This keto cinnamon rolls recipe isn’t your average pastry!
It’s a healthified, souped-up version of a traditionally carb-loaded recipe, and it’s one of MY FAVORITE recipes on this site!
This almond flour recipes ooey gooey, ultra soft, and actually FLUFFY, cream cheese frosted cinnamon rolls are a FANTASTIC low carb breakfast, snack or low carb desserts.
I mean, the smell of this low carb bread baking in the oven, the sight of that cinnamon swirled bun and that first sweet, soft bite! This is one of those low carb recipes you’ll want to keep in heavy rotation…
Treat yourself!
Looking for more keto desserts? Check out my keto banana bread, keto zucchini bread, or my keto hot chocolate.
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What I Love About This Low Carb Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Why you should make this keto cinnamon rolls recipe today:
- These are DECADENT! In each bite you’ll enjoy a jolt of cinnamon, the gooey sweetness of the cream cheese frosting and the buttery goodness of the roll! Mmmmm!
- Begin your morning treating yourself to a healthier cinnamon roll with a hot cup of coffee! Is there a more magical way to start the day?!
- This recipe is keto-friendly, low carb, sugar-free and guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
- There’s no cure like a cinnamon roll recipe cure. You can eat these for breakfast, as a snack or as dessert!
Keto Cinnamon Rolls Recipe Notes
For all you Keto followers, this is your new go-to keto cinnamon bread! You won’t believe how close it resembles the high carb stuff! Let’s roll!
Ingredient Notes
A little background on this recipe before we dive in: My ultimate goal is to always share healthy recipes that you can enjoy, that taste JUST LIKE the traditional version, and are EASY to make!
So, as you can imagine, this recipe went through a lot of testing.
My first tests were with yeast, which can be a total $%*&! (you know what I mean…) especially when working with low carb ingredients. Although I was able to get it to work, it was with a LOT of care and way more time than most of us have or want to spend.
After much further testing, I landed on these ingredients. Which yield cinnamon rolls that are equally fluffy and are WAY LESS temperamental. I’m serious, these are crazy easy to throw together!
Here’s what you’ll need for the Cinnamon Rolls:
Almond Flour – It’s pertinent that you use a fine grain almond flour option to achieve a biscuit-like texture! My favorite brands are Bob’s Red Mill, Costco or Trader Joe’s brand.
Psyllium Husk – This adds the “fluff” to our cinnamon rolls, while binding the ingredients together!.
NOW Psyllium Husk is my go-to brand, other’s have a tendency to make baked goods blue-ish purple, they also absorb different amounts of liquid and may yield different results!
Whey Protein Isolate (unflavored): This adds a bit more fluff to the rolls and adds to their bread-like texture. I usually use ISO Pure Unflavored, although any keto protein powder brand will do.
Erythritol (granular + powdered): A diabetes + keto friendly refined sugar swap out! I switch between Swerve and Lakanto, both are great!
We’ll use powdered erythritol in the frosting (granular will add a “crunchy” texture to the frosting, so this is important!). If you don’t want to buy 2 types of erythritol, simply toss you granular erythritol in a food processor until it’s powdered. Be sure to let the dust settle before removing the lid.
Heavy Cream – If you want to, you can skip on the heavy cream and use full-fat coconut milk instead.
Tools To Make
Here’s what you need to make this keto cinnamon rolls recipe:
- Large bowl: for whisking ingredients together
- Medium bowl: for combining dry ingredients together
- Rubber spatula: for transporting the dough (you can also use a large spoon here too)
- Bowl of water: the dough is sticky! So you’ll want to dip your hands in the water as we form our rolls.
- Parchment paper with cooking spray or a silicone baking mat: to avoid the dough from sticking to the baking pan
- A knife: for slicing the dough into roll pieces (you can also use unflavored floss too!)
- 8×8 baking pan: the vehicle for baking up your rolls in!
- Oven: for baking them in! You’re going to drool over the smell in your house when baking these!
- Another medium bowl: for preparing the frosting in
- Electric mixer: for whipping the frosting in (and licking the frosting straight off the paddles!)
Storing Tips
If you actually have leftovers (and I doubt it), store them in an airtight Tupperware or Ziploc bag in the fridge.
Only frost what you plan to eat in one sitting! That way you can reheat the rolls and frost them after (frosting gets a little funky in the microwave). When you are ready to eat them again, they’re best served re-heated.
