These vegan cinnamon rolls are hands down the best you’ll ever taste. Soft and puffy and packed with cinnamon sugar deliciousness. Simple recipe with spectacular results.
I made vegan cinnamon rolls!
And I have never been more proud.
Hahaha, seriously though, I thought it would be quite a big deal to make cinnamon rolls from scratch, but really it’s so easy.
But I have to warn you, it’s not quick. You have to wait for the dough to rise two separate times. So there is a full two hours of waiting around. It’s not a fast recipe.
Super easy, but not fast.
You won’t mind though, when you have one of these warm from the oven with icing drizzled all over it, you’ll be smiling all over your face.
Ingredients You’ll Need To Make Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredient Notes
- Vegan butter – can be salted or unsalted. The buttery flavor is really important to make the best cinnamon rolls. So coconut oil is not a good swap for the vegan butter. If you have an issue with getting vegan butter, then try our homemade vegan butter recipe. It is based on coconut oil but has all the buttery flavor.
- Light brown sugar – or dark brown sugar will both work great here.
- Soy milk – could be switched for almond milk.
How To Make Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
Prepare the dough:
- Add all purpose flour, yeast, sugar and salt to a mixing bowl and mix it together.
- Add vegan butter and soy milk to a microwave safe bowl and warm it in the microwave. You want it to be just warm to the touch but not hot. The vegan butter will be getting slightly melty but not all the way melted. If it’s hot to the touch then let it cool down a bit first, you want it warm not hot.
- Pour the vegan butter/soy milk mix into the mixing bowl and mix into a dough. Then flour your hands and add some more flour on top of the dough and then start kneading, adding more flour as needed.
- Knead the dough for around 3 minutes until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands, and is nice and pliable. The time it takes is not precise, it would depend on how strong your hands are and how fast you knead, so go more by feel than time.
- Then spray the mixing bowl with non-stick spray, you can use the same mixing bowl, just clean it first, and then place the dough back into the bowl, cover it with a tea towel, and leave it to rise. The purpose of the non-stick spray is so that your dough doesn’t stick to the bottom of the dish.
Top Tip: Ideally your dough should rise in a warm place. So if ‘room temperature’ is on the warm side you’re good. I had to move my bowl out of the way of the air conditioning! Just keep that in mind, if the room is very cold, ideally you want to put it somewhere warmer to rise.
Roll Out The Dough:
- When your dough has risen, now it’s time to roll it out.
- Flour a surface and roll the dough out into a big rectangle. Well, that’s what you’re aiming for. As you can see ours was more of a giant circle, but you know… close enough.
Brush on vegan butter, cinnamon and sugar:
- Brush on melted vegan butter. When you’ve brushed it on every corner, and there is melted butter left over, pour the rest out into the middle of the dough and spread it out with your brush. You want it on quite thick.
- Then comes a mix of brown sugar and cinnamon and you want to sprinkle that generously over the surface of the dough.
- And then you start rolling it into a tube shape. You want to roll it lengthways so it’s a long tube rather than a short fatter one.
Cut out the rolls:
- Once rolled, you can use dental floss to cut the tube into 12 cinnamon rolls. You can use either dental floss or a serrated knife but I was amazed at how well dental floss works.
Top Tip: It’s best to use a plain unwaxed unscented dental floss for this. And after making these cinnamon rolls this is now an essential item in my baking cupboard. You just slide the dental floss under the roll of dough, cross it over the top and then pull.
- Place your cinnamon rolls into a 9×13 baking dish greased with non-stick spray. Cover them and leave to rise for another hour. Space them out a bit as they will spread out more as they rise.
- When they have risen, brush the tops with melted vegan butter.
- Place into the oven and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes until the tops are golden. They rise more in the oven so they fill the space beautifully.
- Let them cool for a little bit and then drizzle with frosting. The frosting is a simple mix of powdered sugar and soy milk.
Recipe Tips
Measure your flour correctly. If you have a food scale then simply weigh out your flour for the most accurate results. If you don’t have a food scale then use the ‘spoon and level’ method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop the flour and don’t pack it into the cup.
