When I started thinking about what to do with the kids this year to celebrate ‘love’ at Valentine’s Day the first thing that came to mind was to make something heart shaped. So far, in previous years, we have made many different cakes with heart shapes and it was fun, but wanted to do something different this time around. This is when heart shaped cinnamon rolls, a household favourite, became a thing for me.

We have been making cinnamon rolls for ages because of my husband Eric Swedish roots, and when the kids were very little, we used to make heart shaped rolls using puff pastry and vegan cheese as a quick snack. So the recipe was decided and all we had to do was making the rolls and hope that shape will remain after baking!

The first thing you need to know before making cinnamon rolls if that they require time. Not so much for ‘making’ them as such, but time for the raising of the dough. And there is two proving periods of at least 1 hour each, so the sooner you would be able to have the rolls in front of you is 2.5 hours from the start time. This is why I prefer to make my dough the night before I plan to bake them. This way it really feels like no work at all when I sit down to enjoy one in the morning while still warm from the oven barely 25 minute after I woke up 😉

The ingredients are very basics as making cinnamon rolls is not that different from making a dough for bread. It is in the filling of the rolls that we add the sweetness and flavour with the sugar and cinnamon combo.

I make a large tray of rolls every time, sometimes I even double the recipe and freeze some rolls after the second raise so we can have freshly baked rolls at short notice. This recipe will make you 12 large rolls or 16 smaller ones (I tend to do smaller ones regularly but went larger for the heart shaped ones).

Dough
450gr strong or bread flour
80gr unrefined cane sugar
70gr vegan butter, melted
125ml plant milk
125ml lukewarm water
10gr quick yeast powder
5gr Himalayan salt
5gr unrefined cane sugar (to feed the yeast)

Filling
15gr cinnamon (powder)
120gr unrefined cane sugar
50gr vegan butter, melted

The first thing to do is activate the yeast by mixing the lukewarm water with the sugar and adding the yeast. Leave the mixture activate while you put together the rest of the ingredients.

I mix my cinnamon rolls dough in the mixer as it is a lot faster but by all means this can be done by hand if you don’t have one. It works the same.

In the bowl of the mixer add the flour, salt and sugar. Then add the melted butter and start operating the mixer at the lowest speed. Add the milk and the yeast mixture and mix until the dough is elastic and smooth. it takes a few minutes. you can add a bit more flour if needed or a bit more milk to make sure its elastic and not sticky.

Leave the dough covered with cling film in a warm place for 1 hour to raise. once this is done, bring into a floured surface and deflate by mixing it for a couple of minutes. Then use a rolling pin to spread the dough to a rectangular shape making the layer as thin as possible.

Now it is time to do the filling. In a bowl mix the sugar the the cinnamon. Spread the melted butter over all the surface and then sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon powder covering the butter and all the surface of the dough to the borders.

At this stage we prepare the tray to place the prepared cinnamon rolls. Sometimes I skip this step, but it does make the rolls a lot more gooey, so give it a go! Melt some butter (around 50gr or so) and add 3 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar. Spread the mixture in the bottom of the tray.


To make heart shaped cinnamon rolls, start by making the dough into strips. Then take each strip of dough and start rolling the dough by folding it over on itself un til the middle of the dough. Do the same from the opposite side and let the two rolls meet in the middle. Once you are placing the cinnamon rolls in the tray, make sure the overall shape resembles a heart. You will need to leave a lot of space between rolls to prevent the hearts from being squeezed together.

The prepared tray can now be left to raise for about an hour before baking. If you are making them for the next morning, let them raise again and then place the tray covered with cling film in the fridge overnight.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees and bake them for 15minutes or until they are quite golden on top. You can eat them like this or frost them with a mixture made with 1 cup icing sugar and 3 tablespoons plant milk. We never skip this last step!