Keto Cinnamon Swirls

Baking these keto cinnamon swirls is like creating love itself out of thin air. They will fill your entire home with the soft, warm, cozy scent of cinnamon rolls. Peeking inside your oven, you’ll find these have risen beautifully and you’ll anxiously await the moment you can take that first gooey, warm bite…All the while feeling a little naughty…because how could these possibly be keto friendly.

I find these are best enjoyed with a creamy cup of espresso. There's just something about a sweet treat paired with coffee that is soooo satisfying. Don't you think?

The name for these cinnamon swirls came from my husband. When he saw them he thought they looked a lot like those junk food one's you can buy at the store… you know the ones I speak of.

You'll notice I left the icing off a few for photos so you could see the beautiful swirl in the pictures.

What To Bake Them In

You can use a cupcake pan to bake these in or a custom pan. What does not work with this recipe is trying to place them side by side and baking them all in a bigger pan. And believe me… I tried this.

What happened was… they all kind of moved together and made a weird clumpy not good texture. So, I'm still at work on a keto cinnamon roll recipe that will work in a more traditional method. However, I think that baking these in a cupcake pan is a perfectly acceptable way of making them. Don't you think?

Ingredients for Keto Cinnamon Swirls

To bind the keto flours together, I have used xanthan gum and gelatin. Omitting these will give you unstable results and make the dough harder to work with. I'll talk about some tips for working with the dough in the next section.

For now, you'll need:

• Whole milk mozzarella
• Cream cheese
• Gelatin
• Xanthan gum
• Bocha Sweet or other granulated sugar substitute of your choice
• Almond flour
• Baking Powder
• Eggs
• Butter
• Cinnamon

I find a shredded whole milk mozzarella in our local Sam's club. It has a higher fat content than the skim milk mozzarella that you find everywhere. I haven't tried it with the fresh mozzarella but don't see why it wouldn't work with that as well. If you decide to try this, please do let me know if it works so I can tell everyone else 🙂

Why Bocha Sweet?

Our sugar substitute of choice is Bocha Sweet and there's good reason for this!

Bocha Sweet is extracted from the Kabocha pumpkin which has been a staple in the Japanese diet for centuries. Consuming Bocha Sweet on a daily basis helps to support longevity and supports healthy blood sugar levels.

Even better? It tastes almost exactly like real sugar. There's no thin flavor or metallic aftertaste. I think most of us are looking for something that tastes amazing because only a full, satisfying taste is going to work over the long-term.

So, if we are going to go to all the work to make these keto pumpkin spice donuts so we can please our tastebuds AND stick to our keto diet. Well, we want the result to taste GOOD not… just ‘meh' and unsatisfying. For this reason plus the health benefits, we reach for Bocha Sweet every time.

For this reason plus the health benefits, we reach for Bocha Sweet every time.

Working With The Dough

If you attempt to skip the refrigeration time before rolling the dough, you'll have a sticky mess. First off, don't over-heat your cheese… you'll notice in the video that the center of the cheese isn't quite melted. But, as I stir it together it all melts and combines.

Before rolling the dough, make sure it is cool to touch. I highly recommend placing the dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Wax paper or foil would work as well if you're in a bind.

As you roll the dough, you may need to pinch sections back together. If you're in a hot environment, the dough will warm quickly and you may need to pop it back in the fridge for ten minutes after rolling it out so it's easier to work with. To make this easier, place a cookie sheet underneath the parchment paper so you can move the dough from place to place easily.

Once you're ready to smear on the butter…note that softened (but not melted) butter spreads easiest. If you try to use cold butter it will tear up the dough. So, get it nice and soft to start.

Good luck cutting the rolls equally, you can see that I really struggle with that. I place the smallest rolls in the center of my pan and my largest in the corners so everything bakes more evenly.

Tutorial Video: Keto Cinnamon Swirls

Keto Cinnamon Swirls (2 Net Carbs)

Baking these is like creating love itself out of thin air. They will fill your entire home with the soft, warm, cozy scent of cinnamon rolls. Peeking inside your oven, you’ll find these have risen beautifully and you’ll anxiously await the moment you can take that first gooey, warm bite…All the while feeling a little naughty…because how could these possibly be keto friendly.

