Last updated on July 1st, 2019
This gluten-free cinnamon rolls recipe is packed with pumpkin and fall spices. They’re moist and fluffy with a generous slather of cream cheese glaze on top! Start a holiday morning tradition with these easy gluten-free cinnamon rolls that only require a single rise!
I’ve made these gluten-free pumpkin cinnamon rolls five times in three days. For three days, Fall’s signature scent wafted through our house. Neighbors rotated through my kitchen with plates until I ran out of neighbors to offload fresh-from-the-oven gluten-free cinnamon rolls on. And I undoubtedly ate way too many cinnamon rolls myself in the span of three days. All in the name of “perfecting the recipe.” I regret nothing, except not having a bag of potato chips on standby after batch five.
This morning I swore I wasn’t going to eat another pumpkin cinnamon roll. But then I had to taste one to make sure they were still delicious as leftovers with a little reheat (they are) before I wrapped them up for Zo’s daycare teacher. I’m sure you can see where this is going. One forkful and I caved and ate the whole roll.
Five batches later and these, my friends, are finally perfect. They’re exactly the kind of cinnamon roll I’ve been craving – super soft, fluffy, and moist and loaded with gooey sugar and spice layers and a healthy drizzle of icing. The crisp outside slowly softens as the glaze seeps its way into the rolls.
Made in partnership with Simply Organic and The Feed Feed, these pumpkin gluten-free cinnamon rolls are the first in a four-part series about the joy of cooking with organic herbs, spices, and extracts. Today, I’m using the nostalgic spices of fall: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.
Homemade pumpkin spice
Pumpkin desserts are all the rage. Come Fall, the world can’t seem to get enough. When it comes down to it, though, it’s really pumpkin spice that’s got the addicting nostalgic draw. The familiar smell that evokes that comforting feeling of fall baking, that warm and cozy flavor – we can thank the spice profile we pair with pumpkin for that.
For these pumpkin cinnamon rolls, I made my own pumpkin spice blend using the same four pantry staple spices that make up Simply Organic’s signature blend. As long as you’ve got cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves on hand, you’re one can of pumpkin away from a nostalgic pumpkin spice dessert. My homemade pumpkin spice blend uses 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ginger, and ¼ teaspoon ground cloves. All four of these Simply Organic spices are staples in my pantry, and I use them so frequently that I know I’m using the freshest most fragrant spices.
You can certainly grab up a jar of pumpkin spice to replace the individual spices in this recipe if that’s more your jam – Simply Organic makes theirs with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves that’s so good you’ll probably start adding it to your latte. Either way, when Fall’s aromatic spices are involved, you can’t go wrong.
Single-rise easy gluten-free cinnamon rolls
The first few iterations of this recipe followed the standard cinnamon roll method: Dough – rise 1.5 hours – make cinnamon rolls – rise 1.5 hours – bake. And they were delicious, but lacked that softness found in regular gluten cinnamon rolls. They were very moist (too moist maybe) and dense, lacking the air bubbles you find in regular buns. Tasty, but needed work.
So I added a few things that should help trap in those air bubbles – a splash of apple cider vinegar to help activate the yeast and add structure, baking powder to help them rise just a little more, an egg white to suck out a bit of the moisture added by the pumpkin. All of these things helped, but then, it occurred to me: The double rise of regular dough creates a finer gluten structure, so you don’t end up with large air bubbles. Except we aren’t using gluten here! And we want more air bubbles.
The batch with just one rise? The best gluten-free cinnamon buns. Make your dough, roll it out into cinnamon rolls, let it rise in the pan, bake. With this method, you’re 1.5 hours closer to soft pillows of spiced pumpkin cinnamon rolls. And that’s 1.5 more hours of sleep you’ll get in the morning.
The different types of cinnamon rolls
With all my neighbors tasting and weighing in on the batches, it’s come to my attention that there are many different types of cinnamon rolls and people have strong opinions about which kind is right.
