These banana cinnamon rolls are for the lazy bakers! They are not your classic vegan cinnamon rolls. This is an easy cinnamon recipe, simplified, with no yeast, no proofing, and minimal kneading. Since I created my banana donut holes recipe, I wanted to use a similar process to create raised dough but with minimal effort. It’s amazing how you can make fluffy cinnamon rolls using just mashed banana, self-rising flour, and vegan butter. Let me explain more below.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
Dairy-free Egg-free Healthier – less sugar, less saturated fats Refined sugar-free option
Ingredients and Substitutions
Self-Rising Flour – If you have tried many of our recipes, you know I love this ingredient to avoid yeast. I like yeast but I don’t like waiting for hours for my dough to double in size. So self-rising flour is a key ingredient to rise dough in no time. You can make homemade self-rising flour by stirring one cup of all-purpose flour and two teaspoons of baking powder to create a cup of self-rising flour. Ripe Bananas – I am using dark bananas with dark spots on their skin. This saves me one ingredient in the dough: sugar. This means this recipe is lower in sugar than classic cinnamon rolls, which usually add up to 1/4 cup of sugar in the dough. The natural sweetness of the bananas sweetened the dough. But, feel free to add 1/4 cup sugar in the dough if your bananas are not very sweet. Melted Vegan Butter or melted margarine. Both options are great. I wouldn’t use oil as the dough wouldn’t be as fluffy.
For the cinnamon roll filling, you need the the three classic ingredients below.
Brown Sugar or coconut sugar for a refined sugar-free option. Cinnamon for the flavor of the cinnamon buns. Banana – I add more banana slices to the rolled dough. These banana pieces caramelize in the oven, creating soft, sweet banana pieces in the dough. Vegan Butter not melted to rub on the dough and make the cinnamon sugar stick onto it.
Now, if you feel like it, stir in some vanilla extract in the dough for flavor, a pinch of salt, or throw a few chopped nuts – pecans, walnuts – inside or on the cinnamon sugar filling for some crunch.
How To Make Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
Icing Cinnamon Rolls
In this cinnamon roll recipe, I am using an easy 2-ingredient icing instead of a classic cream cheese frosting. For that, you need:
Powdered Sugar – you can use sugar-free powdered sweeteners Almond Milk – Or any plant-based milk.
Stir the icing ingredients together until they form a thick paste and drizzle on top of the cooled banana bread cinnamon rolls.
Storage
This cinnamon roll dough is packed with bananas so it’s better to store it in the fridge. Wrap the serving dish where you placed the cinnamon rolls tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the rolls for up to 4 days. You can freeze leftovers in airtight containers and thaw them at room temperature the day before.
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