Gluten Free Cinnamon Buns with Ricotta and Almonds

I already have the recipe for cinnamon buns in my blog, using gluten free rich yeast dough from my own dry ingredients mix. The recipe below is a little different in two features. Yeast dough has a different wet to dry ingredients ratio and the filling is enriched with ricotta cheese, cream and roasted almonds to provide better taste and more interesting texture. The icing itself is very simple to prepare and use, it needs just icing sugar and whipping cream. Different wet to dry ingredients ratio was caused mainly by altering starch component in dry ingredients mix. Instead of only tapioca flour/starch, I used 1:1 mixture of tapioca and potato starch. The increased quantity of added water is deliberate, it allowed to make the dough softer with a possibility not to worry about addition of extra flour mix for rolling the dough. This softer type of yeast dough would be probably tricky to bake fully as a larger item, such as bread loaf. But thin layers of rolled dough, separated by rich filling, are perfectly baked at low temperatures and in short period of time. Baking cinnamon buns as a tray bake eliminated possible separation of dough layers, as buns touch one another and stay together.

I usually prepare the dough and divide it in two parts, one to use for pizza bases, and another one to bake sweet buns or scrolls. That is why the ingredients for a filling and icing are given to bake one batch of cinnamon buns. If baking all the dough as buns, double all ingredients for the filling and icing and use larger baking tray.

Ingredients:

for 2 batches as shown in photos

dough

100g millet flour
50g rice blour
50g quinoa flour
50g potato starch
50g tapioca starch/flour
20g golden flaxseed flour
40g sugar
6g sea salt
6g xanthan gum
100g full fat sour cream (35-36%)
2 large eggs
1 sachet dry yeast
160-165ml/g warm water

Note: the use of different types of gluten free wholegrain flour and starches might demand different quantity of water added

filling

enough for 1 batch of buns

2-3 table spoons of soft ricotta cheese (I use homemade)
2 table spoons of aromatic sugar (I used coconut sugar)
1 table spoon of 35% pure or whipping cream (I used pure cream)
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
1 tea spoon vanilla sugar
1 tea spoon lemon extract (optional)
2 dessert spoons of cinnamon powder
2 table spoons of finely chopped roasted almonds
if you feel that resulting filling is too soft (because of the type of ricotta cheese used) and can be runny when baked, add 2 tea spoons or 1 table spoon of almond meal to thicken it
the filling forms a dense but very soft paste that can be easily spread on a rolled dough
always check the taste of the filling, it should not be too sweet, as the main sweetness comes from the icing

icing

for 1 batch

8-10 heaped tea spoons of icing sugar
1.5-2 the same tea spoons of whipping cream with gums or thickeners of any nature, if adding pure cream, more icing sugar might be needed

Preparation:

filling

mix ricotta cheese with cream
add sugar, vanilla sugar, extracts (if using), cinnamon powder
mix all ingredients until the consistency of a soft paste
add chopped almonds and almond meal if necessary

dough

prepare soft yeast dough

Soft yeast dough preparation and rolling with step by step photos can be found here.

mix all dry ingredients, you can add dry yeast to the dry ingredients mix or (the second option) add yeast to warm water with sugar, leave it for 3-5 minutes and add the solution to wet ingredients mix
mix all wet ingredients, eggs, sour cream and water, water has to be warm, eggs and sour cream at room temperature
if yeast is diluted in warm water, add it to wet ingredients mix
add wet ingredients to dry and mix them thoroughly together
the dough will thicken within 5-6 minutes
line baking tray with baking paper
line working surface with baking paper
roll the dough thin in rectangle shape, use any gluten free flour mix to dust working surface (I use Well and Good Crusty bread mix)
brush dough surface with egg wash
spread the filling evenly, leaving 3 cm on the long side without it
roll the dough into a log, do not make it tight, leave it loose
brush the strip of the dough without filling once more with an egg wash
cut the log into 3 cm pieces
place each bun into a lined baking tray or dish, leaving the space between then
brush the top and side of each bun with egg wash generously
place the dish/tray into a warm oven and allow to rise to increase the volume 2 times
I always bake my buns from the warm and not preheated oven
I just put the temperature to 170C with fan regime
you can spray buns with water before baking, wet surface will allow them to raise even more during baking
it takes 25 to 30 minutes for the buns to bake