There’s the dough that bakes up almost like donuts – soft and airy. They’re light and fluffy inside and stretch a bit when pulled apart. Then there are cinnamon rolls that are a little denser in structure, they’re moist with a slightly crispy edges and the center softens as you peel away the layers, revealing the ultimate soft cinnamon spiced center.
These pumpkin gluten-free cinnamon rolls are most like the latter, with one caveat. While the very edges of these rolls are crisp, the inside immediately reveals a soft moist structure that’s as if we took the best part of regular cinnamon rolls – the center- and made that the whole roll.
Cook for Joy with Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
The final test batch came out of the oven just before dinnertime. I ate the first one with my fingers standing over the stovetop, then raced in to give Lucas a bite. Zoella, 2.5 years old, looked up from the story they were reading and asked for one too. We’re pretty strict with her when it comes to desserts and dessert before dinner is unheard of in our house. And still, I couldn’t resist giving her a small bite to see the pure joy on her face as she conclusively decided she likes cinnamon rolls. She left the book behind to follow me to the kitchen for another bite, “can I have another bite, please, mama?” She’s got me wrapped around her little finger.
When Zoella told my mom she loves cinnamon rolls, my mom fondly recalled how her mom used to make cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. My memory of my grandma is that she did not cook, yet she got up SUPER EARLY every Christmas morning to make cinnamon rolls for her daughters. There’s a reason so many others have a similar cinnamon roll family tradition. The pure simple joy that a batch of fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon rolls evoke is worth its weight in gold. Just as long as you slather it in plenty of cream cheese icing, or as my French Canadian friend Alex referred to it when he forgot the word for icing, “extra cake gravy.”
And now, just like my grandma, these pumpkin gluten-free cinnamon rolls will be my holiday morning legacy.
Disclosure: Special thanks to Simply Organic and The Feed Feed for providing the ingredients for this recipe and sponsoring this post! And thanks to you for supporting the companies that keep Snixy Kitchen cooking!
Pumpkin Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls
This soft and chewy gluten-free cinnamon rolls recipe is loaded with pumpkin and fall spices. Topped with a gooey cream cheese glaze, these cinnamon buns are perfect for your holiday breakfast!
Ingredients
Gluten-free Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon cane sugar, divided
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 ¼-ounce package - not instant)
- 1 cup (124g) tapioca starch/flour
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (76g) gluten-free oat flour
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon (149g) millet flour
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (146g) sweet rice flour (such as Mochiko)
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½ teaspoon Simply Organic ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Simply Organic ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon Simply Organic ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon Simply Organic ground cloves
- ¾ cup + 3 tablespoons pumpkin puree*
- 4½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
Cinnamon Nutmeg Sugar Filling
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted cooled and divided
- ½ cup packed dark or light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons Simply Organic ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Simply Organic ground nutmeg
Cream Cheese Glaze
- 3oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1½ cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1-1½ tablespoons whole milk
Instructions
- First prepare an 8x8 pan by lining it with parchment paper and buttering the paper with 1/2 tablepoon of the filling butter (Alternatively, skip the parchment paper and butter the pan directly - it's just more messy, but works great!).
- Prepare the cinnamon nutmeg sugar filling. Combine the filling light brown sugar, cane sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside
- Warm the milk in a small pot to between 105-115°F (if you go over, just let it cool until the temperature is in that range). Transfer to a wide bowl and mix in 1 teaspoon sugar. Slowly sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk and use a spoon to mix completely. Let set aside for 10 minutes while the yeast activates and foams. If your yeast hasn't gotten foamy by 10 minutes, you may have bad yeast and you should try again with a new packet.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the tapioca starch, oat flour, millet flour, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, combine the pumpkin puree, butter, remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, light brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar and mix until smooth. Add the egg and egg white and mix until completely incorporated. Add the yeast mixture and mix until completely incorporated.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until completely incorporated. Change to the dough hook and knead the dough on low for 1 minute. Let it rest for 1 minute. Knead again for one minute. Repeat 2x. The dough will be sticky (more so than gluten yeast dough), but if you pinch a tablespoon of dough off an set it on the surface, it should hold its shape. If it doesn't*, add 2-4 more tablespoons of tapioca starch until it's a little less soft and holds its shape.
