Gluten-free Pull-Apart Cinnamon Rolls
Perfect for weekend mornings or holiday brunch, these gluten-free pull-apart cinnamon rolls are gooey, cinnamon deliciousness drizzled with a cream cheese frosting. You’ll be glad you can just reach in and snitch a bite-sized roll! This recipe is sponsored by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas – my favorite pure vanilla extract!
Just about everyone I talk to that has to eat gluten-free misses cinnamon rolls. While I’m still working on my recipe for big fat individual cinnamon rolls like you buy at the mall, I have perfected this lovely recipe for gluten-free pull-apart cinnamon rolls. They’re like a delicious combo of cinnamon rolls and monkey bread but made gluten-free! I’ve been developing this recipe for the past few years, and I’m excited to finally share it with you!
I think these turned out so well, you’re going to need to grab or make some little gluten-free labels like I have in my photo if you’re going to bring this to a holiday brunch. People aren’t going to believe you that these are gluten-free!
While I know I’ve mentioned Nielsen-Massey vanilla extracts on here before (since I love them), today I get to tell you more! Why do I love using Nielsen-Massey vanilla products?
First, they’re certified gluten-free, certified Kosher, allergen-free and GMO-free. I look at allergen statements on a ton of websites and the Nielsen-Massey allergen info is among the best I’ve read. It’s clear on exactly what they do to keep people like us safe! You can find it in their FAQ section under dietary needs. I actually reached out to them recently just to tell them how much I appreciate their allergen statement online. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was so easy to find that information for every brand we try to use?
The second reason that I love Nielsen-Massey products – all of the products I’ve tried of theirs are so flavorful! They smell amazing and they make anything I bake taste so good! When baking festive holiday recipes, it’s especially important to choose pure ingredients with rich flavor profiles. Yes, before you start that holiday baking, toss all those old bottles of vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and spices. You want fresh and effective ingredients so your family favorite recipes turn out well!
Notes on Ingredients and substitutions for these gluten-free pull-apart cinnamon rolls:
- Flour – Use a good quality gluten-free flour blend. Several varieties work well for this. You can refer to my original gluten-free dinner rolls post for comments regarding flour blends. I’ve made these successfully with Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour and with Gluten Free Mama’s Almond Blend Flour.
- Cinnamon – The cinnamon really stands out here – use a fresh, new, flavorful container of cinnamon! Even with the large quantity of baking I do, I still toss my cinnamon bottle and buy fresh right before each holiday baking season. It makes such a difference!
- Vanilla Extract – I prefer to use Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract. This flavorful pure vanilla extract is certified gluten-free! It has a sweet, creamy flavor and makes for an excellent all-purpose vanilla to use in all your sweet and savory recipes. If you can’t find it at your local store, you can order it online here.
- Sugar: I’ve made these rolls multiple times with regular sugar and I’ve also made them recently with this Nielsen-Massery Pure Vanilla Sugar. If you have some or buy some, use that, otherwise, just use regular sugar.
- Cream Cheese РIn my opinion, a good cinnamon roll must have cream cheese frosting, so I made a cream cheese-based frosting to drizzle on these rolls. You can use the lower fat cream cheese version called Neufch̢tel РI do often.
I like to serve these gluten-free pull-apart cinnamon rolls as part of a yummy brunch, alongside a savory egg dish like my overnight gluten-free breakfast casserole. For drinks, we love this homemade Orange Julius recipe and this crock pot hot chocolate recipe – either would be a great choice for your brunch!
Nielsen-Massey has some allergy-friendly recipes on their website already that you should check out. I’m hoping to help them add more!
Be sure to let me know if you try this over the holidays or anytime! Also, if you’re looking for crescent rolls, I highly recommend you try my friend Chandice’s gluten-free crescent rolls! Perfect for your holiday dinner!
Gluten-free Pull-Apart Cinnamon Rolls Recipe:
Gluten-free Pull-Apart Cinnamon Rolls
Perfect for weekend mornings or holiday brunch, these gluten-free pull-apart cinnamon rolls are gooey, cinnamon deliciousness drizzled with a cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Rolls:
- 2 3/4 cups good quality gluten-free flour blend
- 1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (omit if your flour blend has xanthan or guar gum)
- 2 tsp. instant yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup warm water (105-110)
- 2 Tbsp. salted butter, melted
- 1 egg (room temp)
- 1 tsp. cider vinegar
Mixture to roll in:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pour over:
- 1 Tbsp. butter, melted
Cream Cheese Icing:
- 1 Tbsp. cream cheese, room temp
- 1 Tbsp. salted butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. milk
- 1/2 tsp. Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Rolls:
- In the mixing bowl of your electric mixer, mix together flour, xanthan gum, instant yeast, sugar, ground cinnamon, and salt.
