Gooey Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

These gooey vegan cinnamon rolls are so easy and fun to make! Drizzled with a vegan cream cheese icing, you’ll never know they’re dairy free! Gooey and fun to pull apart, they’re the perfect breakfast or brunch treat!

Who says vegan cinnamon rolls have to be hard? Or taste bad? In fact, these healthy cinnamon rolls are the best cinnamon rolls I’ve had in a long time.

What I love about these gooey cinnamon rolls is that it’s really just all about patience! The magic happens with allowing the cinnamon rolls to rest and rise, so all you need to do is follow the steps, wait until your cinnamon rolls are baked and iced (believe me, with that smell, it’s going to be hard to resist!), and then take your first bite into the best gooey cinnamon rolls you’ll ever eat!

Honestly, there are few things better than the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls from scratch, so if you’re in need of some breakfast inspiration, consider this your sign!

However…I know making cinnamon rolls can be a bit intimidating. I mean…yeast?! How the heck do I work with that?! What in the heck is sprouted flour?! And they’re VEGAN too?!

Don’t worry, dude. I got you. I’ll go over the ingredients (as well as substitutions), and then we’ll walk through each step to making the best gooey cinnamon rolls you’re ever going to taste! I promise it’s easier than it looks, it’s just a matter of following the steps in order!

Let’s rollllllll on through 😉

Ingredients for vegan cinnamon rolls

Organic sprouted flour: yes, we’re going with sprouted again! Like in my vegan pizza recipe, sprouted flour requires a little more moisture and a little more kneading time than regular flour. However, if you want to go with regular flour (I get it, sometimes sprouted is a little intimidating, although this recipe isn’t I promise!), I have recipe modifications down below in the recipe card!

Light coconut milk: I recommend using light or regular coconut milk here, but definitely not coconut cream! You want more moisture because sprouted flour requires it. However, if you’re going with regular flour, just reduce the amount of coconut milk the recipe calls for by 1/4 cup, and you’ll still have amazingly gooey cinnamon buns 🙂

Cinnamon: no substitutions, no explanation, it just…it is what it is, okay!? 😉

Yeast: for these homemade cinnamon rolls, I went with rapid rise yeast, which you can mix right into the flour! This is what I recommend, as it will save you rising time!

Coconut sugar: I highly recommend using coconut sugar for this recipe, but you can also use regular cane sugar. I do not, however, recommend using maple syrup (I know, GASP! I’m a maple syrup lover!). I have not tested this, but I have a hunch it will create too much moisture in the dough, and since we’re working with sprouted flour here, it’s a little different!

Coconut oil or olive oil: this is what helps to make these gooey cinnamon rolls so gooey! Your vegan cinnamon rolls will bake in the oven and still remain super moist, which is what you want!

Vegan cream cheese: for the icing, I suggest using a vegan cream cheese! However, if you like more sweet than cream cheesey icing, you can also just beat together coconut cream with a little maple syrup and you’ll get similar results, only sweet rather than tangy sweet 😉 A coconut whipped cream icing can be found here!

Maple syrup or coconut sugar: this if for the icing, so you can use either maple syrup, coconut sugar, or regular ol’ powdered sugar! I suggest maple syrup because you don’t need a lot to make it really sweet, and the icing will still remain white/cream colored. If you use coconut sugar, your cream cheese frosting might be a little more brown colored, but it will still taste delicious! Of course, if you only have powdered sugar on you, feel free to use that as well! About 1/2 cup will do 🙂

How to make gooey cinnamon rolls

Now that we’ve gone over the ingredients required for healthy cinnamon rolls that taste anything but, let’s go over how to make these cinnamon rolls from scratch!

Such a fun phrase, don’t ya think?

Making cinnamon rolls from scratch

Start making your healthy cinnamon rolls by whisking together the flour, yeast, and coconut sugar in a large bowl, and set aside.

Heat up your coconut milk to 110F in either the microwave or via stove top, and pour into the flour mixture. Add in the olive oil or coconut oil (melted) and begin to mix the ingredients all together. You can use a stand mixer here or use a spoon at first and finish with your hands.

Then lightly dust a clean surface with a little extra flour and begin to knead the dough with your hands for about 8-10 minutes. If you’re using regular flour here, you can knead the dough for about 6-7 minutes!

Next, grease a clean glass boil with a little extra olive oil and rub the dough ball with some extra oil as well. Place the cinnamon roll dough into the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Your dough will need to rise for about 30-40 minutes to double in size. Place your bowl either near a warm oven or stove, or alternatively, if you’re making these rolls in the summertime, 80F outside in a safe and shaded area will work as well!

Roll out the dough for the vegan cinnamon rolls + prepare the filling

Once your dough has risen, lightly punch down the dough on a lightly floured surface again and shape it into a thick rectangle. Roll out the dough to be about 12″ in width and 18″ in length.

Whisk the melted vegan butter together with the vanilla extract, and lightly brush the butter onto the dough. Not all of it will be used, and that’s okay! You can reserve it to pour on top of the vegan cinnamon rolls once they’re finished baking.

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Sprinkle evenly with coconut sugar and cinnamon, and then starting at the rolling process!

Rolling the cinnamon rolls from scratch

With the longest side of the cinnamon roll dough rectangle, begin to rolls the dough inward and away from you, tightly. Slice the dough in the middle, and then slice the halves in half as well.

Slice each quarter in half so that you have eight even cinnamon rolls, and place them in a greased or parchment lined baking dish (I suggest using an 8×8 glass baking dish).

Cover the cinnamon rolls again loosely with either tin foil or plastic wrap, and place near the oven for 20-30 minutes. While the cinnamon rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake the gooey cinnamon rolls

When the rolls have finished rising for a second time, remove the plastic wrap or tin foil, and place the cinnamon rolls into the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and let rest while you prepare the icing!

The vegan cream cheese icing

Once your vegan cinnamon rolls have been kneaded, rested, rolled, and baked, it’s time to prepare your vegan cream cheese icing! Because how good are homemade cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven with some icing on top? 😉

While your healthy cinnamon rolls are cooling, add the vegan cream cheese to a medium bowl, along with the maple syrup and 1-2 tablespoon of nondairy milk to start.

Using a hand mixer, beat together the ingredients on high until they’re completely mixed. If you want more drippy icing, add in another tablespoon or two of nondairy milk and beat again with a hand mixer.

Drizzle the icing onto your easy vegan cinnamon rolls, and devour! You’re going to want these vegan cinnamon buns fresh!

I hope you love these homemade cinnamon rolls as much as I do! What I love about them is that although it’s a process making cinnamon rolls, the steps are fairly easy and truly, nothing tastes better than cinnamon rolls made from scratch!

If you make these healthy cinnamon rolls, let me know how they go in the comments below, and as always, I would love to see your recreations on Instagram and Pinterest so be sure to tag me there 😉

Until next time, happy rising, kneading, rolling, and drizzling! OH, and devouring of course 😉

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