- Using a tapioca starch covered hands or spoon, scrape the dough out onto a surface floured well with tapioca starch and sprinkle it well with tapioca starch on top too. Roll your dough out to an 11x16 rectangle.
- Brush the dough with 4 tablespoons of the filling butter, reserving 1/2 tablespoon for brushing on top. Sprinkle the cinnamon nutmeg sugar filling over the surface.
- Starting with the long edge, tightly roll up the dough into a spiral. I used a bench scraper to help me roll it to make sure it doesn't stick to the surface. If you need to add more tapioca starch on the spiral as you roll, that's fine! It will just make your filling a little gooier, which, in my opinion is good.
- Tap in the sides so they're flat and use a ruler to divide your log into 9 equal pieces (about 1.75 inches long). Cut into spirals using one of two methods: 1. Use unflavored dental floss or 2. A serrated knife with very gentle back and forth movements and no downward pressure. Place your cut rolls face up in the prepared pan. Brush tops with remaining butter. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm draft-free place for 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size and the cinnamon rolls are kissing each other. I let mine rise in the "proof" setting of my oven. Note: Your rolls WILL appear cracked on the top. This is normal and okay because it affects the taste none and you're definitely going to cover that up with icing.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the rolls for 40-45 minutes, until they're firm to the touch (and if you have an oven thermometer, the bottom third of the rolls reads at least 205°F.).
- While the rolls bake, prepare the glaze. Mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until combined. Add milk and mix until you get your desired consistency. I make mine halfway between thick frosting and drizzle-able icing.
- When the rolls come out of the oven, cover them in icing and serve warm! Cinnamon rolls are best served warm fresh out of the oven and will become more dense the longer you wait. If you don't eat them right away, you can reheat leftover buns in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 375°F or for 45 seconds in the microwave.
Notes
*Organic pumpkin purée is typically more wet (and less orange) than non-organic pumpkin purée for some reason. I've noticed that some organic pumpkin purées are incredibly wet and runny which will make these rolls more difficult to roll out. If you use organic pumpkin purée, you will likely need to add the additional tapioca starch noted in step 6. My other recommendation is to start by pressing your pumpkin purée through a cheese cloth before measuring it to get a thicker less wet purée which will make rolling out the rolls much easier!
Traci | Vanilla And Bean -
I LOL! Sarah! Who else makes 100 batches of X over a three day period? An exacting food blogger! Thank you for your work, and effort. I’m certain your neighbors were happy – I would have been a willing participant for sure! I’m learning with GF baking, one rise is all it takes! Hooray! These are absolutely perfection. Being a new GF baker, I’ve not had the courage to tackle something so complex… but your cinnamon rolls give me hope (and courage)! Just look at their color and loft. Delicious! – and I am a big fan of Simply Organic… cooking with Joy this holiday season. Thank you for this, Sarah! xo
christine desroches -
Lucky neighbours, getting to taste-test all those batches! I have a go-to pumpkin cinnamon bun recipe but these photos and your description have me thinking that another couldn’t hurt ;) cannot wait to try these, they look so absolutely delicious!
Alanna -
Stupidly excited to try these!! They look PURRFECT.
Veronica Hernandez-Mena -
When I was a kid being told we had fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast felt so luxuriously self-indulgent! I believe this will be a new tradition in our family for the holiday! Your photos are gorgeous!
Payton -
They look wonderful!
Question: how long do they need to proof for? I couldn’t seem to find a time in the method.
Thanks! :)
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you! That would be helpful right? Haha. I’m so sorry I forgot to add that – Updated the recipe and thank you so much for letting me know!!
Kathleen -
These look delectable! I’d love to make them for my book group for breakfast. Any thoughts on whether I could prepare them through the rising the night before and either refrigerate or freeze them and then bake in the morning? Thanks!
Sarah Menanix -
Thanks! I haven’t tried it yet but I think it would work! They’d slow rise in the fridge then let them sit on the counter for 30 minutes to get to room temperature before baking. Let me know if you try it and message me with any questions!
