These gluten-free cinnamon rolls are big, fluffy, and SOFT! Plus thanks to a secret ingredient, they’re so easy to make!
I have been a gluten-free food blogger for over 10 years and never shared a gluten-free cinnamon roll recipe until now!
I tested and re-tested this recipe to get it just right. I am so proud of this recipe and I hope you love it too!
Are you ready for the BEST gluten free cinnamon rolls of your life?
I haven been eating gluten-free since 2012 and have tried dozens of gluten-free cinnamon rolls over the years. I’ve finally perfected my recipe and I’m so excited to share it!
This gluten-free dough is made with King Arthur gluten-free bread flour, which makes all the difference in creating a soft texture and lightly chewy dough.
Trust me when I say these cinnamon rolls are JUST as incredible as regular cinnamon rolls. They’re big. They’re fluffy. They’re soft and never dry! They really are the real deal.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A tested & perfected recipe! I tested and re-tested this recipe to get these cinnamon rolls just right
- Big, fluffy, and SOFT
- Make-Ahead option – can be made the day before and baked in the morning
- Easy to make with gluten-free bread flour
Ingredients You’ll Need
For the Cinnamon Rolls
- Gluten-free bread flour: THIS IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT! I’ve been loving using this gluten-free bread flour, which contains wheat starch that is completely gluten-free. It’s easy to shape and yields a similar texture to traditional bread. It’s great for sweet breads, rolls, and any other gluten-free bread dough! I also use this flour in these gluten-free crescent rolls.
- Water and milk: I prefer whole milk for these cinnamon rolls. It gives the dough a richer flavor!
- Sugar: You need white granulated sugar in the dough, both for flavor and to feed the yeast.
- Baking powder: Any baking powder will work for this recipe! It’s an important ingredient that helps create a light, fluffy gluten-free cinnamon rolls dough.
- Instant yeast: Instant yeast can be added right into the dry ingredients. It doesn’t need to be mixed with warm water to create a yeast mixture. Be sure to get this type rather than active dry yeast!
- Eggs: Eggs create a rich, soft dough. For best results with these gluten-free cinnamon rolls, use large, room temperature eggs.
- Butter: Like the eggs, the butter creates a rich and flavorful dough. I recommend using salted butter for this recipe. It provides the best depth of flavor!
- Salt: I like to use fine sea salt for this gluten-free cinnamon rolls recipe!
- For the filling: I love a classic, easy filling with brown sugar, cinnamon and butter!
For more gluten-free special breakfast recipes, try this gluten-free coffee cake, gluten-free blueberry muffins, gluten-free scones and gluten-free baked donuts.
Dairy-Free?
These cinnamon rolls can easily be made dairy-free. You can use dairy-free milk in place of the milk. I like using Elmhurst Unsweetened Cashew milk in place of whole milk. It has a similar fat content to whole milk, and doesn’t have any added gums or stabilizers that could interfere with the rise/crumb of the rolls. I also use vegan butter in place of the butter.
How to Make Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls
Make the Dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the gluten-free flour, granulated sugar, instant yeast, salt, and baking powder. Mix to evenly combine.
- With the mixer running on low, slowly add the water, milk, eggs and melted butter. Turn it up to medium speed and mix for 3 minutes until very smooth. The dough will resemble thick cookie dough. This is normal!
- Use an oiled spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. (Refrigerating the dough makes it easier to roll out.)
- Turn out the gluten free cinnamon buns dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball.
- Sprinkle with a little flour, then roll the dough out into a 15×15-inch square.
You also might like this gluten-free pizza crust, gluten-free cinnamon sticks or gluten-free breadsticks.
Make the Filling/Shape the Rolls
- In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish with butter or cooking spray.
- Spread the melted butter for the filing over the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar all over the dough. Using a pizza cutter, cut the square into twelve 1.25-inch wide strips of gluten-free cinnamon roll dough. Roll each dough strip up into a cinnamon roll.
- Place in the prepared baking dish.
Rise/Bake the Rolls
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Place in a relatively warm place and allow the rolls to rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the rolls are slightly golden brown.
- Set the rolls aside to cool for 15 minutes or until just slightly warm to the touch.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Powdered sugar: Any powdered sugar will work for these gluten-free cinnamon rolls!
- Cream cheese: Be sure to set your cream cheese out and allow it to soften to room temperature before making the frosting. This will ensure the frosting is smooth and clump-free.
- Butter: I recommend using salted butter for this recipe. It provides the best depth of flavor!
- Vanilla: I prefer using real vanilla extract for this cinnamon roll frosting.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until smooth and creamy.
- Add the butter and beat until smooth and combined, then beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla until combined.
- Using a knife or icing spatula, spread the icing over the warm rolls. Serve immediately and enjoy your fluffy cinnamon roll!
Maple Glaze Option
These cinnamon rolls are also delicious with a maple glaze instead of cream cheese frosting! For the glaze mix together 2 cups powdered sugar, ½ teaspoon maple flavoring, 4-6 tablespoons milk, 2 tablespoons melted butter and a pinch of salt until smooth.
