Lovely Quick-Rise Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns

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Today the girls and I made some cinnamon buns. Not just any cinnamon buns. Quick-rise, whole wheat cinnamon buns!

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Not just quick-rise, whole wheat cinnamon buns. Quick-rise, whole wheat, heart-shaped cinnamon buns!

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I have been wanting to make some cinnamon buns for a while and today just seemed like a great day to spend some time together in the kitchen. Since it is also Valentine’s day today, at the last minute I thought why not make them into heart shapes?  I think the heart shape made them extra yummy and fun too! 🙂

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Lovely Quick-Rise Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns

Makes 12

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Bun Dough –

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons quick-rise yeast
  • 2 tablespoons organic brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or other non-dairy milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 4 cups whole wheat flour, divided
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Cinnamon/Sugar Filling –

  • 1/4 cup Earth Balance Margarine, softened or other non-dairy margarine
  • 2 cups organic brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, as much as you like

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (I was out of parchment paper, but it works way better to use some and makes clean up easier too).
  2. Place the yeast and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Melt the margarine in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in the milk and vanilla and continue to whisk until warm. Add the water to the saucepan as well and then pour over the yeast and sugar in the large mixing bowl.
  4. Whisk in two cups of the flour to the yeast/milk mixture, then add the baking powder, sea salt and remaining two cups of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon, until combined and a nice dough forms.
  5. Lightly knead the dough in the bowl a few times and then cover and let rise in a warm place for 10-20 minutes.
  6. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and place it onto a large surface that is lightly sprinkled with some whole wheat flour.

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7. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle (roughly 1 1/2 ft x 1 ft).

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8. Spread the margarine evenly onto the rolled out dough with a spatula.

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9. Sprinkle on the brown sugar and cinnamon.

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10. Use a pizza slicer to slice the dough width-wise into twelve equal strips.

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11. Roll each strip halfway on both side, meeting in the middle. (This is where the fun begins).

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12. Take the cinnamon roll in your hands and gently twist and pinch the middle of the dough to form the bottom of your heart.

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13. Place the finished heart-shaped bun onto the baking sheet and press down slightly. Make sure to leave a little space between each bun, as they will rise when baking. Repeat to make 12 cinnamon buns. (You can of course just make these into regular buns as well).

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14. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Enjoy warm from the oven with a nice cold glass of almond milk! 🙂

I hope that you guys enjoy this recipe! Cinnamon buns are something that we LOVE around here. I am glad that I now have this quick-rise recipe on hand for when I don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen.

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Enjoy!

tiffany6

20 thoughts on “Lovely Quick-Rise Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns”

  5. Oh my gosh I just saw heart shaped cinnamon buns just like this on Facebook yesterday too…I can’t remember which website they were from right now…but yes they are a cute idea!! Things are always more fun to eat when they are cute, haha! Looks yummy!

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  8. In the oven right now! Sorry bypassed the heart shape, but next time. Really just wanted a quick recipe. Made them for hubby while at hockey. Oops there goes the timer!! Get back to you…

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  9. OMG!I so forgot to get back to you! These were the best buns ever! I did tweak to the less healthy side and used regular ingredients of milk, real butter, and I even switched one cup of whole wheat for White flour, sorry for infringing on your recipe. But they were so good and my husband doesn’t care for whole wheat but was stunned how good they were! Thank You!! Now time to workout!!

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  10. I can’t wait to try these. I got a vegan cinnamon bun from Loving Hut the other day and it wasn’t that great (even though I love that restaurant!). These look amazing! I loved your vegan trail mix cookies too. I really want to find a quinoa pancake recipe like the one they have at True Foods Kitchen (don’t know if you have that restaurant near you?). Anyway…You are such an inspiration! Thanks for all the great recipes and great advice in your blog. Love it!

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  12. This recipe looked so fun and easy! I followed it exactly but had a couple of problems. Was just wondering if you could help me figure out where I went wrong. Everything was fine until I got to the last 2 cups of flour. The consistency of the dough was what you would expect – elastic and moist- until I added the 3rd and 4th cup of flour. Then it got dry and heavy. I let it rise for a good 20-30 min and it really didn’t rise much at all. I did have to use white sugar instead of brown (which of course really affected the filling measurements..haha). What is te consistency supposed to be of the dough once you add those last cups of flour?

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    • Hi! I made the cinnamon buns last weekend, following this recipe online exactly and they turned out perfectly. I had to test it out again to be sure that there was no mistake in it. It could possibly be your flour or maybe you didn’t melt the margarine before adding it to the recipe. Another thing could possibly be the temperature of the melted margarine/milk mixture. If it is too hot then it kills the yeast and may make the dough need even more flour (if too sticky). I can’t say for sure where you went wrong, but the recipe itself has no error in it. I am sorry that it didn’t turn out for you. The dough turned out to be nice and soft for me.

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