Love at First Bite – Make This Giant Strawberry Cinnamon Roll For Valentine’s

Serves: 8

Ingredients

Dough

1 pack store-bought cinnamon rolls (get the big ones!)

Or make your own dough!

Filling

1 cup strawberry jam

(I used the chia berry jam with strawberries from my cookbook, Everyday Indulgence)

1 tsp cardamom (optional)

Glaze

1 oz cream cheese or goat cheese (room temp)

4 tbsp butter (room temp)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup powdered allulose (or all allulose if you’d like)

1/2 cup collagen peptides (unflavored, unsweetened)

2 tbsp strawberry jam

1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

1 tbsp whole milk (I use grass fed)

The Rest

Freeze-dried strawberries (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Prep the dough. If you’re making your own dough, go ahead and prepare that now. Otherwise, remove store-bought cinnamon rolls from the fridge, open the package and bring to room temp.
2. Prep the jam. If you’re making your own jam, do that now, then let cool. If you’re not making a chia jam, make sure to add a little (~ 1 tsp) cornstarch to your homemade jam to thicken it up a little. I also added about a tsp of cardamom to mine as well.
3. Assemble the cinnamon roll. Unroll the dough and arrange next to each other in one large rectangle. (If making your own dough: On a floured surface, roll out to a 12×9 rectangle. You can use a floured rolling pin or wine bottle for this.) Spread the cooled jam evenly over the dough, then loosely roll up the first strip and place in the center of a greased 12” oven-safe skillet (I used cast iron). For each additional piece of dough, loosely wrap each piece around the dough in the skillet until no pieces remain. (If making your own dough, cut into nine 1” strips and arrange in the pan the same way.)
4. Rest/rise and bake. Cover the giant cinnamon roll with plastic wrap/aluminum foil and top with a warm towel, then let rise for another 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake for about 25 minutes, or until lightly golden and cooked through. You can check for doneness with a needle thermometer (like a meat thermometer) — it should read about 190°F.
5. While the cinnamon roll is in the oven, make the glaze. To a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese (or goat cheese), softened butter, sugars and collagen. Whisk by hand just until incorporated, then add the strawberry jam, cardamom and milk and whisk again just until incorporated.
6. Cool, glaze and garnish. Remove the cinnamon roll from the oven and cool for 10 minutes, then pour the glaze evenly over the top of the rolls and top with crushed freeze-dried strawberries. Enjoy immediately!

Notes

• To make ahead, complete steps 1-3, then cover and rest in the fridge overnight. Make sure you let the dough come completely back to room temperature (outside and inside of the roll) before baking to ensure all of it gets cooked through.