Vegan Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls

Meet the world’s best vegan cinnamon rolls: vegan banana bread cinnamon rolls! A cross between a cinnamon roll and banana bread, these fluffy, soft cinnamon rolls are homemade and make a delicious brunch or treat!

DIRECTIONS

INGREDIENTS

  • ¾ cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze almond milk warmed to 40 degrees C
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons active yeast
  • ¾ cup mashed ripe banana (from about 2 medium bananas but make sure you measure)
  • ¼ cup melted vegan butter
  • 4 cups flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup dark brown sugar or coconut sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • ¼ cup vegan butter softened
  • 1 medium banana thinly sliced
  • 60 g vegan cream cheese softened
  • 1 tablespoon vegan butter softened
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze almond milk to thin icing for drizzling

METHOD

  1. Add warm Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze almond milk and sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Stir in ¾ cup mashed banana (making sure you measured!) and melted vegan butter. Mix until just combined. Next stir in flour and salt with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.
  2. Place dough hook on mixer and knead dough on low speed for 8 minutes. Dough should form into a nice ball and be slightly sticky. (If you don’t want to use an electric mixer, you can use your hands to knead the dough for 8-10 minutes on a well-floured surface.)

  3. Transfer dough ball to a greased large bowl, then cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

  4. After dough has doubled in size, transfer dough to a well-floured surface and roll out into a 35 x  25 cm rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough, leaving a 6 mm margin at the far side of the dough.

  5. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Use your hands to sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough, then gently rub the sugar into the butter a little. Add banana slices on top.

  6. Tightly roll dough up the dough, starting from the 9-inch side and place seam side down making sure to seal the edges of the dough as best you can. You will probably need to cut off about 1.5 cm off the ends of the dough as it won’t be as full of cinnamon sugar as we’d want it to be. Then cut into 2.5 cm sections with a serrated knife. You should get 9 large pieces.

  7. Place cinnamon rolls in a greased 23 x 23 cm inch baking pan or round 23 cm cake pan. (Line the pan with parchment paper as well, in case any of the filling ends up leaking out.) Cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel and let rise again while you preheat your oven.

  8. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Remove plastic wrap and towel and bake the cinnamon rolls for 25-35 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges. You want to under bake them a little so they stay soft in the middle, that’s why we want them just slightly golden brown. Allow them to cool for a 5-10 minutes before icing.

To make the icing:

  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or in a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Add 1 teaspoon of almond milk if you’d like a thinner glaze. Spread or drizzle over cinnamon rolls and serve immediately.
Serves 9
Prep Time 115 minutes