Can You Freeze Them?
Yes, you can freeze this keto cinnamon rolls recipe.
Simply freeze the already baked rolls by freezing each roll individually, not touching on a baking sheet. After about an hour or two, they should be frozen enough that you can pop them into a Ziploc freezer bag all together without them sticking together later when you want to grab one!
*Just be sure you freeze the frosting separately and not already on top of the cinnamon roll.
When you’re ready to eat them, defrost and re-heat. Tadaaa, home-baked goods in no time!
Recipe Variations
Looking for some ways to switch up thisketo cinnamon rolls recipe? See below for additional ideas and inspiration:
- Add Chocolate. Chocolate lovers unite! Are pastries really complete without it?? Drizzle your baked cinnamon rolls with keto chocolate, or sprinkle them in sugar free chocolate chips?!
- Add Fruit. I’m all about this idea. There are few ways to add fruit into this keto cinnamon rolls recipe like adding a small amount of fresh keto fruits into the filling — think raspberries or blueberries (like keto blueberry muffins!).
- Add some nuts. Crushed keto nuts add a delicious crunch to these cinnamon rolls — pecans will give you instant keto pecan pie vibes.
- Switch up the frosting. Keto cream cheese frosting is classic for cinnamon rolls, but you can get as creative as you’d like here! Try drizzling them in low carb caramel, or mix in your favorite spices to the existing frosting recipe.
More Keto Bread Recipes
Look to these bread recipes to fill the void in your low carb eating plan!
Keto Cinnamon Rolls
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Cinnamon Rolls:
- 2 1/2 Cups Almond Flour fine grain
- 5 Tablespoons NOW Powdered Psyllium Husk
- 5 Tablespoons Whey Protein Isolate unflavored
- 1/2 Cup Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below) granular
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream warm
- 3 Eggs
Filling:
- 1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter almost melted
- 1/2 Cup Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below)
- 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
Frosting:
- 1/2 Cup Cream Cheese softened
- 1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter softened
- 1/2 Cup Powdered Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Pinch Kosher Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F and spray an 8x8 casserole dish generously with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: fine grain almond flour (2 1/2 cups), psyllium husk (5 tablespoons), unflavored whey protein (5 tablespoons), erythritol (1/2 cup), baking powder (1 tablespoon), and salt (1 teaspoon).
- Warm heavy cream (1/4 cup) in the microwave for 30 seconds.
- Pour heavy cream over the top of your dry ingredients and add the 3 eggs.
- Stir until everything is thoroughly combined.
- Combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl.
- Prep before rolling: Place a piece of parchment on your counter, and spray the top with cooking spray. Get a bowl of water ready (we will use this to dip our hands in, as the dough is sticky and is easiest to work with wet hand). And grab a sharp knife and large flat bottomed cup.
- Using damp hands, (dip them in the bowl of water) and place half the dough on the prepared sheet of parchment paper.
- Press the dough into a 10-11" square.
- Brush the top of your dough with half the filling.
- Grab the edge of the dough closest to you, and roll it up as tightly as possible. Again, damp hands will help here!
- Dip the knife into your bowl of water, and slice 4 cinnamon rolls.
- Roll them between your hand and the counter to reform them into a circular shape.
- Dip your large cup in the water bowl, and press the top of each cinnamon roll (swirl side up!) into a 1 1/2" circle.
- Place cinnamon rolls into prepared baking dish.
- Repeat steps 8-15 with the other half of the dough.
- Bake cinnamon rolls in preheated oven for 35 minutes. You'll know they're done once the tops are golden.
- Allow cinnamon rolls to cool in the pan completely.
- While the rolls are cooling, prepare the frosting by combining softened cream cheese (1/2 cup) and softened unsalted butter (1/4 cup) in a medium bowl with an electric mixer.
- Add vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon) and powdered erythritol (1/2 cup), and continue to mix until well combined.
- Once the cinnamon rolls have cooled, spread frosting over the top. (Only put frosting on the cinnamon rolls you plan to eat immediately, as this will get messy when you reheat!) Enjoy!
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Lindsey's Tips
- Almond Flour. Using fine-grained almond flour will yield the most "flour-like" results. My favorite brands are Bob's Red Mill, Trader Joe's, or Costco brands.
