Fathead Cinnamon Rolls & Basic Dough – low carb

Satisfy Your Sweet Cravings!
Make these easy, gluten and guilt free Keto cinnamon rolls, made of fathead dough. These cinnamon rolls are ready in 30 minutes to satisfy your sweet cravings!
In general, fathead dough is a low-carb dough that is made with mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, egg, and some type of flour (almond, coconut, or a combination.) The melted cheeses create a chewy texture that’s often hard to achieve in low carb baking.
What is this? The name comes from the 2009 documentary, Fat Head Movie, which was created by Tom Naughton (comedian and former health writer).
For anyone who doesn’t know, Fat Head pizza (see recipe: basic fathead dough) was created by Tom Naughton’s oldest brother’s son. Ever since it has been named in honour of his Fat Head Movie . The documentary explains how saturated fat does not cause heart disease but instead sugars, grains, starches and processed vegetable oils do.
Fathead Cinnamon Rolls
Net Carbs: 3g / Calaries: 292.4kcal (per roll)
Tip: Ingredients at room temperature.
Serving size
Makes 12 rolls
Ingredients:
- 140 g almond flour. If it’s too sticky, add 1-2 tablespoons to adjust dough
- 2 teaspoons ground psyllium husk
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons erythritol (see also sweetener swap under Tips, below)
- 150 g shredded mozzarella full-fat (1 ¼ cup)
- 28 g cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large beaten egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
Tip:
Full-fat shredded mozzarella – weigh the cheese in a small bowl for precision, don’t use cups! It is not precise enough, and you often end up with too much cheese that makes fathead dough too sticky.
Cream cheese – weigh the cream cheese for precision, and cut it into small cubes to soften it faster.
Cinnamon filling:
- 56 g unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons golden erythritol or classic erythritol (see also sweetener swap under Tips, below)
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Glazing:
- 170 g cream cheese
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 66 g sugar-free powdered sweetener
- 1 teaspoon maple or vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin pan with butter or coconut oil.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients evenly: almond flour, psyllium husk, baking powder, and erythritol. Set aside.
- In a microwave-safe mixing bowl, weigh the shredded mozzarella and cream cheese.
- Microwave by 20-second bursts, stirring between each time until the cheese is fully melted. It usually takes 1 minute to get a soft, melty stretchy mixture. Otherwise, if you don’t have a microwave, bring on a non-stick saucepan over low-medium heat and melt, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.
- When the cheese is stretchy and melted, add the dry ingredients and the vanilla, beaten egg and apple cider vinegar.
- Stir with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula at first, when it starts to be difficult to stir, generously oil your hands with coconut oil and knead for at least 1 minute until you obtain a soft dough. The dough dries out as you squeeze and knead, and it should be slightly sticky but not too much. If too wet or sticky, you can add 1 tablespoon extra almond flour at a time, kneading between each addition, don’t exceed 4 tablespoons. You can also add all these ingredients into a food processor and blend for 30 seconds until combined. Don’t forget to grease your hands to remove the dough from the bowl, or it can stick to your fingers.
- Form a dough ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill 5-8 minutes max, not more or dough is hard to roll.
Filling:
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
- In a small mixing bowl, beat butter, erythritol, and cinnamon until a paste forms. Set aside.
- Unwrap the dough and place between too large pieces of parchment paper – each about 20 cm long. You can lightly spray oil on the parchment paper sheets to prevent the dough from sticking to the paper.
- Press the dough ball with your hand to roughly flatten, then start rolling with a rolling pin. Roll evenly into a rectangle of about 29 cm x 20 cm. Tip: Fold The Paper In A Rectangle. My tip for rolling cinnamon roll fathead dough into a perfect rectangle shape, is folding the parchment paper into a rectangle. This way, you encase the dough into the desired rectangle shape, and when you roll it, the dough fits in.
- Remove the top piece of parchment paper.
