Protein S’mores Cinnamon Rolls

I’m 100% ready for the Fall recipes to start rolling in (like the apple cobbler skillet recipe), but there’s still time to squeeze a summer recipe in here.

Nothing says summer quite like S’mores, but it’s definitely a flavor that works year-round.

I’m not going to write too much text before diving into the recipe for this one, but there are a few things I do need to cover.

My goal is always to make recipes as easy as possible for ya, but with high-protein baking, the amount of variables that can occur really make it challenging. That’s why I try to break down my recipes in as much detail as possible!

I know notes are annoying. Seriously, I get it. I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve found online where I’ve thought to myself “just get to the point already!”

Now that I’ve been doing recipes more regularly, I understand why the notes are so crucial. You will definitely have troubleshooting questions, and I want to get ahead of those!

The Dough

The beauty of these cinnamon rolls is that we’re using the infamous “2 ingredient dough”. Okay, technically it’s more than 2 ingredients, but it’s essentially just flour + plain Greek yogurt. If you’ve made the 2 ingredient bagels or breakfast bagel bombs, you’re already familiar with this dough.

The thing to keep in mind with this dough is that it’s a little bit denser than a typical cinnamon roll dough. It’s not super light and airy, but it works just fine for these! I’ll take a slightly denser dough if it means being incredibly simple to make.

The first time around with these rolls, I used All-Purpose Flour. It worked just fine, but I wanted to try using Cake Flour instead.

When I tried with the cake flour, I liked them even more! I can assure you that both work just fine, because most people don’t have cake flour just lying around. But if you want these to be a bit lighter, cake flour is definitely the way to go.

A common question I see popping up about the Greek yogurt dough is that it’s too sticky. This is where things get a bit tricky, because every single brand of Greek yogurt is different! Some are just thinner & contain more liquid, so it might lead to a stickier dough.

I recommend 2 things:

1. Mix up your Greek yogurt really well before using it, since liquid will sometimes settle on the top.
2. Start with less Greek yogurt and work up to the full amount (or more). It’s much easier to add Greek yogurt than it is to add too much and then have to do damage control!

Choosing The Right Protein Powder

Lately, I’ve been doing most of my recipes with a whey/casein blend, because it lends itself much better to baked goods. With a whey protein powder, baked goods tend to dry out pretty quickly.

That being said, I tested both with this recipe, and the pure whey protein worked out much better!

Why is that?

Since we’re not actually baking with the protein powder, rather using it in the chocolate sauce and the icing, it works better. The chocolate sauce ended up being more spreadable, and the marshmallow icing was a perfect consistency.

With the whey/casein blend, the icing wasn’t quite as sticky. That might sound appealing, but for a marshmallow topping, sticky is what we want!

The taste was great with both, but I definitely preferred the regular whey protein version. Don’t worry, the recipe card has a quick note in the directions regarding a slight change if you go with a whey/casein blend.

Also, I’d like to point out that I used vanilla protein for the chocolate sauce. If you have a chocolate protein powder, that will definitely work very well! Since we’re also adding cocoa powder, the vanilla protein worked just fine.

Can I leave the protein powder out altogether?

You certainly can. In all honesty, I might advise you to try to find a different recipe if you don’t want to go the protein route, but it can certainly be done. For the icing, I would just thin out some marshmallow fluff with a little milk and/or light butter, and for the chocolate sauce, just add a little more cocoa powder and cut the butter down.

You’ll have to experiment a little bit, but it can definitely work!

Final Notes

These rolls were best fresh out of the oven, but I did test them out the following day and they were still great. They stayed nice and soft in a tupperware on the counter, but they also worked great reheated about 10 seconds in the microwave.

I wouldn’t recommend leaving the icing off of these- it may be tempting if you’re looking to save calories, but it really helps to add some moisture to the final product.

If you do want to save some calories, I’d say you could make a very simple glaze by mixing powdered sugar substitute & milk. But of course, then you won’t have the marshmallow flavor that we have here!

If you leave the marshmallow icing off, the final count for these would be 120 calories, 2g fat, 20g carbs, and 6.5g protein.

There are two types of people…

We have the drizzle-the-icing-on-top people, and the just-spoon-it-on-top people. I fall into the latter.

I don’t care about it looking pretty, I care about having tons of icing on mine!

