Carrot Apple Cinnamon Rolls (Vegan)

5 from 9 votes

Print

Carrot Apple Cinnamon Rolls (Vegan)

An easy recipe for vegan cinnamon rolls filled with fresh apples and grated carrots for some sneaky hidden veggies. 

Course Brunch

Keyword healthy

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Rising time 1 hour

Total Time 33 minutes

Servings 12

Author fiona@saluk.net

Ingredients

• 2 cups almond milk any milk will work
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 package 1.25 oz yeast package
• 4 1/2 cups all purpose or plain flour can sub one cup whole wheat
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup coconut oil slightly melted
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2-3 tbsp cinnamon more for extra cinnamon-y!
• 2 1/2 cups grated carrots
• 2 cups finely chopped granny smith apples

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan stir together the almond milk, sugar, vegetable oil over low-medium heat until heated through, don't let it come to a boil.

2. Remove saucepan from heat and let cool until temperature is warm enough to stick your finger in without burning it but not cold.

3. Add the yeast to the milk mixture and let is sit for about 5 minutes. It'll start to smell yeast-y. 

4. In a large mixing bowl combine 4 cups of flour and yeast mixture, stir until combined into a sticky, tacky mixture and let sit covered with a dish towel for an hour.
5. Remove the towel and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, remaining flour and 1 cup of the carrots. Knead mixture with your hands for about 5 minutes or until it becomes powdery and smooth.
6. On a clear, clean surface sprinkle about 4 tbsp flour before placing the dough on it. Flour a rolling pin and roll out the dough into as close to a rectangular oval as you can! The more even you roll it out the more uniform your rolls will come out.
7. In a small bowl combine coconut oil, brown sugar and remaining carrots. Spread this mixture out over the dough all the way to the edges. Sprinkle dough with cinnamon (be liberal here, you can't add too much cinnamon! The carrots will absorb a lot of it so feel free to add loads!)

8. Start rolling the dough into a log starting one from of the long sides being careful to roll it tightly.

9. Once in a log lay it seam-side down, and cut into 12-14 servings.

10. Place the individual rolls down in the lined baking dish and cover with a dish towel to let them rise for another 20 minutes

11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper

12. Remove the dish towel and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes depending on how hot your oven is.

13. When rolls are finished baking drizzle with your favourite frosting or simply enjoy them as they are! 

Fall is in the air

I don’t know about you but I am fully embracing fall/autumn! I had a bit of a bittersweet goodbye to summer bidding it one last adieu with an ‘end of the summer’ trip to the Algarve on Portugal’s Southern coast. It was truly great to soak up some last few rays of sunshine before taking the dive into fall as I faced a slight sadness at the thought of the long dark days of Irish winters.

The rainiest place in the world

One of the more common criticisms of Ireland’s livability (I know that’s not a word, stop stifling my creativity you little red squiggles underlining my words) is the dismal weather it’s notorious for. It rains pretty much every day, at some point, and if it doesn’t rain there’s definitely a solid part of the day where the sky is a smattering of gray clouds preventing the sun from peeping through. For any Irish person reading this I’m sure you’re like ‘umm excuse me we had a drought this summer and it didn’t rain for like 6 weeks’. Let it be known that I’m talking about the majority of the year, referring to the average Irish weather over the past 25 years of my life anyway. I really don’t mind the rain, I find it calm and peaceful, the raindrops rhythmically knocking at the window is the perfect soundtrack for some of my favorite indoor activities like reading, writing, and recipe experimenting.

Longing to peep at those leaves

Even though I do love the mostly temperate climate in Ireland, the one time of year I miss my New England stomping grounds is the fall. You just don’t get the same crisp feeling in the air here or the fiery colored leaves. At a dinner party just this past weekend a fellow American and myself spent a good few minutes explaining the concept of ‘leaf peeping’ to our European-raised counterparts. Oh America, you and your capitalizing on nature’s beauty and creating a concept and industry around it, how I do miss you sometimes.

Fall just kind of happens without anyone realizing it here, and then almost overnight it’s winter. So I am making it my priority this year to celebrate this colorful season through baking! Hence these yummy carrot apple cinnamon rolls.

How do you like them Tipperary apples?

When you escape Dublin for the countryside there are indeed some more autumnal scenes, my boss lives in an eco-village in Tipperary and they have a big bustling apple orchard so the little apples rolling around in these photos are from that very farm. I can’t say the same about the carrots, though it’s very easy to find carrots of Irish origin as they (just like me) love the climate here.

These cinnamon rolls are simply an adapted version of the carrot ones I have on the blog with the apple twist to make them even more fall-friendly. If carrots alone are off-putting to any first time veggie dessert chefs out there, perhaps the carrot apple cinnamon rolls are a good segway. You really only taste the carrots and the cinnamon sugar.

These are a perfect project for a weekend morning and you can sit around and read your favorite book while you wait an hour for the yeast to rise! Happy fall to all and get ready for all the fall-y recipes coming your way.