Several months ago, I found this recipe on fridgebook.tumblr.com, one of my favorite healthy-choice recipe blogs. Pecans are some of my favorite things in the food world, so quite naturally, I immediately bookmarked the page and swore to myself that I would try baking up these babies some time after finals week. Needless to say, my finals have been over for some time now (approximately 2-3 months). And no, I have yet to bake them. But, but, but, this is my cooking/baking bucket list and I will bake them someday. I will.
Until then, here is the recipe provided by the very sweet Marly who shared her recipe on madejustright.com:
Ingredients:
⅓ cup warmed Earth Balance® Organic Soy Milk
1 package dry active yeast
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large banana, mashed
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup buckwheat flour
½ cup white rice flour
½ cup potato starch, (or corn starch)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum
½ teaspoon sea salt
For Filling:
5 tablespoons softened Earth Balance® Buttery Spread
¼ cup packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
For Topping:
½ cup (1 stick) Earth Balance Vegan® Buttery Stick
1½ cups packed light-brown sugar
1 cups pecan or walnut pieces
¼ cup corn syrup
Directions:
Mix the yeast with the barely warm Earth Balance® Organic Soy Milk. Let it sit 5 – 10 minutes, until the mixture gets all bubbly. Add the granulated sugar, olive oil, vanilla and mashed banana. In case you’re wondering, the banana serves as an egg replacement in this recipe.
In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Take your time adding the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring throughout. You should see a very sticky dough form. Continue stirring to allow the mixture to combine. You can use an electric mixer here, but I like the nice arm workout I get from stirring it vigorously by hand.
Next, make your topping by spraying muffin tins with vegetable spray. In a small sauce pan, melt the Earth Balance® Buttery Spread over medium heat and then add brown sugar, corn syrup and pecan or walnut pieces. Cook over medium heat 5 – 10 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved. Pour equal amounts of the topping mixture among muffin cups, unless you’re like me and like to have some sans topping. In that case, reserve some of that topping goodness for later.
Tape down a 20″ strip of Saran Wrap and turn dough ball out onto it. Cover with another piece of Saran Wrap and roll dough out until you have achieved about a 12 x 16″ rectangle of dough. The thinner the better, but don’t go too thin. Gently spread the softened Earth Balance® Vegan Buttery Stick in an even layer on top of dough, and then sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar filling mix. Starting with the shortest side, roll the dough up using the Saran Wrap like a magical guide. Try your best to keep the dough taught and the Saran Wrap from getting embedded in the dough. Gravity is a nice touch with this method too… it kinda rolls itself up.
Next, use a sharp, serrated knife to slice the rolls 1 – 1.5 inches in size and place them in your prepared muffin pans. Cover the muffin tins with a slightly damp cloth and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour. I like to heat my oven to its lowest setting while I’m preparing the other ingredients and then I turn the oven off and place the rolls in the warm oven to rise. But, of course, any warm place will do. If you follow that advice, then once the rolls are adequately risen, remove them from the oven, and turn up the heat to 350F. Once the oven is at the right temperature, bake for 30 minutes until the rolls are golden brown. You’ll want to immediately invert the rolls onto a rack to cool. Be very careful not to touch the rolls because the sugar will be very hot at this point. Let the rolls cool and then enjoy all the gluten-free goodness!
I did not alter any of the ingredients/instructions out of fear of ruining your batch/facing Marly’s wrath. I’m going to try this out sometime. Soon. Seriously. Seriously. (insert izzie stevens’ voice).
