High Protein Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Any chance you remember the joy that was waking up to Saturday morning cartoons and the sweet aroma of orange cinnamon rolls baking in the oven? If not, that’s okay. Because now you can experience that same joy with a lower calorie, higher protein version of this breakfast classic!

If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know I like to keep things simple. So I’ll tell you up front, these orange cinnamon rolls require a bit more work than my usual recipe. I’ve done my best, however, to make up for that with detailed instructions to guide you every step of the way.

Okay, let’s get rollin’!

How to Make These Orange Cinnamon Rolls

As you’ll see in the photos below, I went with a food processor to mix the cinnamon roll dough, but you can use anything from a stand mixer to a bowl and a fork! The dough has a similar composition to my Greek yogurt biscuits, and I mix that dough with a fork.

Regardless of what you use, try to avoid over mixing the dough as that will create tough cinnamon rolls. And be sure to give the dry ingredients a mix before adding the yogurt, butter, and zest to get even baking powder and cinnamon distribution!

You can see in the photo below that having some dry ingredients is fine. You can use your hands to bring everything together before rolling out the dough.

I like to use a mini rolling pin so I can easily hold one end of the parchment paper. You can find the rolling pin, food processor, and other tools I use on my Amazon store. 

As you can see in the photo above, the finished dough when rolled out should roughly be an 11″ square. You don’t have to measure your dough but if you fail to roll it out enough, you might have thick or dense cinnamon rolls.

Troubleshooting tip: If you have trouble rolling your dough, you can add a pinch or two of flour to make it easier to work with. You can try spraying your rolling pin with a bit of cooking spray to prevent sticking. And chilling the dough makes it easier to work with as well. 

Rolling the dough is really the only challenging part of the recipe. Then it’s as simple as brushing on some more butter and cinnamon, rolling it up, slicing, and baking.

The glaze is a 2-ingredient concoction of powdered erythritol and orange juice from the oranges you zested. Easy peasy orange squeazy!

Orange Cinnamon Rolls Ingredient Notes

Since this recipe deals with handling a dough, substitutions can be tricky. I’ve tried to substitute almond flour for all purpose in my cast iron pizza recipe, for example, but I can’t ever get the dough to work. The closer you can stick to the script, the better!

Aside from flour, the only other big variable will be the protein powder. I use PEScience Select in my recipes, which is a blend of whey and casein protein. The addition of casein makes it a bit thicker in consistency than whey-only protein powders.

If you’re using a whey-only powder, you may need to add an extra scoop, reduce the Greek yogurt, or both. Similar to flour, modifying protein powder in recipes with dough can be tricky. If you want to check out PEScience products, you can save 15% with my affiliate discount code ‘mason‘ on pescience.com.

And that’s all the notes I have. It’s time to get your roll on!

If you make these orange cinnamon rolls, I want to see them! Take a photo of your creation and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff. Or you can join my free Facebook group and share it with the Proton Party.

4.53 from 84 votes

Servings: 10 cinnamon rolls

High Protein Orange Cinnamon Rolls

By Mason Woodruff

Buttery cinnamon rolled up in a sweet, high protein dough and covered with an orange glaze. 

Prep: 20 minutes mins

Cook: 15 minutes mins

Total: 35 minutes mins

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Ingredients

Orange Cinnamon Rolls Dough

• ▢ 1 1/4 C 150g All Purpose Flour
• ▢ 2 scoops, 62g Vanilla Protein Powder, I used PEScience Select*
• ▢ 2 tsp Baking Powder
• ▢ 1/2 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
• ▢ 1 Tbsp 12g Orange Zest
• ▢ 1 C 227g Fat Free Greek Yogurt, vanilla
• ▢ 2 Tbsp 28g Light Butter, I used Land O' Lakes with canola

Cinnamon Roll Filling

• ▢ 2 Tbsp 28g Light Butter
• ▢ 1/2 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon

Orange Glaze

• ▢ 1/4 C 36g Swerve Confectioners, or powdered sugar substitute
• ▢ 4 tsp 20g Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

Instructions 

• Preheat an oven to 350F.
• Mix the dry cinnamon roll ingredients in a food processor or large bowl before adding the Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons of butter, and orange zest. Pulse 4-5 times or mix until a dough begins to form. (You want some dry ingredients remaining to avoid over mixing.)
• Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and use your hands to form a ball of dough. (You can spray your hands with a tiny bit of cooking spray to prevent any sticking.)
• Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a large square, about 11"x11".
• Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and mix in the remaining cinnamon. Spread it evenly across the dough before tightly rolling the dough. (Optional: reserve a small amount to brush on the outside of the rolled dough.)
• Tuck the ends in and use a knife to slice the roll into 10 pieces.
• Lay the pieces flat on the cut side and bake for 18-22 minutes or until they're cooked through in the center.

For the Orange Glaze

• Mix the confectioners sugar with the juice of the orange you used for zest and stir well. You can adjust the amounts used to fit your personal preference and whether you'd like a glaze or more of a frosting. After the cinnamon rolls have briefly cooled, add the glaze. Enjoy! 

Notes

• Each cinnamon roll has 3 Smart Points.

*You can save 15% off PEScience products with the discount code mason on pescience.com (affiliate code). 

Nutrition

Serving: 1cinnamon roll, Calories: 110kcal, Carbohydrates: 13g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 3g

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