The Frosting. We love the simple powdered sugar and soy milk combination for this icing sugar glaze. However, if you prefer a cream cheese frosting with your cinnamon rolls then try our vegan cream cheese frosting instead.
Vegan Cinnamon Buns Q&A
Hmmm, I have no idea. I haven’t tried these as gluten-free and gluten-free flours do behave quite differently when making a dough. You could try it with a gluten-free all purpose blend but I don’t know exactly what the results will be.
You can make the recipe up until the point that you cut them into rolls and place them into your baking dish. But then instead of letting them rise in the dish, cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The next day, bring them out and let them rise and come to room temperature (about 60 minutes) before baking.
Keep them covered at room temperature where they will keep perfectly for around 2-3 days, or you can keep them covered in the fridge where they will stay good for up to a week.
Yes you can. Freeze the baked rolls and then let them thaw in the fridge and then bring them to room temperature on the countertop or warm them up before enjoying.
More Vegan Desserts
If you love that cinnamon sugar combination thing – who doesn’t – then you’ll also love our vegan apple crisp, our vegan apple cake and our vegan pumpkin cake.
If it’s more dessert for breakfast that you’re after then our vegan apple muffins or vegan crepes will be happy to oblige.
Our vegan snickerdoodles are another recipe you won’t want to miss as is our vegan bread pudding.
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour (375g)
- 1 Tbsp Instant Yeast
- 2 Tbsp White Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 3 Tbsp Vegan Butter (45g)
- 1 cup Soy Milk (240ml)
For the Filling:
- ¼ cup Vegan Butter (56g) Melted
- ¾ cup Light Brown Sugar (150g)
- 1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
For Brushing:
- 2 Tbsp Vegan Butter (30g)
For the Frosting:
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (120g)
- 1 ½ Tbsp Soy Milk
Instructions
- Add the flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt to a mixing bowl and mix together.
- Add the vegan butter and soy milk to a microwave safe bowl and microwave until warm. It should be warm to the touch but not hot. I found 45 seconds to be enough for mine to come to the right temperature but they were straight from the fridge. The butter should have softened in the milk but not melted. If you feel the milk/butter mix and it’s hot, then let it cool down a little before you add it to the dry ingredients. It must be warm but not hot.
- Add it into the mixing bowl and stir it into a dough. Then flour your hands and get in there with your hands and form it into a big ball of dough and start kneading it. Add more flour as needed and keep kneading it until the dough is pliable and no longer sticking to your hands at all (about 3 minutes).
- Spray a bowl with non-stick spray and place the ball of dough into the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave it to rise for 60 minutes.
- After 60 minutes the dough should have risen quite a lot. Flour a surface and roll out the dough into a large rectangle.
- Brush on the melted vegan butter. When you’ve brushed the butter into all the corners and edges of the dough, pour out the remaining butter into the center of the dough and then spread it out with the brush.
- Mix the brown sugar and ground cinnamon together in a mixing bowl and then spoon this over the top of the melted vegan butter, sprinkling it evenly across the entire surface area of the dough.
- Roll the dough, lengthways, into a tube shape. Roll it as tightly as you can.
- Then use dental floss or a serrated knife to cut it into 12 cinnamon rolls. If the extreme edges of the roll are very uneven, you can just cut those off and then cut your 12 rolls.
- Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray and place the cinnamon rolls into the dish, spacing them out evenly. Then cover the dish and leave to rise for another 60 minutes.
- After 60 minutes you will see that the rolls have expanded.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Brush the tops and sides of the rolls with melted vegan butter.
- Place into the oven to bake (uncovered) for 25 minutes until lightly browned on top.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a bit before adding the frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar and soy milk to a bowl and mix in until smooth. I did this with a spoon and did not find it necessary to use a stand mixer.
- When the rolls are still warm to the touch (but not crazy hot) add the drizzle. Use a teaspoon to drizzle on the frosting.
- Serve the cinnamon rolls while still warm for the most delicious results.
