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Overhead view round cinnamon roll coffee cake with white glaze drizzled over top.
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Gluten-Free Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake

Here’s the perfect recipe for when you want cinnamon rolls, but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen making them. The delicious flavor of gooey cinnamon rolls gets baked into a tender gluten free coffee cake that looks like one big cinnamon roll in the pan and gets cut into wedges. 

Prep: 25 minsCook: 35 minsTotal: 1 hour
Servings: 8 servings 1x

Ingredients

For The Coffee Cake Batter

  • 1½ cups gluten-free flour blend or all-purpose flour (220–230 grams)*
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of fine salt
  • 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (see notes below for non-dairy options)
  • 2 large eggs (see notes below for egg-free option)
  • ½ cup granulated or cane sugar
  • ½ cup milk of choice
  • 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For The Cinnamon Roll Filling

  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • ⅓ cup chopped pecans 

For the Glaze

  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • 1–2 teaspoons milk of choice

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously mist a 9-inch round springform pan or 9-inch round or square cake pan with nonstick spray; set aside.**
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined into a thick batter.
    The batter for cinnamon roll coffee cake in a clear glass bowl with a whisk
  3. Pour half the batter into the prepared cake pan. Use a spatula to spread it evenly.
    Half the batter for cinnamon roll coffee cake in a round springform pan.
  4. To make the cinnamon roll filling, in a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter (but not the pecans – you’ll use those soon). 
  5. Next, spoon a little less than half of the cinnamon roll filling onto the coffee cake batter in the pan, and carefully spread it out evenly over the entire batter surface. Sprinkle the pecans over the filling. 
    Overhead view round springform pan with bottom layer cake batter and middle layer cinnamon swirl and pecans for cinnamon roll coffee cake.
  6. Pour the remaining coffee cake batter over the filling layer and pecans. Use a spatula to carefully smooth it out. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t perfectly cover the filling layer. 
  7. Finally, pour the remainder of the cinnamon roll filling in a circular swirl pattern over the batter, starting at the center and working outward. You may need to re-whisk it quickly first. Use a butter knife or spatula to help shape and spread the filling in a swirl pattern. This should make the unbaked coffee cake look like one large cinnamon roll. Again, it doesn’t need to be perfect as the batter will bake up around the filling swirl. 
    Overhead view round springform pan with cinnamon roll coffee cake batter with cinnamon swirl in circular patter on top.
  8. Place the baking pan in the middle rack in the oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Remove pan from the oven, let the cake cool slightly before removing from the pan and cutting into 8 slices.
    Overhead view round cinnamon roll coffee cake baked with sides of springform pan removed.
  9. To make the glaze, in a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle the glaze over the slightly or fully cooled cake or over individual slices just before serving.***
    White glaze being drizzled over top of cinnamon roll coffee cake.

Notes

* For gluten-free flours, we recommend Bob’s Red Mill One-to-One Gluten-Free Baking Flour or King Arthur Measure-for-Measure Gluten-Free Flour. If you don’t need gluten-free coffee cake, you can use the same amount of unbleached all-purpose flour. 

** If you have one, we recommend using a 9-inch springform pan, as it will be easiest to remove the coffee cake from the pan sides and then serve it right from the springform pan base. If you don’t have a springform pan, it will be helpful to line your cake pan with parchment paper. 

*** If you’re not serving the coffee cake right away, wait to drizzle the glaze over the coffee cake until just before serving. If you drizzle too early, the glaze will melt into the warm coffee cake. You’ll still taste it, but it won’t be as visible.

For dairy-free, in place of the Greek yogurt, we recommend you use a non-dairy yogurt and add 1-2 additional tablespoons of flour, if the yogurt is thinner than a Greek yogurt texture. Alternatively, you can use 1/2 cup of coconut yogurt and 1/4 cup of coconut cream (the thick cream from the top of a can of canned coconut milk) without adding any additional flour. 

For egg-free, replace the eggs with a flax egg mixture (4 tablespoons flax meal mixed with 8 tablespoons water); please note, the texture of the coffee cake will be a little gummy like most egg-free baked goods, but overall a success

Nutrition Information

  • Serving Size: 1/8 of coffee cake with glaze
  • Calories: 357
  • Fat: 11 g
  • (Sat Fat: 5 g)
  • Sodium: 349 mg
  • Carbohydrate: 55 g
  • (Fiber: 2 g
  • Sugar: 30 g)
  • Protein: 6 g
  • Cholesterol: 59 mg

Dietary

Gluten-freeVegetarian
© The Real Food Dietitians
Recipe By: Jessie Shafer

Find it online: https://therealfooddietitians.com/gluten-free-cinnamon-roll-coffee-cake/