Make-Ahead/Storage Instructions
MAKE-AHEAD/OVERNIGHT RISE: These cinnamon rolls can be assembled the day before and baked the following morning. Make the gluten-free cinnamon rolls as you normally would, following the steps through the “Make the Filling/Shape the Rolls” section. Cover the rolls tightly and refrigerate for 8–12 hours. (16 hours max. 8–12 hours is best, but 16 hours is okay if absolutely needed. Do not exceed 16 hours.) The next morning, remove from the refrigerator and allow to rise on the counter for 30-45 minutes before baking. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes.
STORAGE: Store these homemade gluten free cinnamon rolls in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap for up to three days. If the cinnamon rolls have cream cheese frosting, I store them in the refrigerator.
Expert Tips & Tricks
- GLUTEN-FREE BREAD FLOUR: This gluten-free bread flour is key for these gluten-free cinnamon rolls to turn out correctly. Other gluten-free flour blends will not work in it’s place.
- DAIRY-FREE: For dairy-free, gluten-free cinnamon rolls, I like to use Elmhurst Unsweetened Cashew milk. It has a similar fat content to whole milk and doesn’t have any added gums or stabilizers that might interfere with the rise/crumb of the rolls. You can also use vegan butter in place of the butter, and make the frosting with dairy-free cream cheese. My favorite brand is Kite Hill.
- I prefer the paddle attachment instead of the dough hook attachment for gluten-free bread. It tends to knead gluten-free dough more evenly!
I also use this same flour/dough recipe in this amazing, gluten-free monkey bread!
Easy, Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls
Video
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 4 ½ cups (680g) King Arthur Gluten-Free Bread Flour
- ⅓ cup (65g) granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast (1 packet)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ¼ cup (295ml) water warm
- 1 cup (236ml) whole milk warm
- 2 large eggs
- 6 tablespoons (85g) butter melted
For the Filling:
- 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 8 tablespoons (113g) butter melted
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces (226g) cream cheese softened
- 4 Tablespoons (56g) butter softened
- 1 ⅓ cup (160g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Or Simple Glaze:
- 3 cups (340g) powdered sugar
- 1/3 -1/2 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Make the Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the gluten-free flour, granulated sugar, instant yeast, salt and baking powder. Mix to evenly combine.
- With the mixer running on low, slowly add the water, milk, eggs and melted butter. Turn the speed up to medium and mix for 3 minutes until very smooth. The dough will resemble thick cookie dough. This is normal!
- Use an oiled spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. (Refrigerating the dough makes it easier to roll out.)
Make the Filling/Shape the Rolls
- In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish with butter or cooking spray.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball.
- Sprinkle with a little flour, then roll the dough out into a 15×15-inch square.
- Spread the melted butter for the filing over the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar all over the dough.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut the square into twelve 1.25-inch wide strips.
- Roll each dough strip up into a cinnamon roll. Place in the prepared baking dish.
Rise/Bake the Rolls
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Place in a relatively warm place and allow the rolls to rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the rolls are slightly golden brown.
- Set the rolls aside to cool for 15 minutes or until just slightly warm to the touch.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until smooth and creamy.
- Add the butter and beat until smooth and combined, then beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla until combined.
- Using a knife or icing spatula, spread the icing over the warm rolls. Serve immediately and enjoy!
For the Simple Glaze
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the glaze ingredients until well combined.
- Spread over the slightly warm rolls. Serve immediately and enjoy!
why can i only leave 5 stars?! why not 59?! this recipe is amazing. i do add a bit of nutmeg and clove to the filling for depth of flavor (and only use maybe 4tbsp of butter to drizzle) but follow the rest exactly and seriously, the fluff and flavor levels are incredible. just made my second batch and my (gluten eating) husband nabbed one before i’d even frosted them. theyre so, SO good. thanks for developing this!!!
I have never commented on a recipe before but these are unbelievable! I grew up with mom making homemade cinnamon rolls which I did also all the time until I realized I couldn’t have gluten. I’ve tried a couple other times with poor results but these taste just like the ones I used to make! I didn’t put in the frig, I just added a little extra flour like I used to do with my recipe. 20 years without homemade cinnamon rolls! These are amazing and so soft!
Wow, thank you for such kind feedback, Penni! We’re so happy to hear how much you loved the recipe!
Pretty excited about these! I added pecans! They tasted good, a little too salty for me, so next time I’ll reduce that. Prefer a sweeter dough. The texture is slightly biscuit-like. This is my first attempt at any gf bread item, so I’m feeling pretty great that it worked and wasn’t a flop! Made our gluten & dairy breakfast traditions for Christmas morning a little less sad now that I’m GF & DF. Thank you!
We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Amy! Thank you for taking the time to share with us. Happy baking!
OMG! These came out amazing! No one could tell they were gluten free! A new family favorite! The only issue I had was that after refrigerating for 20 minutes, the dough was very sticky. I had to add more GF bread flour and knead to get rid of the stickiness so I could roll out the dough. Any suggestions I how I can avoid this the next time I make them?