- With mixer running on low speed, add in the warm water, melted butter, egg and cider vinegar. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Spray an 8" or 9" round cake pan with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cinnamon.
- Using a small scoop, scoop a ball of sticky dough and drop into the bowl of cinnamon and sugar. Roll around until coated, then place in prepared round pan. Repeat process until all of the dough is used up, layering balls of dough as needed.
- Sprinkle leftover cinnamon sugar mixture over top.
- Drizzle with the melted 1 Tablespoon of butter.
- Cover with a dry towel and place pan in a warm place to let rise for 1 hr.
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Bake rolls in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack while you make icing.
Cream Cheese Icing:
- Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to beat together cream cheese, salted butter, powdered sugar, milk, and pure vanilla extract until smooth.
- Place icing in a decorating icing bag or a strong Ziploc bag. Snip off the end and squeeze out in desired pattern over the baked cinnamon rolls. (I snipped my pastry bag exactly at the 1/4" wide spot.)
- Cut into wedges or allow everyone to pull-apart the rolls as desired!
Notes
*If your flour blend contains xanthan or guar gum already, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe.
I've tested these with Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour and Gluten-free Mama's Almond Blend for the flour and recommend either of those.
Pin this to your gluten-free board on Pinterest:
I hope you and your family enjoy these gluten-free cinnamon rolls as much as my family does!
Please come back and rate and review them after you try them!
I have made these multiple times with GF Mama’s Almond Flour blend. They are FANTASTIC! This last time I made a double batch, allowed to rise, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and foil and refrigerated overnight. As another reviewer suggested, I allowed to warm a bit before baking, and baked according to the recipe directions. Still delicious and wonderful! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
Has anyone tried using Kite Hill DF cream cheese to make the icing?
@sarbear, kite hill dairy free cream cheese is great my son only likes that cream cheese. He is dairy free and gluten-free. Another great dairy free butter option is country crock dairy free it comes in sticks and also a tub for soft spreadable butter. We use for everything it’s perfect.
Merry Christmas 2019! I made these last night for this morning and they were a success. I mixed and proofed and baked this morning, they did fine overnight! I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 flour- I noticed some people in the comments struggled with this- make sure you scoop the flower into your cup with a spoon and then level it with a knife. If you use a packed cup it will be too dry and dense. We also have a dairy allergy so I used earth balance and for the frosting I used coconut cream (that had been overnight refrigerated) and coconut milk instead of cream cheese and milk! They were a hit and my allergenic daughter’s first cinnamon rolls!
Made these last night and I am BEYOND happy with how these came out! We have tried almost a dozen recipes for monkey bread and have had terrible fails. This recipe was my last hope. So happy to say it worked and was a huge hit! I am going to be trying to make these the night before we want them this week so fingers crossed it works! I used bobs red mill 1:1 gluten free flour and skipped the xantham gum!
Made these for Christmas morning. Very good!! Do you have the weight of your two cups of flour?
I know this is an older recipe but we made it this morning for Christmas and it’s by far the best cinnamon rolls we’ve had in years. We’re also dairy free so we sub’d Earth balance for butter and used dairy free cream cheese. I also made them on Christmas Eve – let them proof for an hour in a steamy oven then wrapped in Saran Wrap and foil before placing in the fridge overnight. Then I let them rest for 30 min on the preheating oven before baking. I also measured Bobs Red Mill 1:1 to 11.5 ounces (xanthum gum is in the mix already). I didn’t have vanilla sugar so I just mixed vanilla extract into organic sugar. SUPER AMAZING. Thank you so much!!!
I can’t wait to try these! I made the dinner rolls this year for Thanksgiving and they were a hit! I used Bob’s Red Mill flour. I am so grateful to have a roll that does not crumble and tastes amazing. Thank you!
I just made these using just KA gluten free blend and added the xanthan gum, but found them to be dry. Suggestions? The dinner rolls I made the other day turned out perfect but used a blend of the KA and almond flour. I also measured the flour for the cinnamon rolls very carefully but weighed the flour for the dinner rolls.
I just made some for tomorrow morning, also using the KAF blend and mine are also very dry and chewy in a bad way. I’m sorely disappointed. I wonder if it was the flour choice- bummer, since the blend is usually great. I think I’m going to try and tweak the regular gf yeast roll recipe and add cinnamon and sugar, as those come out good for me.
I made these this morning for mothers day and they were absolutely fabulous! The best gluten free cinnamon roll type recipe I have ever found! You wouldn’t even know they are gluten free! I used bobs red mill baking flour and a little of his all purpose flour which had some xanthum gum so I only added 1/2 tsp. I also couldn’t find any instant yeast so I just used active dry yeast and added a touch more and proofed it for an hour and 10 min. Also for the cream cheese frosting i didn’t have any cream cheese so I substituted 1/2 goat yogurt and half coconut yogurt and it was delicious! Thank you for the awesome recipe!
