This is my first attempt at baking gluten-free without the help of a box! I love cinnamon rolls but I don't want to consume all-purpose flour, wheat gluten, sugar, gmo corn products, vegetable oils or artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. See, it's not that I can't eat cinnamon rolls, I just don't want to eat all of those things that are going to cause ill health effects, whether immediate or later in life. And feeding those things to my children is not something I want to do, either.
After pouring over recipes on line I was able to formulate my own recipe, a starting point for experimenting. Here it is:
The Roll
1/2 c Quinoa Flour
1/2 c Sorghum Flour
1/2 c Tapioca Starch
2/3 c Hemp Milk
1/4 c Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Ancient Sea Salt
2 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
2 tbsp Organic Real Butter
2 tsp Stevia Powder
1 tbsp Active Dry Yeast
1 Large Organic Egg
1 tsp Organic Vanilla Extract
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
First: Melt the butter over low heat in a small sauce pan. Add the room temperature hemp milk and remove from heat. Make sure the the butter/milk mixture is not too hot and then add the yeast, stevia and apple cider. Whisk together.
Right: You can see the melted butter and the milk, ready for the yeast, stevia and cider.
Left: You can see the yeast growing after several minutes in the mix. Yeast apparently love the vinegar. The green color you see is from the stevia powder. If you don't like the color green then you can purchase the white stevia powder.
Right: This is the stevia powder I am using. It is the purest, least processed form of the stevia leaf. Not only is it extremely powerful, only a little is needed, but the yeast likes it, too!
Next: Mix, in a large bowl, the tapioca starch, baking soda, xanthan gum, quinoa and sorghum flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix the room temperature, but melted, coconut oil, olive oil, egg and vanilla.
Left: You can see the dry mixture in a large bowl, our yeast that has bloomed and our egg that has yet to be mixed with the oils and vanilla.
Right: This is where I realized that I forgot to put the oil in. Even after I grabbed it and dumped it in the obvious fact that I did not have enough liquid set in. I went on to add about 20 tbsp of hemp milk, 2-3 tbsp at a time. I was left knowing that the dough was over worked and all hope of fluffiness flew out the window. :(
Left: This is the 'brain blob' I was left with. It was very wet and dense. I was not happy. The thought of throwing it away crossed my mind but I managed to find a ray of hope for this sad little thing. Note the parchment paper.
Right: Here's a major crop and zoom so you can really see how gooey this came out. EW!
Left: After rolling the dough out with a rolling pin and parchment paper I used little tool (in this photo) to trim the edges and move the pieces to areas that needed more dough. I also sprinkled a couple tbsp of sorghum flour over my nice rectangle and then used a cutting board and cookie sheet to flip it over.
Right: After I flipped the dough over I peeled back the parchment paper and now we're looking at what was the bottom of the dough. To this side I sprinkled a couple tbsp of flour and then added the filling.
The Filling
2-3 tbsp Organic Cinnamon
3-4 tbsp Organic Real Butter
1/4 tsp Fresh Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tbsp Stevia Powder
This is where I realized that I forgot the vanilla so I drizzled a cap and a half here.
Right: Here it is! My sad little roll! It was actually very easy to roll up with the parchment paper.
Left: I would never use a knife to cut a roll! Get a piece of string to cut your roll and you'll find it will be much easier and your rolls will stay round! (Thank you, Joe, for the demonstration!)
Right: Place the rolls in a buttered pan. Now is when I preheat the oven to 375. The rolls will rest while the oven preheats. Once preheated put the rolls in. I set a pan with water in the oven, too, because I was worried that the rolls would dry out. After about 30 minutes I took the water out and the rolls stayed in for about 20 more minutes.
The Topping
Hemp Milk
Organic Real Butter
EV Coconut Oil
Organic Cinnamon
Stevia Powder
Last: By the time I got to the topping I didn't want to wait for it to come back to room temperature. I didn't measure, either. :) The idea was that once the sauce came back to room temperature it would be thick. As you can see in the photo it was still very much in liquid form.
The end result: the kids LOVED them. They ate 'em up fast and asked for more! Joe said they reminded him of french toast and he was right. They were eggy and heavy and it is because of this that I did not like the texture. (I don't like eggs) Also, they were too sweet for me. To quote Joe, 'not bad for a first try'. I already have a new recipe in the works but I'm going to wait a while before I make more rolls.
