Soft, fluffy but Healthy Protein Cinnamon Rolls topped with protein powder Cream Cheese Icing! These protein powder cinnamon rolls are made with a sugar free filling and icing and only a little butter – the perfect easy, skinny, low calorie cinnamon buns to satisfy your cravings!

I am (for real) writing this just after taking a bite into one of these babies – and that too they just came out of the oven 15 minutes ago!

Such soft and fluffy goodness these protein cinnamon rolls are!

It took me three tries to get this recipe right because while whole wheat recipes are hard to begin with, adding protein powder makes it just harder! You need to have enough moisture and fat in the dough, as well as a different oven temperature.

Get it right though and it’s just magical protein cinnamon buns!

How are Cinnamon Rolls Sugar Free if Yeast needs Sugar

These cinnamon rolls are sugar free even though Yeast needs real sugar because the yeast feeds on the sugar to emit carbon dioxide and ethanol. The CO2 is what makes the yeast-milk mixture frothy and disappears. So even though the recipe calls for adding real sugar, it does not impact the carb count, giving you cinnamon rolls without sugar!

Do you count calories from Sugar used to activate the Yeast?

Since the sugar is converted to CO2 and alcohol, it is no longer sugar. The carbon dioxide escapes in the air and there is some bit of alcohol left whose calories are pretty negligible. So all in all, we don’t count the calories from sugar used to activate the yeast in the calories of the cinnamon roll.Read the answers to this question on Quora to know more.

Ingredients for Healthy Protein Cinnamon Rolls

This recipe is made made with all healthy ingredients, has no sugar, and is very low fat – almost fat free cinnamon rolls I’d say.

Warm Almond Milk or any regular milk, but you want it warm like bath water
Active Dry Yeast this is the red packet from Fleischmann’s here in the US.
Brown Sugar! Don’t worry, the recipe is stil sugar fee. See the note below.
Melted Butter – very much needed; Use light butter to cut down the fat.
Flour
Unflavored Protein Powder to replace some of the flour – this not only makes them high protein cinnamon rolls, but also a bit low calorie too. I use the one from KOS.
Vanilla Protein Powder to sweeten the cinnamon roll dough without the sugar; I used Quest Nurition.
A bit of salt to season

The Filling for Healthy Cinnamon Rolls with No Sugar

Clean ingredients for the cinnamon roll filling too – sugar free and low fat!

1:1 Zero Calorie Brown Sugar Substitute – I use Lakanto monkfruit sweetener so that the cinnamon rolls are sugar free, but you can use coconut sugar or regular brown sugar.
Cinnamon
Softened Butter
High Protein Almond Butter from American Dream Nut Butter is the one I used. They have a cinnamon flavor and its so delicious! Use my code HAYLSKITCHEN for a discount.

A sugar free and high protein cream cheese icing:

For the perfect high protein cinnamon buns, I topped them with a cream cheese icing that’s sweetened with protein powder!

Super basic ingredients here too:

Reduced Fat Cream Cheese, which might also be called Neufchâtel, for a low fat and low calorie recipe
Nonfat Greek Yogurt
Vanilla Protein Powder; Quest again here

For Vegan protein cinnamon rolls

These protein cinnamon buns can easily be made Vegan since they have no egg! Here’s the substitutions you need to do:

Dairy Free Vegan Butter instead of regular butter Here’s plenty on the market that would work well here.
Vanilla Protein Powder like this one from KOS instead of whey-casein.
Vegan Cream Cheese instead of regular cream cheese
Coconut Yogurt instead of Greek Yogurt.

How to make Healthy Cinnamon Rolls

I thought it would be hard, but trust me, this recipe makes really easy cinnamon rolls, since most of the time just goes into letting the yeast dough rise.

Make the Low Calorie Cinnamon Rolls Dough

In a bowl, warm the milk to 110F so the yeast can rise.
Stir in sugar.
Stir in yeast in a large bowl and let it rest for about 10 minutes. The mixture should be all frothy.
In a large bowl – whisk the flour, unflavored and vanilla protein powder, and salt.
Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the melted butter and yeast-milk mix.
Mix with a big spoon until it forms a rough ball.
Sprinkle some flour on a work surface, transfer the flour and use your hands to knead it into a smooth dough. Just for about 3-4 minutes.

