar, brown sugar or regular sugar! Just use what you have! Be mindful of the sweetness level when swapping sweeteners because each one is different!
Now you almost have everything you need to make these delicious and healthy cinnamon rolls!
Click the button below to download the grocery list + list of cookware and appliances + printable recipe card so you can make this recipe with ease!