- Lakanto, Swerve, or Erythritol. I stick to Lakanto and Swerve which are a 1:1 swap with traditional sugar. If using a different brand of Erythritol, keep in mind it's 70% as sweet as sugar, so you may need to add more to taste.
- Psyllium Husk. This recipe has ONLY been tested with NOW Psyllium Husk Powder. Some psyllium husk powders can turn baked goods into a blue-ish purple color, and they absorb liquids in varying amounts.
Mary
Wondering if skipping the whey protein will make a big difference.
Lindsey
Hi Mary! The whey protein helps give this recipe its fluff and aids in its bread like texture. You can try substituting it from more almond flour? If you give it a try, come back and let us know what you think!
Mary
I made them and they taste really good for low carb and i did not use the whey protein although the dough was way too sticky to roll with bare hands. I think maybe i should have used only 2 eggs since i left out the whey. Also they took less time to bake maybe 20 mins- nonetheless they are very good!
Lindsey
Thanks so much for sharing Mary! Yes, that makes a ton of sense that using 1 less egg would be necessary as whey protein is very absorbent. So happy you enjoyed ?
Roxana Lopez
Hi, Lindsey. Quick question: you mention in the recipe notes below the recipe card that cream temp is important for activating the yeast. But I do not see yeast in the ingredient list. And no indication that that these cinnamon rolls need a rising period. Could you clarify? Thanks.
Lindsey
Hi Roxana! So sorry, I must have left the notes in there from my previous recipe tests — I just deleted them 🙂 There is no yeast in this recipe — it is a total pain to work with using low carb ingredients and the results are iffy. These ingredients produce far better results! Hope you enjoy!
Roxana Lopez
Thanks, Lindsey. I agree about the yeast recipes. I’ve tried them, but they are just a lot of trouble. haha
Lindsey
YES! So frustrating. I’ve seen a lot of recipes call for yeast with an equal amount of sugar, and as someone who bakes almost every day, I couldn’t for the life of me produce the results people had in their photographs! Anyway, these are epic and I can’t wait to hear what you think!! Happy baking 🙂 🙂
wendy Turnbull
Okay, I was tough on this recipe because I wanted to make it, and then was confused about the yeast and sugar mentioned in the notes. I decided to gamble and just ignore the notes, just assumed you had left them in by mistake. I made the recipe with a few changes – used whole milk instead of cream, used Truvia, and I added raisins and pecans because I felt I had missed out on hot cross buns at Easter. Well, they were delicious. What a fantastic way to get almonds and psyllium husk into a healthy diet. And now I see you have taken out the “Oops notes.” All is now well with this recipe and now I am game to try them with choc chips and orange zest. So, I apologize for giving this recipe only 1 star before even trying it. It is a keeper.
Lindsey
YAY! Wendy I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. I’m very proud of this one, and after trying this recipe a billion times with yeast and sugar, I was so much happier with this variation. Thanks for reporting back 🙂 🙂
Leesa
Made these this weekend . . . INCREDIBLY AWESOME ! ! ! I will say . . . in the called for 8″ (mine was metal) pan, convection bake oven (breads setting if you have it), the recommended 35 minutes was perfect. I wasn’t certain and allowed them to bake 4 more minutes. Bake and learn . . . DO NOT overbake ~ although they were fab anyway! The other very important thing if you love frosting (and this was soooooo good), do yourself a favor and only make frosting once. Double it up! Pay attention to your macros if you are watching them, but enjoy to the fullest! Best low carb cinnamon rolls EVER! Thank you Lindsay ! ! ! And yes, the yeast info threw me for a loop too, and so did what Wendy did and ignored the notes! Whew!
Lindsey
YES! Yay! SO happy to hear that Leesa! This is truly one of my fave recipes. Nothing makes for a cozier weekend than freshly baked cinnamon rolls ? Thanks for the kind words!
suresh
Thanks for this useful informative blog to sharing step by step.
Lindsey
You’re welcome! hope you enjoy!???
Yazmin Avinante
Can i use a good vegan protei. powder?
Lindsey Hyland
Hi Yazmin! No, sorry. Only whey will give these cinnamon rolls their fluff (pea and other types of protein don’t have the same effect on baked goods).
Myrjorie
Can you substitute whey protein with coconut flour?
Lindsey Hyland
Hi Myrjorie, no you can’t. Whey protein adds fluff to these cinnamon rolls. Enjoy!