title="croll7 by Sassy Kitchen, on Flickr"> croll7

Much to my surprise, some of my family members have recently become vegan. This holiday season, lots of traditions had to be adapted for the new dietary habits that aren't just mine anymore. I took on the challenge of re-creating our Christmas morning treat of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. I always figure, If I'm going to adapt a recipe for whatever reason, I might as well make it gluten-free, too. In fact, I can't remember the last time I baked something with normal flour--it has been years.

I did a little research to see what recipes already existed for such a thing like vegan and gluten-free cinnamon rolls, when I found a blog called Cooking with Dia. She makes amazing comfort food, and cooks mostly (if not all) gluten-free and vegan. I took a look at her recipe, and the wonderful photos, and I barely adapted a thing. The recipe was amazing as is, and my family loved it, too.

GLUTEN-FREE CLASSIC CINNAMON ROLLS (Vegan opt.)

DOUGH:

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon unrefined sugar

1 cup warm water

1 cup non-dairy milk

2/3 cup raw cane sugar

2/3 cup butter (or Earth Balance)

2 teaspoons sea salt

3 cups oat flour

1 cup corn flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons xanthum gum

1. Mix together yeast with 1 cup of warm water and 1 teaspoon of unrefined sugar. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together oat flour, corn flour, salt, baking soda, powder and xanthum gum. By then, the yeast should be foaming. Tip the yeast mixture into the flour and combine.

2. Add in 1 cup of non-dairy milk and mix thoroughly until dough forms. Knead the dough for 20 minutes, or use a stand mixer with dough hook for 8-10 minutes.

3. Once dough is done, place on a floured surgace and cover with a warm towel for 1 hour. Once dough has risen, roll out to approximately a 16x20 rectangle.

FILLING:

1/2 cup butter (or Earth Balance), melted

1/3 granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons cinnamon

Mix both sugars with cinnamon and combine with melted butter. Drizzle mixture evenly over the rectangle of dough. Begin rolling up dough from the longest side, being careful to keep the filling in tact. Once you have a long, rolled dough, use a serated knife to slice into 12 even pieces.

PAN SAUCE:

1/2 cup butter (or Earth Balance), melted

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl, mix melted butter with sugar and maple syrup until well combined. Pour mixture into 15" rectangular pyrex pan. Place each 12 cinnamon rolls into the pan and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

FROSTING:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup non-dairy milk

Place the powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in milk until thick icing begins to form. If too dry, add more milk (or if too wet, add more sugar) until you arrive at the desired consistency. Once icing is formed, drizzle over cooled cinnamon buns and serve!