Sourdough cinnamon rolls with maple vanilla glaze (vegan)

Buttery sourdough cinnamon rolls which are flaky and melt in your mouth. These vegan cinnamon rolls are made without yeast but an active sourdough starter. Easy, delicious and not too sweet!

These vegan sourdough cinnamon rolls have the same flakiness as your classic cinnamon rolls but are slightly less sweet. The fermented sourdough starter adds a subtle tang, which is addictive! 

You can make vegan cinnamon rolls with no yeast using an active sourdough starter!

The basics of a sourdough starter

Many sourdough guides are really complicated so here are my cherry-picked tips, without any compromise on the fermentation and taste.

To begin, you need your own sourdough starter, which is basically flour mixed with water and fermented over a few days. If you already have a sourdough starter, you're good to go!

Making sourdough starter from scratch

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Use this recipe from Bake with Jack. Due to accessibility, I use plain flour for my starter and it does the trick!
2. If you can take 20g of someone's sourdough starter, great! Add it to a jar with 50g plain flour and 50g lukewarm water and mix until combined. Loosely cover it with a lid and leave it at room temperature or a warm spot overnight. When the starter is bubbly and has doubled in size, you're good to go!

Feeding your sourdough starter

To keep your starter alive, you need to feed it (just like a baby or a plant)!

The Perfect Loaf explains how to feed your starter in some detail. Normally, you need to discard the majority of your bubbly starter every day or every few days, mix in some flour and water and repeat until you need to bake with it. When I first got my starter, I did this for about 1 week, got fed up with it then researched simplier and less time-consuming methods.

Instead, the 'scrapings method' is 100 times easier and you only need to feed your starter the day before you use it! Watch Bake with Jack's Scrapings Method video for a straight-forward explanation. 

Ingredients for these sourdough cinnamon scrolls

To make the dough for the rolls, you only need five ingredients including:

• Plain or all-purpose flour
• Cane sugar or coconut sugar
• Active and bubbly sourdough starter
• Melted vegan butter
• Plant-based milk, such as soy, coconut or almond.

For more 'wholesome' rolls, you can substitute the plain flour for spelt or wholemeal flour. The rolls won't be as fluffy but you'll get more fibre in your body!

Making the dough for the sourdough cinnamon rolls

Once you have all the ingredients, simply pop them into a stand mixer or large bowl then mix or knead it for a few minutes. This activates the gluten and allows it to be soft and stretchy. 

Initially, the dough will look shabby and have pockets of flour or milk. However, just keep kneading until it forms a smooth and cohesive dough! The dough should come away from the side of the bowl. If it doesn’t knead until it does!

There's no major difference between using a stand mixer or your hands. You'll just get a free arm workout if you do it by hand ;).

Resting the dough

Place the dough in a bowl, cover it with a tea towel and place it in a warm area. In an hour or so, the dough should increase in size.

From the angle of these pictures, you can't see the dough doubling in size, but I promise it did! It may not have 'doubled' in size because it's cold where I am right now but I know they'll increase in size later.

In this step, the sourdough starter in these cinnamon rolls are being fed with more flour which allows them to grow!

How to assemble the sourdough cinnamon rolls

If you’ve made cinnamon rolls before, these are a breeze to make. But if this is your first time, don’t fear!

On a floured surface, use a rolling pin (or jar) to flatten the dough into a rectanglar shape.

Brush the dough with your melted butter and liberally sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. This is the most delicious part! Rub in the sugar so it doesn't go everywhere when you roll up the dough.

To roll the dough for the sourdough cinnamon rolls, imagine it is like a jam roll but FIRMER. Try to make sure there are no gaps when you roll the dough. I like using both hands so both ends of the dough are rolled evenly.

I prefer cutting the dough with a very sharp knife or unflavoured dental floss. Some people use a serrated knife, though this doesn't work for me.

If your cinnamon rolls are squished when you cut them, simply reshape them with your hands…. or don’t, it won’t hurt either way!

Resting the rolls

Arrange your sourdough cinnamon rolls in a baking dish and let it rest for the second time. Even though these vegan cinnamon rolls are without yeast, they will still rise! You can rest them for 1 hour or overnight in the fridge.

Just make sure you bring them back to room temperature before you bake them :).

Frosting the sourdough cinnamon rolls

The recipe includes a basic vanilla frosting flavoured with MAPLE syrup because it's delicious!

However, If you prefer refined sugar-free cinnamon rolls, eat them without frosting or drizzle them with only maple syrup.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Other recipes for vegan cinnamon rolls, scrolls and buns:

• Jam donut cinnamon rolls
• Ultimate blueberry scrolls
• Vegan Sticky Cinnamon Buns
• Vegan Pumpkin Crnnamon Rolls

Or check out these 10 vegan sourdough recipes using leftover sourdough starter or sourdough discard!

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This recipe and post was originally published in March 2019 and updated in May 2020.

Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help other readers and Rainbow Nourishments.