Don’t over-mix or the rolls will just be too tough.

Let the Cinnamon Buns Rise!

Grease a large bowl with oil, and place the dough ball in.
Cover with warm towel.
Now just let it sit for about 1½ hour until doubled in size.

Roll, fill and roll!

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to a large rectangle about ⅓” thick and 18” x 12” size.
Roll it such that the shorter end is facing you.
Make sure the surface and rolling pin are floured or the dough will stick on.
In a small bowl – mix softened(not melted) butter, almon butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.
Spread mixture over the dough.
Leave about ¼” from the ends.
Roll up the dough tightly from one long end to the other.
Cut the log using a sharp serrated knife into rolls, each about 1½” wide.

And let them rise again!

Line a baking pan with parchment paper – an 9×9” pan would be good!
Place the rolls in the pan, cover with warm towel again, and let rise for another 45-50 minutes.

Now it’s time to (finally) bake!

Pour warm almond milk over the risen rolls.
Bake at 325°F for 25 minutes till the edges are golden – lower temperature prevents rolls from burning because of protein powder.
Cool for about 10 minutes before spreading the icing.

For the Cream Cheese Icing

The protein powder cream cheese icing is probably the easiest part of this cinnamon rolls recipe.

Beat softened cream cheese with hand mixer or whisk until fluffy.
Add Greek yogurt and protein powder until combined.
Spread over warm cinnamon rolls and enjoy!

Tips for the best Protein Powder Cinnamon Rolls

Since you’re using protein powder in this skinny cinnamon rolls recipe to replace some of the flour and also sugar, you need to be a little extra careful about the moisture in the dough as well as the mixing process.

For the perfect fluffy whole wheat cinnamon roll dough

Use REAL sugar to feed the yeast! Even though this recipe asks for real sugar here, that sugar is broken down and does not count towards the actual calories and ‘sugar’ in the nutrition.

Make sure the almond milk is warm – the right warm temperature is needed to feed the yeast, but if it’s too hot, the yeast will die. You want just-warm milk; As if it’s bath water.

Don’t over-mix the dough because the protein powder or gluten from the whole wheat flour can make the rolls very tough.

Keep the melted butter for the dough mixture to make sure they’re fluffy.

Cover fully with warm towel so the dough can actually rise, and no cold air gets in.

Use softened butter to make the filing; Not melted butter.

Roll a perfect rectangle if you can so even the end bits are uniform and there’s no wasted dough

Roll the dough tightly so the rolls don’t open when baking.

Squish the ends of the log together to flatten them if you need.

Cut rolls of even width so they bake evenly too. I use a measuring tape.

Use softened cream cheese so it blends well with the other ingredients.
Whisk together the ingredients – not stir – so you have a smooth frosting.

Why are my cinnamon rolls tough?

Over-mixing the dough or using a high oven temperature will make your cinnamon rolls tough; This can be either because of the whole wheat flour or the protein powder.

If you work the dough for too long, too much gluten will develop from the whole wheat pasrty flour, making a dense and tough roll. The protein powder tends to be extremely absorbant, eating up a lot of the moisture, and again makes tough cinnamon rolls.
Since you’re baking with protein powder, you need to use a lower oven temperature of 325°F not 350°F since the higher temperature will make the protein powder burn the dough give you tough rolls again.

Why are my cinnamon rolls not fluffy?

The key to having healthy and skinny but still fluffy cinnamon rolls is adding melted butter to the dough. This is needed to create the light airy texture when the rolls bake.

I tried the rolls without the butter for the first attempt and they were too hard.

How to Store Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

These homemade protein cinnamon buns are perfect for a make ahead breakfast, snack or dessert for the week; and are freezer friendly too!

You can refrigerate them for about a week in an airtight container again, or in a sealed zipper bag.
When you’re ready to dig in, microwave it for about 30 seconds, or reheat it in the oven for 6 ish minutes at 350.
You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls for up to 4 months, but about 2-3 in one set (not individually). Use a freezer-safe airtight container or zipper bag.
Thaw it in the microwave for about 4 minutes or outside at room-temperate and then reheat in the microwave for the same 30 seconds or oven for 6 minutes.

More Skinny Cinnamon Roll Breakfast or Dessert Recipes?