Kay -
I was so excited to try these! Unfortunately the dough was SO sticky, it wasn’t possible to rol it at all. I had to keep adding more and more tapioca flour, at which point it was finally rollable but as I predicted, it was way too much flour and the end result was tough buns. They rose while they proofed, enough to kiss, but didn’t grow any more when baked, and they definitely didnt look like yours.. I had used it for gwnic pumpkin puree, but 4 tbsp extra of tapioca didn’t do anything – I’d guess I ended up adding a cup or so by the end of it (little by little until it stopped being crazy sticky). The end result was tasty, but not the fluffy, gooey cinnamon roles I had hoped for. Any suggestions for if I were to attempt this again? Maybe halve the pumpkin puree? And add more tapioca from the get go?
Sarah Menanix -
I’m so sorry you had so much trouble with these buns! I’ve now tested them so many times to make sure the recipe will work, but my suspicion is that the possible reason for the difficulty is a difference in ingredients. Did you use organic or non-organic pumpkin puree? I think that says you used organic pumpkin puree, yes? I used Libby’s pumpkin puree which is pretty thick, but I have noticed organic pumpkin purees are much more watery which will influence the stickiness. Next time I’d recommend squeezing your pumpkin puree through a cheese cloth first before measuring to get out the excess liquid from the puree – I’ll add this suggestion to the recipe! The dough is definitely stickier than that of a gluten dough, but if you dust the top and bottom with tapioca starch, it should roll/press out very easily. You’ll notice in the picture of me cutting them that I’ve generously dusted the surface with lots of tapioca starch to keep it from sticking.
Kay -
Thanks for the suggestion! I think that’d be a good addition to the recipe. Otherwise going with non organic would probably be worth it. No amount of sprinkling tapioca would’ve helped roll it out in the state it was in haha so I do think it was likely the organic puree.
Joel -
Hello Sarah,
Thank you for such an amazing looking recipe! I’ve tried pumpkin bread and muffins and they were really great, but your pumpkin cinnamon buns look absolutely wonderful. I’m actually looking for a baking idea to give as a gift, and this seems perfect. The previous comment about preparing the day before would apply, so thank you for that information! I’m a very novice baker, and dealing with food restrictions from complicated Celiac Disease (including no gluten, oats, quinoa, dairy, corn, soy, and others), so thank you for this recipe being gluten-free. I’ve found a dairy substitution to try, but can you suggest an alternative to oat flour? Do you think almond flour would work okay?
Sarah Menanix -
Hm – I’m not so sure about a suitable substitute for oat flour as I haven’t tried to substitute it before. It lends the cakiness texture to the recipe that I find pretty necessary. That being said, I’ve heard cassava flour has a similar impact on baked goods so I would suggest starting there. I think almond flour would be too dense (and also doesn’t soak up moisture like oat flour, so you’d have to then adjust many more factors…).
Vanessa -
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
Sarah Menanix -
Same with non gluten-free cinnamon rolls, they’re best right out of the pan. That being said, I did keep some until the next day and just warmed them in the microwave to make them soft and gooey again. Still delicious, but just not quite as amazing as immediately:)
Christa -
Hi Sarah!
Have you tried subbing your flour ratios with a premixed 1:1 GF baking flour? I have several on hand but wasn’t sure if you had experimented with a premixed flour?
Thanks!
Sarah Menanix -
I have not for these cinnamon rolls, but I bet something like Bob’s 1 to 1 would work if you subbed in by weight!
wendy jones -
If I don’t want to add pumpkin….can I just leave it out? Do I replace it with something? Thanks for doing all the hard recipe testing. Grateful xo
Sarah Menanix -
I’m currently testing a non-pumpkin version that will be up in a few weeks – I essentially replaced the pumpkin with more milk, got rid of the egg white, replaced the brown sugar with more cane sugar (in the rolls, not the filling), and reduced the overall flour by 1/4 cup. I still need to test it one more time, but if you’re aiming to make it soon, that’s what I would do!