Liz Bakes for You: Goldenrod Pastries Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls

I have long been obsessed with the world of alternative baking—

Ever since my high school working days at the Barnes and Noble Cafe serving Starbucks coffee when I stumbled upon Erin McKenna’s BabyCakes cookbook on my 15. Soon after, you could find me packing double chocolate vegan gluten free scones as my snacks for those breaks.

When it came to Orlandough, I went with the flow when it came to vegan and gluten free food preferences of allergies. If people requested it, I’d try it. So when one of the host’s of my early pop ups was gluten free, I knew it was a great shmoozing opportunity to whip out the old GF skills from high school. Hello, Elizabeth Doerr, nice to meet you, professional business person, doing business, can I offer you a donut that works with your food allergies?

Eventually, making gluten free donuts led me to becoming friends with some customers, one of which was from Nebraska and whose wife was GF. The first time we had dinner at their house, she asked me if I had heard of Goldenrod Pastries? I hadn’t but the name stuck in my head. Had I had plans to ever travel to Nebraska, the land of my father’s childhood? Not really. TBH I don’t know that I could point it out on a map…in fact I know I can’t point out Iowa on a map so chances of me knowing Nebraska would be slim. But I could be convinced to go anywhere for a good bakery.

Come 2020, I was casually disassociating on instagram when a cake maker I follow posted about an upcoming cookbook she was dying to get; Angela Garbacz of Goldenrod Pastries (ever heard of it?) was releasing a cookbook full of gluten free and vegan friendly recipes. Take. My. Money.

The book came in. I read through all the recipes. Immediately decided I wanted to make the GF cinnamon rolls. But found myself in the middle of running a business at the beginning of a pandemic with a very sincere but undiagnosed amount of anxiety—it costs money to be officially diagnosed anxious so you’ll have to just take my word for it, I was anxious as hell.

Add to that the impossibility of finding the “recommended” GF flour mix at the time. I knew that the King Arthur was flying off the shelves *shakes fist at weird uptick in desires to make, OF ALL THINGS, sourdough bread* but Pamela’s 1:1 All Purpose Gluten Free Flour? Oh cruel world, WHY?

However, this is the 21st century. Before you even wonder “did you google it? Check amazon"?” Please know that of course I did. I’m anxious, not crazy. And someone did have the flour, technically. For the low low price of $37.89 plus $14.55 shipping I could have myself on 14 oz bag of the stuff. On the sheer principle of paying for shipping alone I refused. As Alexander Hamilton is quoted as saying “if we stand for nothing we fall for everything.”

Fast forward many months, lacking any GF cinnamon rolls, and I found myself in a Portland, OR grocery store in search of nothing in particular besides a look around (my kink is going to new grocery stores I’ve never heard of and walking all the aisles to see what they have). So as I made my usual wander down the baking aisle I stumbled upon the largest bag of Pamela’s 1:1 All Purpose Gluten Free Flour. On sale. I looked around. I texted my boyfriend a photo. Was this real? Should I….buy it? After all this time, did I still want it?

$13.78 later and I was the proud owner of a bag of GF flour that I was eventually drive all the way back across the country to Florida. But before that, it was FINALLY time to make some GF Cinnamon Rolls. Thus, the first episode of Liz Bakes for You became a reality—with all of that leading up to making this recipe it only made sense to begin the YouTube series with it.

So here it is, Perfectly Golden Rich Bun Dough and Cinnamon Roll Recipes—be sure to watch me make them on Liz Bakes for You, Episode 1, Season 1, airing June 12th on Liz Bakes for You on Youtube!

Goldenrod’s Favorite Rich Bun Dough GF — adapted from Perfectly Golden by Angela Garbacz with my notes

Yield: 12 Buns

You’ll need:

• thermometer

• stand mixer (easiest)

• paddle attachment

• parchment paper

• knife or floss

• spatulas

• clean towel or plastic wrap

• pastry brush

Ingredients:

• 360 mL milk (dairy or non)

• 150 g granulated sugar

• 19 g (or 2 tbls) active dry yeast

• 80 mL vegetable oil

• 2 large eggs

• 6 g (or 1 tsp) sea salt

• 510 g GF recommended Pamela’s GF All Purpose Flour

Method:

1. Bloom the yeast: heat your milk to 110 degrees to speed up the blooming process (not any hotter though or you’ll kill the yeast). Pour the milk in the bowl of the stand mixer and add your sugar and yeast. Whisk to combine then allow to rest for 10 minutes. You should have a foamy mixer by the end of 10 minutes. If nothing happened, your yeast isn’t alive. Start over with new yeast.

