These grain free and paleo cinnamon roll pancakes have a gooey cinnamon swirl and maple glaze for the best of all things cinnamon roll without the work! Family approved, gluten-free, with a dairy-free option.
If you’re just not feeling all the effort involved in making actual cinnamon rolls, just know I can completely relate.
Understand that I LOVE my cinnamon rolls of course, but, they require top notch patience and energy that honestly I just don’t have lately! Between our kitchen renovation, the holidays, and just general trying-to-keep-up-with-life, I’m much more likely to make pancakes for a special breakfast.
The obvious solution is (DUH!) to just make cinnamon roll pancakes. A fraction of the time and energy and WOW are they yummy!
Let’s get right to the deets! I decided to go with an almond flour based pancake simply based on what I currently have in my pantry.
The basic recipe for the batter is somewhat similar to my lemon blueberry pancakes, which are a favorite of mine. If you’re more of a coconut flour pancake person, you can use the recipe for buttermilk pancakes for the batter.
Next we have the cinnamon swirl! I used ghee – which is nice and soft and creamy at room temp, mixed with maple sugar and cinnamon. Coconut sugar can easily sub in for the maple sugar.
Timing is important when it comes to piping on the cinnamon mixture. Too soon, and it will melt right into the pancake.
Make sure the pancakes are just about ready to flip before piping on the filling and it will turn out perfectly!
Speaking of flipping the pancakes, make sure you’re using a very-wide spatula and have a reliably non-stick skillet or griddle, since paleo pancakes in general can be a bit trickier to flip. Okay I’ll be honest – I’m pretty bad at flipping pancakes of ANY kind, so I need all the help I can get 🙂
The final touch is the maple glaze! I actually used the same recipe that I did for my cinnamon roll recipe.
It’s a mix of maple syrup, coconut cream, and vanilla that’s cooked to the consistency of sweetened condensed milk. I recommend making the glaze first since it needs to cool for awhile before using.
All in all, making cinnamon roll pancakes isn’t second best to cinnamon rolls in the least – they’re perfect and special on their own! Let’s grab our favorite skillet, possibly an apron (they’re just fun) and make these pancakes!
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes {Paleo, Gluten-Free}
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes {Paleo, GF}
Ingredients
Cinnamon swirl:
- 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp ghee room temp (soft)
- 1/2 cup pure maple sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Pancakes:
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 1/3 cup full fat coconut milk another dairy-free milk will work as well
- 3 Tbsp coconut oil or ghee, melted and cooled to almost room temperature
- 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/3 cup arrowroot flour or tapioca flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Extra coconut oil for greasing your skillet or griddle*
Maple Glaze:
- 1/3 cup coconut cream
- 2 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp Pure vanilla extract
- Pinch sea salt
Instructions
For the glaze:
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Make the glaze first since it will need time to cool before using.
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In a small saucepan, bring coconut cream and maple syrup to a boil. Lower heat, allow to boil/simmer, stirring occasionally for 5-10 mins until syrupy (like sweetened condensed milk). Then, stir in vanilla and salt. It will thicken as it cools. Allow it to cool, or refrigerate before using.
For the cinnamon swirl/filling:
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Whisk together the softened ghee maple sugar and cinnamon. Transfer mixture to small plastic bag - you will use it to pipe the mixture onto the pancakes while cooking.
For the Pancakes:
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Make sure all your wet ingredients are as close to room temp as possible (including the melted coconut oil or ghee) for even blending
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Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.
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In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup coconut milk, lemon juice or ACV, vanilla, and coconut oil or ghee until very smooth.
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Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet and whisk well until smooth (batter should be somewhat thick)
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Heat a large griddle or non stick pan over medium heat** and grease with a very small amount of coconut oil to keep pancakes from sticking*
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Cut a very small hole in one corner of your plastic bag to prepare to pipe on the cinnamon swirl.
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Spoon or pour small amounts of pancake batter (1/4 cup) onto the griddle, wait until edges are dry and bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes, then pipe on the cinnamon mixture in a swirl. Flip each pancakes and cook another minutes, careful not to burn, (adjust the heat if necessary) then remove to plate.
