Fathead Cinnamon Rolls an easy Keto Breakfast Pastry

Fathead cinnamon rolls are easy keto breakfast pastries made of fathead dough, a low-carb cheese dough that create soft pastries with only 3 grams of net carbs per serving. Bonus, these easy keto cinnamon rolls are also gluten-free, ready in 30 minutes to satisfy your sweet cravings with no guilt!

Keep reading to learn how to make these deliciously soft, sweet chewy keto breakfast treats!

What’s fathead dough?

Fathead dough is a keto dough that mimics bread dough to create a range of keto baking recipes like pizza, bagels, or this keto cinnamon rolls recipe. Fathead dough is always made of 4 basic ingredients:

• Eggs
• Cream cheese
• Hard shredded mozzarella
• Keto flours – it can be almond flour, coconut flour, husk, or a combination of some of these.

Tips for the best keto cinnamon rolls with fathead dough

The best keto cinnamon rolls are soft, chewy, filled with a sweet cinnamon buttery filling, and topped with cream cheese maple glazing. This fathead cinnamon rolls recipe has it all, plus it is ready in 20 minutes!

For a different perspective, check out my web story: making the keto fathead cinnamon rolls step by step.

Ingredients at room temperature

The first step to making delicious keto-friendly cinnamon rolls using fathead dough is to have your ingredients at room temperature. It means you will take the ingredients below out of the fridge 20 minutes before you start the recipe.

Weigh the fathead dough ingredients

How many of us end up with a super dry fathead dough or a fathead dough that melts in the oven? This always happens because you didn’t weigh the ingredients and used cups or tablespoons to measure them.

• Cream cheese – I recommend weighing the cream cheese for precision, cutting it into small cubes to soften it faster.
• Full-fat shredded mozzarella- weigh the cheese in a small bowl for precision, don’t use cups! It is not precise enough, and you often end up with too much cheese that makes fathead dough too sticky.

Stir by hand or in a food processor

There are two ways to combine the stretchy mozzarella cream cheese mixture with the rest of the fathead dough ingredients.

First, you can combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Then, combine the melted cheese with dry ingredients and the beaten egg, vanilla, apple cider vinegar.

Use a wooden spoon or silicone spatula first, and then when it starts to be difficult to stir, generously oil your hands and knead to form a smooth bowl.

Another option is to blend all the ingredients in a food processor using the S blade attachment. Then, grease your hand to remove the dough from the bowl.

The remaining ingredients you need to make this fathead dough for cinnamon rolls are (full measurement in the recipe card below):

• Almond flour – you can’t use coconut flour in this recipe, or the rolls will be extremely dry.
• Ground psyllium husk – this adds a lovely chew to the cinnamon rolls.
• Baking powder
• Apple cider vinegar – or lemon juice.
• Erythritol or any keto crystal sweetener you like, e.g., allulose or xylitol.
• Large egg – always bet the egg before you stir by hand. It makes it easier to incorporate. If you use a food processor, you can add the whole egg directly into the bowl.
• Vanilla extract

Chill the dough

Once the dough is soft, not sticky, wrap the ball in plastic wrap and chill for 5 minutes. This makes it easier to roll the dough.

Cinnamon filling

To make the filling, combine the ingredients below with a spoon into a small mixing bowl:

• Softened butter – not melted butter!
• Cinnamon
• Brown sugar-free sweetener

You can also use regular keto crystal sweetener, but the brown erythritol adds a delicious caramel flavor to the filling.

Cream cheese glazing

There’s nothing better than a cream cheese maple glazing on top of lukewarm cinnamon rolls! All you need to make the glazing are:

• Soft butter
• Softened cream cheese
• Maple extract or vanilla extract
• Powdered erythritol

Beat all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until smooth and fluffy. Spread 1 + 1/2 tablespoon of glazing per cinnamon rolls just before eating to prevent the glazing from melting on the lukewarm rolls.

How to roll fathead cinnamon roll dough?

Roll a rectangle of dough

Always roll fathead keto cinnamon rolls dough between two pieces of slightly greased sheets of parchment paper or silicone mats.

I like to use very large pieces of parchment paper, about 2.8 inches x 20 inches long.

First, place the dough ball in the center of the bottom piece of parchment paper. Place the second piece of parchment paper on top. Gently press the dough ball to flatten roughly and start rolling.

Roll evenly into a rectangle of about 11 inches x 8 inches (29 cm x 20 cm). My tip for rolling cinnamon roll fathead dough into a perfect rectangle shape is folding the parchment paper into a rectangle.

This way, you encase the dough into the desired rectangle shape, and when you roll it, the dough fits in. Have a look at my picture below to see how I proceed.

Spread the cinnamon filling

Now that you have rolled the fathead dough into a rectangle, spread the butter cinnamon filling all over the dough. Don’t add filling on the lengthwise borders. This makes it easier to stick the cylinder together at the end.

Start rolling the dough from the widest side, roll tightly. When you reach the top, brush water or melted butter on the top of the dough to seal the roll.

Cut the roll

This recipe makes 12 keto cinnamon rolls. If you roll the dough in the rectangle size provided above, then cut the dough into 12 even cylinders.

Each roll contains 3 grams of net carbs. For detailed nutritional information, scroll below the recipe card. It provides fat, protein, and calories as well.

First, cut the long cylinder in half. Then, cut each half in half again to end up with 4 even pieces. Finally, cut each of these 4 cylinders into 4 rolls, using the same halving method for precision.

Baking and serving the rolls

Bake the cinnamon rolls into a greased 12-hole muffin tray. They bake way faster, and the side crisps slightly, which is delicious. However, if you prefer, you can bake them on a grease baking dish.

Make sure your rolls don’t touch each other, or they wouldn’t bake evenly.

Cool the cinnamon rolls on a cooling rack while preparing the cream cheese icing.

Glazing the lukewarm rolls

I always recommend glazing the individual rolls just before serving. This prevents the glazing from melting on the rolls if they are still lukewarm. Plus, you can easily store the icing in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Serve each cinnamon rolls with 1 1/2 tablespoon of icing.

How to store the rolls?

You can store these cinnamon rolls in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 3 days. Otherwise, freeze in an airtight container and thaw the day before eating. The frosting can be frozen as well.

Tips and troubleshooting for fathead dough

The most common issues we encounter with fathead dough are:

• The dough is overly sticky – this happens if you add too much cream cheese or your egg is extra large. First, grease your hands to handle the fathead dough. Then, adjust flour by adding 1 tablespoon extra almond flour, up to 4 tablespoons, until the dough is soft and not sticky. Also, chill the dough wrapped in plastic wrap for 5 minutes to help to set the dough.
• The dough is hard as a rock– unfortunately, you can’t really fix that, but note that this happens if you over-melt the mozzarella in the microwave. The cheese burns and hardens. A good rule to know is, don’t continue the recipe if you burnt the mozzarella in the first step. Discard and restart because this will ruin the fathead dough for sure. If you try adding too much cream cheese to counterbalance, the fathead dough will be wet.

More Keto Breakfast Recipes

If you love a good keto pastry for breakfast or as a keto dessert, try some of the keto breakfast recipes below!

Made these keto cinnamon rolls with fathead? Share your feedback or questions below!

XOXO Carine