cinnamon is a synonym for nooooooooom

when boy and i moved in together we had to consolidate our spices and come up with a good storage plan for what ended up being boxes and boxes of spices.  what was the most weird about this, was that between us, we had six(!) receptacles full of different types of cinnamon.  i have actually never made anything with cinnamon and he couldn't remember ever using it either so this was strange.  last night whilst making bread,  i said to myself, "self, this seems like cinnamon roll dough."  then ding! ding! ding! i finally came up with a way to use a measly two teaspoons of it.  so here is a low carb cinnamon roll with butter cream icing recipe.  yields ~18 rolls, 1.5 hours prep + cook time, ~4.06 net carbs per roll.

ingredients:

(please excuse my poor droid quality photos.  i left my camera in a rental car some months back, but if you know me, you know i like gifts)

1 cup almond meal/flour
1 cup hazelnut meal/flour
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 cup raw pecans
0.5 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cardamom
0.125 tsp ground cloves
0.125 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup butter
1 egg
0.25 cup hot water
0.75 cup + 2 tsp granulated Splenda

• in a small pot heat .75 cup of the heavy cream to a light boil.  some may scoff at heavy cream, but cream is substantially lower in sugar and thus carbs than regular milk.  when the cream starts bubbling, remove it from the heat and add .25 cup of butter to it and stir it around until its all melted
• in a large bowl, mix 3 types of flour, yeast, baking powder, salt, and 0.25 cup Splenda.  add milk/butter mixture, water, & egg and mix together really well.  i had to do this with a fork, once again, because i'm still missing that Kitchenaid stand mixer (please note how lovely the cinnamon colored one is)  if your dough is too wet, add a sprinkle of more of one of your flours, but this is a greasy wet dough so don't dry it out too much.  
• take dough from bowl and knead it out on a dry surface for 2-4 minutes, then place your dough back in a bowl, cover it and let it rest for at least ten minutes.  this will make your hands super greasy and nasty.  sometimes my favorite part of cooking is washing my hands because i'm a little bit crazy.  i used to always have this issue where i would wash my hands but they would still smell like garlic or whatever and then i bought this soap:

omg its so amazing.  you'll totally thank me.

• whilst your dough is "resting", make the cinnamon spread for the inside.  chop up pecans and add to 0.25 cup of melted butter and all of your spices + the 2 tsp of Splenda.  mix all this junk together really well.  the reason why i used all those different spices is because traditional cinnamon rolls use a paste with a brown sugar base and i was trying to recreate that consistency without adding unnecessary carbs.  set aside
• i also used this time to make the butter cream.  combine 0.5 cup butter (left at room temperature for a long while, this will make it much easier to use) 0.5 cup Splenda and mix until a bit fluffy.  add remaining 0.25 cup cream and mix it all together.  keep mixing it for a while, once again helped by the stand mixer that i don't have.  if its too wet, pour off excess cream.  boy likes to put this in his coffee.  set aside
• my dough had "rested" for ~20 minutes at this point, but frankly it didn't look any different from before.  whatever.  preheat oven to 375F and roll out the dough into a rectangle ~ 12"x18".  you don't need any flour for this because the dough is so buttery.  spread your pecan/cinnamon past all over your rectangle of dough.  make sure to reach the edges, or your edge rolls will suck.  
• now roll your dough up hotdog style so that its tight and sticks together.  cut one inch slices from the roll until you've cut the whole roll which should be ~18" long.  I used a muffin tin for baking my cinnamon rolls because i knew they wouldn't expand much without real flour and i like the crispy part of baked goods best.  place in the oven for ~30 minutes, but check them after 20 to make sure they're okay.  some peeps may like 'em softer, some crispier.  you decide.
• promptly top each cinnamon roll with a spoonful of your butter cream icing and spread it around.  the icing will melt super quickly since its made out of butter.  i only used about a third of all of the butter cream, but some people like a lot of it, so the carb count reflects that.  i'll prolly just put the rest of mine in the freezer and use it on something else.

look how perfectly adorably delicious these noms are!  now you can eat them.  nom nom nom nom nom...