2. Once the yeast has bloomed, add the oil, eggs, and salt. Using the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix on low speed to break up the eggs and to combine all the ingredients. Add the flour and mix on low speed until all the ingredients are combined and the dough has come together into a cohesive ball, 1 to 2 minutes. The dough will thicken a bit as it sits. It may look a bit batter-like add the end of this mix but don’t worry.

3. You can immediately roll out the dough to shape into the final product—see the next recipe

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls — adapted from Perfectly Golden by Angela Garbacz with my notes

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe Goldenrod’s Favorite Bun Dough

• 75 g melted butter or vegetable shortening (I recommend Nutiva)

• 179 g light brown sugar

• 80 mL vegetable oil

• 12 g ground cinnamon

• 1 recipe classic vanilla glaze

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. On a piece of liberally floured parchment paper: Roll out your dough to a 10-by-20-inch rectangle, moving the dough after each roll to make sure it’s not sticking.

3. Melt your butter or shortening and brush it over the surface of the dough with a pastry brush. Evenly spread the brown sugar across the surface of the dough, making sure to get to every corner. Then, sprinkle with cinnamon, again making sure it reaches every corner.

4. Roll up the dough: starting from a long end and moving up—lift the parchment to help you roll. Make sure it’s a tight swirl. Using a knife or some floss working your way down the log and cut it into 12 1.5 inch rolls.

5. Arrange the buns in the prepared pans, about 2 inches apart. We always tuck the tails at Goldenrod. The “tail” is the end of each bun—grab it and fold it under the roll.

6. Let the buns rise in a warm place (like on top of the preheating oven) until the dough is very fluffy to the touch and your finger leaves a slight indentation when you gently poke the edge, about 25 minutes. I like to cover the buns with plastic wrap if I’m using a pan that allows me to do this without the wrap touching the rolls (higher sided pan).

7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the buns are perfectly golden brown all over and the centers of each roll do not give back at all when you press them lightly.

8. Remove from the oven and glaze immediately with Classic Vanilla Glaze, which we dollop on using a #20 scoop, about 3.25 tbls.

9. Enjoy warm or within the next 12-24 hours.

Classic Thin Vanilla Glaze — adapted from Perfectly Golden by Angela Garbacz with my notes

Ingredients:

• 300 g powdered sugar

• 60 mL milk (regular or non)

• 1/2 tsp pur vanilla extract

Method:

1. Whisk together the ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth, adding additional liquid as needed. Use this glaze on hot items for a glossy, translucent finish.

Resources:

My GF bakery recs:

Erin Mckenna Bakery (location at Disney Springs, NYC and LA)

Goldenrod Pastries (Lincoln, Nebraska)

Hell Yeah Gluten Free (ATL)

Make the buns vegan idea:

Swap out the milk for nondairy and try out Just Egg instead of the regular eggs. I’m not sure it’ll turn out well but it’s worth a try. Consider that the Just Egg product is a bit more liquid than traditional eggs so you may need a bit more flour.

In the oven rising method:

I like to use my oven as a proving drawer when I’m being impatient (read: all the time). Yes, even in the FL heat, I find myself using the proofing setting on my oven. If you don’t have a proving setting the hack is to (1) have an oven thermometer (great to make sure your oven is the temp it says it is because are lying to you) and (2) pop the oven on for about a minute to preheat, double check that it’s not too hot (90-110 range) and pop your covered buns in there. Keep an eye on them because they’ll rise fast. This is great for enriched dough like a brioche as those tend to rise slower.

Cathy trick:

My mom introduced me to baking—and specifically to cinnamon rolls. Her trick is derived from my elementary school lunch ladies who knew what was up when it came to cinnamon rolls. Literally, they were a dream and can never be truly replicated (trust me I have TRIED). But the trick? Right when you pull the buns from the oven, take a bit of butter and rub the tops of the buns with it. Is it overkill? Sure. But so are cinnamon rolls in general and we like it like that.

Once and for all, the definitive but still not really difference between Frosting, Icing, and Glaze:

Frosting is a thick and opaque mixture used for topping and covering the outside (and sometimes filling the inside) of cakes. All frostings may be used to cover a cake, but there are specific types that are best for decorating.

Icing is defined as a mixture of confectioners powdered sugar and liquid, thin enough to be brushed on with a pastry brush or spread. It is usually used on pastries, rolls, and coffee cakes. It may be used on simple cakes.

Glaze is a mixture of sugar and liquid thin enough to be poured - about the consistency of thin corn syrup. Glazes are used to coat fruit cakes, cupcakes and pieces of cake which are to be used for tea cakes or petits fours.