Soft & gooey pull-apart cinnamon buns with a hint of pumpkin… but make it grain-free & gut-healthy (of courseee).
Healthy Pull-Apart Cinnamon Buns!
Healthy, delicious, gooey, pumpkin-y cinnamon buns with pecans and a coconut butter glaze. Honestly, everything I could ever want for a Sunday morning breakfast in October.
Seriously. Imagine lighting all of the Fall candles you own, throwing these in the oven, and burying yourself under 12 blankets with a cup of coffee. Yup. Heaven.
The secret ingredient for these: Greek yogurt!
Plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt is absolutely packed with essential amino acids and probiotics: pretty much everything needed to support gut health. I always have it in my refrigerator for a healthy snack, and I’ve recently discovered how incredible it is to bake with too!
I also recently made healthy grain-free pumpkin spice donut holes with Greek yogurt, and they turned out just as fluffy as these cinnamon buns did!
A couple recipes I’ve seen on Pinterest recently inspired my baking spree with Greek yogurt. I’m seeing the “two-ingredient dough” recipes EVERYWHERE… however, it unfortunately requires traditional flour. And for a girl still rolling with a grain-free lifestyle to manage my ulcerative colitis symptoms, I couldn’t resist experimenting in the kitchen to create my own SCD-friendly version!
With that said, there’s a few ingredients in this recipe that aren’t totally SCD-friendly, but because they are minimally processed and don’t inherently have any inflammatory properties I’ve been able to add them back into my diet since my IBD symptoms have been in “remission”. A few of these include:
- tapioca flour
- arrowroot flour
- unsweetened cocoa & 100% dark chocolate
- tempeh
I wrote this post listing the foods I’ve been able to add back in since I’ve started following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet 7 months ago!
Nutrition: “Traditional” Cinnamon Buns vs. These:
Classic cinnamon rolls typically have about 57 grams of sugar, 127 grams of refined carbohydrates, and 880 calories.
These pumpkin pecan cinnamon buns: 7 grams of sugar, 0 grams of refined carbohydrates, and 260 calories…
I’m not saying that sugar or calories are inherently bad, BUT in excess they can be extremely detrimental to your overall health. Especially if you have a more sedentary job/lifestyle, the amount of sugar & refined carbohydrates in your diet can be very inflammatory. I’ve linked a few reference studies below that have linked sugar consumption to inflammation and food addiction:
- Food Addiction: From Evolution to Revolution
- Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake
- Dietary sugars, not lipids, drive hypothalamic inflammation
How to Make Grain-free Cinnamon Buns
Step 1: Grab a cast iron skillet & evenly spread coconut oil (or avocado oil) over the base and up the sides. Preheat the oven to 350F.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, arrowroot flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt. Stir well.
Step 3: Add in the pumpkin puree, melted coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and Greek yogurt. Mix well until a cohesive ball of dough forms. It will be thick and slightly sticky. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Line a baking tray with parchment paper lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. After the dough is chilled, place it in the center of the parchment paper and use either a rolling pin or your hands to roll out the dough into a rectangle (I used a mixture of both techniques)! It should be about a half inch thick.
If the dough is still sticky, sprinkle tapioca flour over the surface of the dough before rolling.
Step 5: Evenly spread melted coconut oil over the dough, leaving about an inch on each of the sides uncovered. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the areas with coconut oil, followed by the chopped pecans.
Step 6: Using the parchment paper as a guide roll the rectangle of dough, starting with one of the two long sides. Chill the roll of dough for another 15 minutes.
Once the cinnamon bun dough is chilled again, use a sharp knife to slice the roll into 10 “buns”. Place the buns middle-side-up onto the cast iron skillet.
Step 7: Bake, glaze, and enjoy warm!
Store leftover cinnamon buns in an airtight container in the refrigerator & warm up again before serving!
More Pumpkin Recipes:
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Grain-free Pumpkin Pecan Cinnamon Buns
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 10 cinnamon buns 1x
Description
Healthier soft & gooey cinnamon buns with a subtle pumpkin spice flavor and filled with crunchy pecans. Grain-free, refined-sugar-free, gluten-free, low-sugar.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot starch
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 2 tbsp. honey
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Filling:
- 2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans
Glaze:
- 1/4 cup coconut butter
- 1 tsp. coconut oil
- 1 tbsp. honey
Instructions
- Evenly coat a cast iron skillet with either coconut oil or avocado oil. Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt. Stir well.
- Add in the Greek yogurt, pumpkin puree, melted coconut oil, honey, and vanilla. Mix well until a thick, cohesive dough forms. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- As the dough is being chilled, line a 9×13″ baking tray with parchment paper. lightly spray the parchment paper with non-stick cooking spray.
- Once chilled, place the ball of dough in the center of the parchment paper. Roll out the dough using either a rolling pin or your hands (I used both techniques!) into a large rectangle. It should be about a half-inch thick & cover the area of most of the baking tray. Sprinkle tapioca flour over the surface of the dough or on your hands if it is still sticky.
- For the “filling”: spread the melted coconut oil evenly over the rectangle of dough, leaving about an inch uncovered on each of the sides. Sprinkle the cinnamon and chopped pecans over the area with the coconut oil.
- Starting with one of the longer sides of the rectangle of dough, use the parchment paper as a guide to begin rolling the dough into a long sphere. Chill the “log” of dough again for about 15 minutes.
- After the dough has been re-chilled, slice into 10 evenly sized sections.
- Arrange each one of the 10 buns middle-side-up on to the cast iron skillet, lightly touching adjacent buns.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- For the glaze: Slightly warm up the coconut butter with the coconut oil in a small stovetop pan until it has a thin, runny consistency. Turn off the heat and stir in the honey while it’s still warm.
- Evenly spread the glaze over the baked cinnamon buns and enjoy warm!
Notes
Leftovers can be stored refrigerated in an air-tight container for up to 5 days. Re-heat to serve.
The pumpkin pie spice blend can be substituted for cinnamon.
- Category: breakfast
- Method: bake
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cinnamon bun
- Calories: 260
- Sugar: 7
- Fat: 15
- Carbohydrates: 27
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 4
Keywords: healthy breakfast, grain-free, gluten-free, cinnamon buns, easy cinnamon rolls, healthy cinnamon rolls, low-sugar, Greek yogurt recipe, gut-health