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Repeat until all the batter is used up, re-greasing your skillet/griddle as needed and adjusting the heat to avoid burning. This recipe made 14 pancakes for me, about 6 servings.
Recipe Notes
*Nutrition is for 1 pancake and includes the cinnamon swirl + maple glaze
Nutrition
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Want More Paleo Pancake Recipes? Try One of These!
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Hi,
If you can’t tolerate ghee, what do you recommend to sub with for the swirl? Thank you!
Why doesn’t she comment back on any of these questions with help??
Awesome Blog, Your all posts are incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this post.
Great post, keep posting such recipe!!
Do check this out- Delicious Cinnamon Roll Paleo Pancakes- Complete Recipe!!- https://youtu.be/JUgKF8aby00
This was my first try at paleo pancakes from scratch and they were SO good! Even made a couple plain ones and loved those too. They have the texture of traditional pancakes!
Ohhhh myyy ohhh myyy this is an amazing pancake recipe. I have tried a few of your recipes and they have always turned out great. Thank u thank u
delicious, and that’s an understatement.
I have made these so many times and I love them! Thank you for giving such a great recipe.
Hi! Love the recipe, but when I made it the cinnamon swirl just burned out. Step 7 says, apply swirl to Side 1 then flip. What did I do wrong?
HELP! as soon as I flipped my pancakes, the cinnamon swirl burned immediately. What did I do wrong?
Thanks!
Same thing happened to me!!
Thank you for the recipe! Can I substitute Cassava flour for tapioca four in recipe? Thank you.
I love all yoyr recipes but this one didn’t work but was tasty. The batter was thick but made thin cakes. When I flipped the cakes the cinnamon mixture just melted on the grill. Looked nothing like yours. It was a lot of work not to turn out. But first recipe of yours that hasn’t worked. Tasty.
Thanks.
We LOVE this recipe. We are going camping this week and I am interested in prepping it for breakfast. Do you think the batter would keep a couple days refrigerated/cooled? I am unfamiliar with the fridge life for paleo recipes.
These were AMAZING! Made these for Sunday breakfast treat! They will be on repeat from now on!!!!
No matter when I added the cinnamon swirl mixture, it all melted off right after I flipped it. I was left with pancakes that had a swirl indentation but cinnamon mixture melted out and burning all over my griddle… I doubled the recipe, so tried A LOT of different times to get this right. Don’t recommend trying the recipe.
Just made this today. For those wondering about the swirl melting out, don’t wait to add it until the pancakes have cooked a bit. It needs to bake in the pancake batter a little bit before it’s flipped. As soon as I poured a pancake into the pan, I immediately topped it with swirl and once flipped, I had minimal melting out. Watch the heat closely or it will burn. I cooked mine over a low medium heat and they came out perfect.
When I used a quarter cup of batter per pancake it only made 8 pancakes. When I ran it through MyFitnessPal, it gave me around 375 calories per pancake, including glaze and filling, which was a lot more than I was wanting. That being said the base pancake mix was phenomenal for a paleo recipe, they fluffed up and lightly browned up perfectly just like a non paleo pancake would.
This tip was super helpful for us, thank you!! We put the cinnamon swirl in right away and it didn’t run out, and used a little less than 1/4 c batter so we got the full amount of pancakes (since I only allotted for the amount of calories in the recipe in my meal prep for the week). You rock, Tonya!
Do you think I could use flax eggs the replace the regular ones?
Absolutely delicious! The glaze really made this recipe A+ 😀 I can’t wait to have it again. Such a treat.
These were delicious! I took the advice of a previous comment, and piped on the swirl, right after pouring the batter in the pan. It only fell out a little that way, and did make indentations in the underside of the pancake, but they still tasted scrumptious!! (I did have to wipe away the small amounts of burned swirl off the pan, in between pancakes.) I only made a half batch of the swirl, but it was plenty, saved I had some leftover. I didn’t want them to be overly sweet. I also omitted the icing (plus I didn’t have time to make it). It was perfect, still. So yummy!!
Why are all the baked goods always made with almond flour? I hate the taste of baked goods made with almond flour.