Molasses Sticky Rolls- A Substitution Experiement

In an attempt to modify a cinnamon bun recipe so that the product was vegan, pretty much gluten-free, and contained few to no refined ingredients, I have created a different monster entirely. I used the quick cinnamon bun recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and made some serious modifications.

It wasn't that difficult to make substitutions that worked for this recipe because there aren't any eggs in this recipe. Eggs are difficult to get a perfect substitute for in baking because they have three different roles in standard baking. Eggs provide fat and participate in leavening and binding of the baked good. Look forward to my post about substituing for eggs in recipes.

Anyhow, back to this post. The dough for these sticky buns is more like a sweetened biscuit dough, in which I subbed in my own concocted gluten-free flour, coconut sugar, dairy-free milk with vinegar, and Earth Balance, in addition to the other ingredients that already met the criteria. I used potato starch, almond meal, brown rice flour, amaranth flour, and xanthum gum to replace the white wheat flour called for in the recipe. (Look forward to my gluten free substitutions post as well). I find that using my own gluten-free flour is a great way to work in micro nutrients and protein.

 The most significant substitution I made was for the dark brown sugar in the filling. Measure for measure, I added molasses instead. Molasses is technically refined, however, molasses has high micro-nutrient content because all the vitamins and minerals that are taken out of white sugar end up in the molasses.

 I mixed the molasses with the cinnamon and other spices, then poured it onto my flattened dough.

Rolling this was really messy. I probably could have used one third to a half the amount of molasses as I did, and the results would have probably been less messy, and less molasses-y.

Honestly, the results were... interesting. The texture of the baked dough was good. The only issue was that they taste SO MUCH like molasses, and hardly anything else, even cinnamon. For these, the bitterness of the molasses was so strong, I did end up covering the tops with powdered sugar to cut the bitterness.

Next time, I would really reduce the amount of molasses I used, and increase the amount of cinnamon and other spices. I also might substitute coconut sugar or pureed dates in the filling. I'll post results the next time I try this recipe.

The good thing about this experiment was that these are good enough to eat, but they're not so good I sat down and ate the entire contents of the pan as soon as they were out of the oven. I suppose moderation with sweets is a good thing, and this recipe certainly encourages that.

*I have not included a recipe with this post for two reasons. 1- The recipe is not perfected enough to encourage others to make it. 2- Copyright laws prohibit me from sharing the original recipe.