My wife and I have tried to follow this recipe twice and both times our dough was VERY dry and did not rise at all.
We meticulously followed the quantities and steps, but got the same result each time. Everything I’ve read says that the dough should be moist and sticky, but it is very much not sticky (more dry and crumbly) when using this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking flour.
We are at a loss, where are we going wrong?
Hmm, my guess is it is the flour blend. I would recommend trying it with Gluten Free Mama’s Almond Flour Blend or Cup4Cup flour blend. Either of those would yield better results!
@Hungry and Helpless.
This has happened to me and are you by any chance using the same measuring cups for both the dry and wet ingredients? Because they are different. The pyrex measuring cup (or any pitcher-like measuring cup) is for wet ingredients and the separate cups on a ring are for dry. The minute I remedied my mistake I got more similar results in my continued baking. God Bless!
I used Namaste Perfect Flour Blend and they were perfect.
@Hungry and Helpless,
I use Bob Mills Gluten Free 1-1 Flour for all these recipes and they turn out fantastic…the key is to scoop your flour out of the bag into the measure inn cup…do not scoop measuring cup into the bag as it packs it to much…also I sit the flour and then measure it into the measuring cup and it works great…hope that helps…absolutely love the dinner rolls…my daughter says they are the best ones she has every tasted.
I’m wondering if anyone has tried to make these dairy free as well. I’m new to DF, but have been GF for five years. The various butter substitutes melt differently than real butter and I’m not familiar with their results when used in baking. Any and all advice is welcome!
I use Earth Balance buttery sticks for all my baking and have had great success with it as a substitute in all my recipes. The other butter substitutes (like Crisco butter flavor and others) have not worked.
I am dairy free and I also used Earth Balance Sticks and they turned out great. I just made an icing sugar drizzle icing rather than the cream cheese icing and it tasted really good. I think I got the icing recipe from the Hot Cross Bun recipe.
I made these feeling pretty doubtful as I have had a couple of major fails with GF yeast buns. I am so happy with the results! They rose up high in the pan, and have the stretchy, doughy texture of wheat cinnamon buns. They are excellent! I chose this recipe because I had most of the ingredients already in my cupboard. The only thing I changed is I didn’t have the vanilla sugar, so I substituted brown sugar and it worked great! I can’t wait to try the hot cross bun recipe.
For the vanilla sugar you could also do 1/3 cup of white cane sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla then mix. It tastes amazing!
what flour is best? Is your almond blend a good choice? Please advise. Thx in advance!
Yes, I do make this with Gluten Free Mama’s Gluten-free Almond Blend. If you use another blend, you might substitute 1/2 cup almond flour in place of 1/2 cup of the total flour. The almond flour really does seem to help with the texture!
Can I make these ahead of time and let them rise overnight?
I haven’t tried it so I recommend giving it a try! Let me know your tips after doing it!
Oh my goodness! I love your recipes! We had you gluten free pull apart dinner rolls with Thanksgiving dinner and we LOVE THEM! Thank you soooooo much! I’m really excited to try out this recipe! Thanks!
I’m so glad you loved the dinner rolls and hope you love these too!
Just popped them in the oven, thanks so much for the great recipe!
I made these tonight. They are really good! Closest thing I’ve had to a non-gluten free cinnamon roll ever! Great texture and flavor. I did not have the flour mentioned so I used Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1. When I mixed the cinnamon and sugar, it looked so dark that I was afraid it would be too much cinnamon, but it tastes great. Be sure to drizzle the melted butter on them as stated in the recipe. I’m very pleased and will definitely make these again!
Did you use extra xanthan gum with the 1 to 1 flour mix?
I’m so glad to hear that flour blend worked well in this as well and that you enjoyed these. Thanks so much for your comment!
Thank you for this recipe. Can the dough be proofed and then refrigerated over night?
Hello! Wondering if you tried this and how it turned out?!? Thinking about making for Christmas but would hate for it to be a flop!
I camt eat yeast and dont loke it in food. What can use to make the bread rise?
Sorry, the yeast is pretty important in this. If you’ve found a good substitute that you like to use in place of yeast in other recipes you’ve tried, feel free to try it in this as well. Do let me know how it goes!
@Silas, have you tried a sour dough starter instead of the yeast?
I’m glad you put that adorable gluten-free label next to your pull apart cinnamon rolls, because you’re right… I would NEVER believe that this is a gluten-free recipe. I am smitten with N.M. vanilla bean paste and can hardly wait to try this recipe!