Hi Felicia, we’re so glad everyone loved the recipe so much! Thank you for your positive feedback! You could try chilling the dough longer next time to give it extra time to hydrate and firm up. Beyond that, you did the right thing adding a little more flour to make your dough workable for you. Happy baking!
Absolutely perfect Cinnamon Rolls. So easy, too.
We’re so glad you loved the recipe, Patsy! Thank you for sharing your positive feedback with us. Happy baking!
My grandma has Celiac and cannot have gluten, every year on Christmas morning my mother bakes cinnamon rolls for everyone and this either excludes my grandma or she eats one anyway and gets sick. This year I made this recipe for her Christmas morning and my goodness these turned out good, this recipe is truly wonderful and I would recommend it to anyone that can’t have gluten or is cutting it out. These were equal if not better than gluten cinnamon rolls.
Oh wow, thank you for sharing such sweet feedback with us, Logan! We’re so glad this recipe allowed your grandma to safely take part in the family tradition!
Hi! First time trying this recipe and I’m a little nervous as I used Earth Balance salted vegan butter.. I had a bad experience in using it in a chocolate ganache but hopefully it works this time! In the future could I sub the vegan butter for coconut oil or like a melted coconut cream?
Hi Aubrey, we haven’t tested out coconut oil or coconut cream in place of the vegan butter in the dairy-free version of this recipe to say for sure. The swaps could impact the texture/taste. If you decide to give it a try, we’d love to hear how it goes!
I followed all the ingredients and measurements exactly (using a scale) and my dough comes put sticky. Will refrigerating it longer offset this? I’m not sure what I’ve done incorrectly.
Hi Amanda, yes if using the correct flour blend and measurements, we would recommend chilling the dough longer so that the flour has time to hydrate and the dough structure thickens up. If it continues to be sticky, you could try adding a little extra flour incrementally until you are able to work with it. We hope this helps!
Do you use salted butter and 2 tsps if salt?
Hi Adela, yes Erin typically bakes with salted butter so we’d recommend using salted butter along with all other measurements in this recipe. We hope you enjoy the cinnamon rolls!
I accidentally used active dry yeast instead of self rising will that effect the cannon rolls?
Hi Cerissa, active dry yeast requires proofing in warm liquid before adding it to the mixture whereas instant yeast doesn’t require that extra step. If the active dry yeast wasn’t proofed first, it may impact the rise of the dough. We hope this helps!
Super yummy – I would like more filling though so next time I will double it. Great texture with the bread flour
These turned out to be super delicious and the family enjoyed them. They are gone already. The active dry yeast didn’t make a difference in baking so that was good.
Made these for our framily holiday brunch. The type of flour made this so easy! Every time I’ve tried to bake, the 1:1 flour just doesn’t cut it. “Cheat code” unlocked and our GF friends were so happy to be able to partake in the sweet goodness of these rolls. Will definitely make these again!
Yay! We’re so glad the recipe was such a hit! Thank you for your positive feedback about the cinnamon rolls and the flour tip! Happy baking!
10/10! Cinnamon rolls is a family Christmas tradition but going gluten free has made it difficult! FINALLY a recipe that rolls out beautifully and makes soft, fluffy rolls! Thank you!! I’ve tried them all and this is by far the best recipe.
Wow! Thank you for such a kind review, Hailey! We’re so happy to hear how much you loved this recipe!
For the butter, sugar, cinnamon mixture that goes on the rolls before cutting/rolling, would freezing that mixture and shredding the block onto it work? Saw this as a hack on IG and thought it may be better since I’m letting it sit overnight. I felt like last time I let them sit over night the melted butter slide down and into the pan.
These are perfection! I seriously cried eating these lol. I’ve made several GF cinnamon roll recipes throughout the years and they’ve all been a disappointment or disaster. This one is so easy to roll out. Tip for anyone wanting to make these: measure by weight! The first time I made these, the dough was really sticky like others have mentioned in the comments because I measured in cups (how I didn’t realize the weight was right next to it is my own fault). I was still able to get delicious cinnamon rolls, but it was difficult. This time, I measured by weight and it was SO easy to roll out and cut. Seriously a dream. I’ve made these with dairy (my fav), and I’ve also made them dairy free for friends and family who have to be DF. They all had the same reaction and couldn’t believe it – even the non GF and DF people. They all said they’re like CinnaBon, and I agree!!
Also, I experimented with par-baking these. What I do is let them proof, bake them halfway through, take them out of the oven, let them come to room temperature, wrap them in aluminum foil, then bake the rest of the way when I need to. No issues at all! They come out perfect as if I made them the same day. Worth trying out, especially for holiday baking!
How about Schar gluten free flour Mix B (mix for bread), could that be a good supstitute or maybe Schar Universal flour? Which one should I use since I can´t get the recommended flour.
Hi Karla, we haven’t tried those options before. We’re not sure how they’d do in this recipe since it was designed with the King Arthur Bread Flour. If you decide to give either a try, we’d love to hear how it goes!
Can these be baked ahead and reheated til warm, then frosted?? Normally I’d follow your make-ahead instructions, but I won’t have quite enough time on Christmas morning. Reheating and frosting, however, I could do!
Hi Emily, yes that should work! We hope you enjoy the recipe!