Video
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly. Weigh the flour for the most accurate results or use the ‘spoon and level’ method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife.
- Soy milk. You can switch the soy milk for almond milk if you prefer.
- Make Ahead: You can make the recipe up until the point that you cut them into rolls and place them into your baking dish. But then instead of letting them rise in the dish, cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The next day, bring them out and let them rise and come to room temperature (about 60 minutes) before baking.
- Storing: Keep your cinnamon rolls covered at room temperature where they will keep perfectly for around 2-3 days, or you can keep them covered in the fridge where they will stay good for up to a week.
- Freezing: Freeze the baked rolls and then let them thaw in the fridge and bring them to room temperature on the countertop or warm them up before enjoying.
I love all your recipes! Was wondering if you have ever made these with GF Flour? Thank you!
Hi Brianna, I haven’t tried these with gluten free flour, but it’s definitely worth a try and if it’s a gluten free all purpose blend it should work. All the best!
Great recipe! I made these twice in 3 days. Once to take to church and once for home. We love them. Didn’t change a thing.
So happy to hear that! 🙂
Hi Alison
Can I also use oatmilk for this recipe ?
Yes I think that will be fine!
It took me three attempts to get right. No fault of the recipe though! The first time I accidentally added too much flour somehow and the filling melted out and became hard like candy. The second time I cut the rolls too thin and let them rise too far apart from each other so I ended up with cinnamon discs instead of rolls LOL. And finally, the third time around I got it right! Perfect cinnamon rolls 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing Emily! So glad it turned out great in the end, third time lucky! 🙂
Best cinnamon rolls ever! I have made these countless times and they are always delicious! I find it easier to cut strips and roll them up individually.
Thanks so much for sharing and the great review Lily!
Thank you so much for the recipe! They tasted scrumptious and lasted only three days because my entire family ate them – one said this was the best cinnamon swirl they had ever eaten! The cinnamon swirls came out slightly hard from the oven so I warmed them for 10 seconds in the microwave and they were soft! So cinnamony and tastes better than store bought!
Yay! So happy they were enjoyed Priyanka! Thanks so much for the wonderful comment and review!
Hello, do you use kosher salt? Thanks
Hi Charlie, no we usually use regular table salt or sea salt. But you can use kosher salt if you prefer.
I’ve made these several times and always turned out delicious. Love these
Thanks so much Patti!
I’ve had great success with this recipe. I also decided to use the dough to make pizza rolls today! Worked beautifully.
These are SO DELICIOUS! Although the rising periods take some time, the recipe is really easy to follow, and they came out perfect! I can’t wait to make them again! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much Chelsea!
Hi Alison, I hope your day is going well. I love this recipe! I’m going to prep some rolls and need to freeze them overnight. Would it be better to freeze them before or after the second rise?
Hi Finn, I haven’t tried freezing them before baking, if it’s just overnight, then you can make the recipe up until the point that you cut them into rolls and place them into your dish. But then instead of letting them rise in the dish, cover the dish with plastic wrap and then refrigerate. The next day, bring them out and let them rise and come to room temperature (about 60 minutes) before baking. You can freeze the baked rolls, and you can possibly freeze them instead of refrigerating them just as described above, but I’m not sure so it might be risky.
I made these for my friends and no one knew they were vegan!! I am so very happy and excited. I added toasted pecans to my filling and a cream cheese(vegan, for sure) icing. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!!
Awesome Jai! So happy to hear that. Thanks for sharing!
I just made these and they came out perfectly! Soft and super delicious 🙂 How long do they last? Should I keep them refrigerated?
Awesome! They keep at room temp (covered) for 2-3 days or in the fridge (also covered) for up to a week.
Hi Alison,
Thanks for this fantastic recipe! My mum made this yesterday and it came out yummy however although she followed the recipe it came out a bit hard and doughy. Please help any tips as she wants to make again and I’d love to eat more!
Hi Amanda, this can happen if a little too much flour is added during the kneading process. The dough should be pliable and not sticky but it shouldn’t be too dry either.