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Keto

Keyword: keto bread, keto breakfast, keto cinnamon

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Chilling Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings: 12 rolls

Author: Tara Wright

Ingredients

• 2 cup whole milk mozzarella
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 2 egg
• 1 tbsp gelatin
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup bocha sweet
• 140 g almond flour (1 1/2 C)
• 1 tsp baking powder

Filling:

• ¼ stick butter
• 1/4 cup bocha sweet
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:

• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup bocha sweet

Instructions

Making The Dough

• In a microwave safe bowl, microwave mozzarella and cream cheese for 2 ½ minutes on power level 5, or until gently melted. Stir together to melt everything without overheating the mixture.
• In a separate small mixing bowl blend together 2 eggs and gelatin until foamy and gelatin is blended in. Start on low speed and then increase blender speed to help combine the egg and gelatin. This will take about a minute and should result in a thick, eggy mixture.
• Add the egg-gelatin mixture into the cheese mixture and combine with your blender on low speed.

  Next add Bocha Sweet, almond flour, xanthan gum and baking powder and blend until completely combined.
• Place the mixture in the fridge for 15-30 minutes. This will make the dough easier to roll out.

Prepping For The Roll

• In the meantime, we have a few things to do to prepare for what comes next.

  First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees (300 convection)
• Now we will make the cinnamon-sugar mixture that will go in the center of the rolls. In a small bowl, combine the Bocha Sweet and Cinnamon and mix together.

  Soften your butter so it is easily spreadable and ready to use.

  Prepare your cupcake pan by greasing it or filling it with cupcake liners. I prefer parchment paper cupcake liners.
• Next, prepare a place to roll out the crust and gather your toppings.

  Gather together:

  Parchment Paper

  Rolling Pin

  Kitchen Towel

Rolling The Dough

• Place a kitchen towel on your counter and then place on a piece of parchment paper on top of the towel. The towel simply holds the parchment paper still so you can roll out your dough without the parchment paper sliding around.

  Take the cooled dough in your hands and shape it into a circle. Place it on top of the parchment paper. Clean your hands if necessary and then place the other sheet of parchment paper on top.

  Roll out the dough to to ⅛-¼ inch thick, shaping it into an oblong as best you can.

  Remove the top piece of parchment paper.

  Smear the softened butter across the dough and then sprinkle on your cinnamon sugar mixture.

Rolling Up The Dough

• Now it’s time to roll the dough up. This dough is a little delicate and requires some patience. If the dough is very squishy and still warm, pop it in the fridge for ten minutes so it’s easier to roll up. Roll carefully, squeezing the dough together if it breaks. You can oil your hands if the dough is sticking to your fingers.
• Next, decide how many rolls you want to have in total. These can be sliced as thin as 1 inch thick and give you a nice risen roll. This is where I’m always struggling to make even sizes no matter how I cut it. So, do the best you can!
• Cut and carefully transfer the dough to your cupcake tin. I like to place the smallest rolls in the center of the pan and the fattest rolls in the corners to help even up the baking.
• Bake at 325 degrees (300 convection) for 25-30 minutes. When done, the middles will look slightly undercooked. Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a cooling rack. The middles will continue baking slightly out of the oven.
• Wait ten minutes before icing or serving to allow them to cool a bit and the cheese to set-up. In the meantime you can mix together an easy keto glaze.

Easy Keto Glaze:

• Stir together heavy cream, melted butter and Bocha Sweet until the sugar is dissolved. Drizzle over the top of your cinnamon swirls as desired. For a thicker frosting, double the ingredients and whip with your blender, immersion blender or mixer into a thick whipped cream frosting.

Notes

Nutrition information does not include optional frosting/glaze and is provided as an estimate only.

Nutrition

Calories: 195kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 179mg | Potassium: 77mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 391IU | Calcium: 151mg | Iron: 1mg

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