But, to each their own.

This recipe makes 8 rolls, and they’re all a decent size. Not Cinnabon sized, I grant you, but not tiny either! If you want to make these slightly larger, I recommend cutting the dough into 6 rolls instead of 8. If you do that, each roll is…

175 calories, 2.5g fat, 30g carbs, and 8.5g protein.

Now get yo roll on!

Continue to Content

Protein S'mores Cinnamon Rolls

Yield: 8 Cinnamon Rolls

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 28 minutes

Using a very simple Greek Yogurt dough, we're whipping up some cinnamon rolls stuffed with a delicious chocolate sauce and topped with protein marshmallow icing!

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Ingredients

For Dough

• 180g Cake Flour (can use All-Purpose Flour or Self-Rising Flour)
• 2 tsp Baking Powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
• 1/2 tsp Salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
• 180g Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt
• 25g Granular Sugar Substitute (I used Swerve)
• 2 dash Cinnamon

For Chocolate Filling

• 15g Chocolate Chips (I love using Lily's Sugar-Free Baking Chips)
• 28g Light Butter (regular butter or coconut oil also works)
• 5g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 15g Vanilla (or Chocolate) Protein Powder (see notes below on protein powder)
• 10g Brown Sugar Substitute (I used Swerve)

For Marshmallow Icing

• 24g Marshmallow Fluff
• 15g Vanilla Protein Powder (see notes below on protein powder)
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbsp Milk of Choice
• 5g Powdered Sugar Substitute (I used Swerve)

For Topping

• 7g Graham Cracker Crumbs

Instructions

1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the dough & Greek yogurt. Mix together until it's nearly a ball of dough, but still a little bit loose. Since this dough is higher in protein, we have to be careful not to overwork it.
3. On a lightly floured surface, using your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the dough out into a rectangle. The dough should be about 1/2" thick- we don't want it to be too thin or there will be very little rise, but you also don't want it overly doughy.
4. Once the dough is ready to go, we'll whip up the chocolate sauce. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, stopping it every 15 seconds to stir. This should only take about 45 seconds. Remove from the microwave and then mix in the butter until silky smooth. Then, stir in the cocoa powder and brown sugar until fully mixed. The protein powder should be the very last thing mixed in. If using whey protein, it will be ready to go once mixed. If using a whey/casein blend, it's going to be very thick and require 1 tablespoon of milk added in to thin it out.
5. Spread the chocolate sauce over the dough, covering it entirely. Keep it as a thin layer- it's okay if there is a little bit of extra chocolate sauce. Globbing too much on will result in a mess.
6. Carefully roll the dough up from end to end, keeping it as tight as possible. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the roll into 8 pieces.
7. Spray a pie dish or baking sheet with nonstick spray and add your cinnamon rolls, pressing them down slightly. I went with a pie dish for these, but you can absolutely bake them on a regular baking sheet. It's okay if they're not all pretty at this stage- mine certainly weren't. We'll be covering them with icing!
8. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the rolls (I ended up using 7g total) and bake for 18 minutes.
9. While the rolls bake, make the marshmallow icing. Mix all of the ingredients together except for the marshmallow fluff. You want to make sure the protein mixture is nice and smooth, and once it is, you'll mix in the marshmallow fluff. Set aside.
10. After 18 minutes, remove the rolls from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Drizzle or spoon the icing over the rolls and enjoy! I topped with some additional graham cracker crumbs at the end, but that part is optional.

Notes

These are best served fresh, but can be kept and then reheated in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

Regarding protein powder: I had much better results using a pure whey protein powder (Bowmar Nutrition). The consistency of both the chocolate sauce and icing was significantly better than when I used a whey/casein (PEScience). When using a blend, the chocolate sauce was too thick, and then icing was too runny. That being said, it worked both times and I included a small note for the chocolate sauce if you decide to use a whey/casein blend. 

I do not count the sugar substitutes in my carb count because they have a very tiny caloric impact. Like all recipes, I suggest calculating the macros using the specific ingredients you chose to be as accurate as possible.

Nutrition Information

Yield 8 Serving Size 1 Roll
Amount Per Serving Calories 140Total Fat 2gCarbohydrates 23gFiber 1gSugar 3.5gProtein 8g

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