Monday, March 31, 2014

Quick Vegan Spelt Cinnamon Rolls With Icing


My grandmother made the best cinnamon rolls. And date squares...and tea biscuits...and pies. She could have had a kick-ass baking blog! We didn't get to see her that often when we were kids, but we made up for lost time when we visited her in Nova Scotia. I think we pretty much ate a steady diet of baked goods the entire visit!

Nana always let us sample the dough while she was baking. When I made these Quick Vegan Spelt Cinnamon Rolls recently, I made sure to put aside a couple balls of dough for my kids.



I couldn't hope to duplicate Nana's cinnamon rolls (especially without her recipe), but I enjoyed creating this easy vegan version, made with light spelt flour and vegan margarine.


And, of course, lots of yummy cinnamon and brown sugar. This easy version requires no yeast or rising time, so you can pretty much pop these together any time you have a craving for a warm baked good to go with your cup of tea.


This dough is easy to work with - it doesn't require much kneading and it slices easily. Trust me, I don't have a lot of patience, so I don't go for tricky recipes!




The icing is optional. I am totally fine eating these vegan cinnamon rolls without icing, but my family seems to really enjoy the added sweetness of the icing.


There were smiles all around when I greeted the kids with a batch of these cinnamon rolls after school one day. Give them a try and let me know what you think.


Quick Vegan Spelt Cinnamon Rolls



by Joann MacDonald
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Keywords: bake vegan nut-free

Ingredients (10 rolls)
  • 2 cups light spelt flour
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp vegetable shortening
  • 2/3 cup non-dairy milk
  • 3 Tbsp vegan margarine, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
For the icing
  • 1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
  • 1 Tbsp vegan margarine
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in shortening with your fingers until it's in small pebbles.

Stir in the milk until dough comes together. Place on a floured surface and knead a few times until the dough is easy to work with.

Roll to about 1/4-inch thick. The dough's surface should be about 10 inches high and 11 inches wide.
Spread the margarine across the dough. In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and brown sugar. Sprinkle evenly across the dough.

Roll like a jelly roll and cut into 2-inch slices. Place rolls in a greased and floured cake pan about 1 inch apart.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

For the icing



In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the icing sugar, margarine and vanilla for a minute.

Drizzle in the non-dairy milk and beat until the mixture is smooth.

When the rolls have cooled some, pour on the icing, serve and enjoy!

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21 comments:

  1. I've never tried spelt flour but I'm going to make this recipe for the kids - sounds yummy!

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    1. You could use white flour too. I just use spelt for the reduced gluten. Enjoy! My daughter keeps asking for more. ;)

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  2. oh yum, I have nice big collection of light spelt flour in the freezer and these look great! maybe tomorrow, our autumn weather yesterday and today has been horribly hot yesterday and today but tomorrow will be cooler :)

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    1. I hope you are getting your cooler autumn days now. :)

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  3. I can smell them cooking right now - cinnamon rolls have to be the one of the very best baking smells!!! Don't you agree?

    I see a Butterfly Gold peeking around the corner....

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    1. So true, what a smell! :)

      I was chatting with the cashier at the Salvation Army about Pyrex. She says it's hard to get there now. She wants it herself, which means it will never make it to the customers. ;)

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  4. They look great Jo, I caught a little bit choked up seeing your beautiful pictures they reminded me of Nana. She would be proud to see the pictures and of course the end results.
    I wondering is she would have tried the vegan version?

    XOXO

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    1. Definitely not! (to the vegan version!). :)

      Jo

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  5. Mom told me that she made the very best Strawberry Pie. (She wouldn't have the strawberries so she used Rhubarb) Mom still says it was the best "Strawberry Pie" ever! Also love the little rose plate, reminds me of Cape Breton!

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    1. I had strawberry pie at a restaurant the other day and now I really want to try making some (with strawberries - I have no idea how to prepare rhubarb!). I wish we had the old recipes! But then I doubt either of my grandmothers used recipes! Oh Cape Breton, how I long to go...

      Jo

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  6. I wonder if almond flour would work too? Do you know? I have almond and coconut flour on hand, but I know coconut is a little trickier to work with as a substitute because it absorbs so much of the liquid!

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    1. Hmm...not sure if almond flour would work. If I was going to go gluten-free with this, I would try an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix, like the one from Bob's Red Mill. :)

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  7. These look so amazing. Once question what is icing sugar? Never heard of it before.

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    1. So funny you should ask that today Jennifer. I was just looking in a cookbook that says powdered sugar and wondering why people use different terms. I have always said icing sugar, but they are the same thing. As is confectioners sugar. Differs by country I guess. :)

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    2. And thank you! I have added powdered sugar in brackets! :)

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  8. thanks for the recipe, i didn't have margarine though - i used some olive oil instead, and also i used full grain flour - delicious :)

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    1. Glad to know it worked out with the olive oil! I might try that myself. And I'm so happy the recipe worked well for you. :) Thanks for letting me know!

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  9. Can you tell me the amount of flour and baking powder in gram and the amount of milk in ml? I have cups in different sizes..

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    1. I did some research and the 2 cups of flour equals 256 grams. 2/3 cup of milk equals 160 ml. 1 Tbsp of baking powder equals about 15 grams. Good luck! :)

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