I’ve been on a quest for a tasty gluten-free cinnamon bun for a while now, and come across recipes that achieve cinnamon bun flavour, but use a dough that is so wet that you have to bake them in muffin pans.  When you are hankering for a cinnamon bun, you really want those layers of dough, cinnamon and raisins that pull apart in delectable pieces.   For this round of trials, I was aiming for something that rolled up like a conventional cinnamon bun, was yeast-raised, and could be made with no eggs or dairy…

I have made a couple of versions that were very tasty that contained eggs, and were light and fluffy, BUT most of these are almost entirely starch — potato starch, cornstarch, tapioca starch or combinations of these.  While cinnamon buns are not exactly health food, I was also aiming for something that was a little less heavy on the starch, and more reliant on some of the more nutritious flours like sorghum, garfava, millet, or amaranth.

Here’s the latest version of my cinnamon buns, making use in this case, of millet flour.  This is pretty close to what I was aiming for, although I think the final version will make use of sorghum flour instead.  I ended up adding garfava flour here for the extra lift that the higher protein flours add.  I think you could also substitute teff fairly successfully.

Gluten-free Cinnamon Buns

• 1 1/2 cups sorghum flour (180 grams)
• 3/4 cup garfava flour (90 grams)
• 2/3 cup tapioca starch (80 grams)
• 1/2 cup cornstarch (64 grams)
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1 tablespoon xantham gum
• 4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk well to combine.

• 1 tablespoon Ener-g egg replacer
• 4 tablespoons cold water
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1 cup non-dairy milk, warmed to 110 degrees

Combine wet ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, with the egg replacer and water mixed first until frothy.  Add the remaining wet ingredients, then fold in the dry ingredients.  Mix on medium speed for at least 3 minutes, until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

Place the dough on a sorghum flour dusted silpat mat, and place a piece of parchment overtop.  Roll out to a rough rectangle, approximately 18 inches by 12 inches or the size of the silpat mat.

• 1/3 cup Earth-balance buttery flavoured shortening or butter, softened
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins

Spread the softened butter over the rolled out dough, leaving a 2″ border on one of the long-sides.  Spread the sugar, cinnamon and raisins over the butter.  Roll up the dough like a jelly-roll from the long side, using the silpat to help as you go.  cut into 7-8 slices, place in a greased pie-plate or 9″ cake pan.  Cover loosely and let rise for 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, Bake for 50-60 minutes, tenting with foil after about 30 minutes.  Serve warm.

This version is served “naked”, but if you like yours glazed, you can also drizzle a glaze overtop made with confectioners sugar and milk.  Let the buns cool for about 15 minutes before doing this.

I’m sending these over to Yeastspotting There are lots of amazing bakers out there making fabulous things with yeast!  Go check them out!