Assemble the rolls
- Spread the cinnamon butter all other the rolled dough. Don’t add filling on the lengthwise borders. This makes it easier to stick the cylinder together at the end.
- Start rolling the dough on the long end, roll the dough up tightly. When you reach the top, spread a bit of water with a pastry brush to help the dough, stick and seal the roll.
- Cut into 12 even cinnamon rolls and place each roll on the greased muffin tray. Slightly press the top of each roll to flatten if desired. However, if you prefer, you can bake them on a greased baking dish. Make sure your rolls don’t touch each other, or they wouldn’t bake evenly.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on the sides.
- Cool on a cooling rack for 45 minutes before adding the glazing or it can melt.
- Meanwhile, prepare the glazing.
Glazing:
- In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, erythritol, and maple or vanilla extract until smooth and fluffy.
- Spread generously onto all the rolls, or individually 1 ½ tablespoons per roll. You can store the remaining glaze in the fridge in an airtight container and use it when you serve the roll or as a keto fat bomb snack.
The most common issues with fathead dough are:
- The dough is overly sticky – this happens if you add too much cream cheese or your egg is an extra large. First, grease your hands to handle the fathead dough. Then, adjust the flour by adding 1 tablespoon of extra almond flour, up to 4 tablespoons, until the dough is soft and not sticky. Also, chill the dough wrapped in plastic wrap for 5 minutes to help to set the dough.
- The dough is hard as a rock– unfortunately, you can’t really fix that, but note that this happens if you over-melt the mozzarella in the microwave. The cheese burns and hardens. A good rule to know is, don’t continue the recipe if you burnt the mozzarella in the first step. Discard and restart because this will ruin the fathead dough for sure. If you try adding too much cream cheese to counterbalance, the fathead dough will be wet.
Tips:
Sweetener swap: any keto crystal sweetener like allulose or xylitol works as a replacement for erythritol.
Lactose-free cream cheese can be used as a substitute for regular cream cheese.
Almond flour can be replaced with sesame flour or sunflower seed flour (careful, this turns the food green and a bit bitter) for a keto nut-free cinnamon roll recipe. You can’t use coconut flour.
How long can fathead dough be refrigerated?
After making the dough, wrap tightly in a cling film and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. When ready to use, till our in between two parchment paper and bake. If you find it hard to roll out, Lightly warm it up in the microwave to make it easier to roll out.
Sharing with you the basic dough recipe – you can really do with it whatever you want. So, what is this fathead dough all about? Fathead dough is a keto dough that mimics bread dough to create a range of keto baking recipes like pizza, bagels, or this keto cinnamon rolls recipe above.
Basic Fathead Dough
Total Carbohydrate 20.6g for the entire recipe.
Ingredients:
- 170 g pre shredded/grated mozzarella cheese
- 85 g almond meal/flour
- 2 tbsp cream cheese
- 1 egg
- pinch salt to taste
Instructions:
- Mix the shredded cheese and almond flour/meal in a microwaveable bowl. Add the cream cheese. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute.
- Stir then microwave on HIGH for another 30 seconds.
- Add the egg, salt, and any other flavorings (depending what the end result of your dough is), mix gently.
- Place in between 2 pieces of baking parchment/paper and roll into whatever shape you are making. Remove the top baking paper/parchment.
- If the mixture hardens and becomes difficult to work with, pop it back in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften again but not too long or you will cook the egg.
More ideas for which fathead dough can be used:
- *Pizza, bake at 220°C (425°F) for 12-15 minutes, flip over and bake another 10 minutes or so (until you get the crust you like) top with cooked/prepared toppings. Bake for another 5-7 minutes.
- Tip: Prick the dough all over with a fork, which will prevent the pizza from bubbling up.
- *Pigs in a Blanket bake at 220°C (425°F) for 14-17 minutes or until golden brown
- *Hot Pockets fill rounds of dough with eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, pepperoni, etc., fold in half and seal. Prick top with fork for steam holes. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown.
Source: sweetashoney /fatheadmovie/ cluckingitup
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