These caramel pecan sticky buns are low carb, gluten free, grain free, & sugar-free but no one will ever believe that. They are finger licking good.
Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns – Low Carb, Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, THM S, Keto, Sugar-Free
Every time I walk into a Panera I stare at the pecan sticky buns. I contemplate buying one. And then I think about how far I’ve come (45 pounds lost and counting) and shake my head. Not worth it. Besides the fact that if I bought one of those and ate all the 740 calories and 89 grams of carbs I bet I would feel sick for days.
This morning, with thoughts of Panera dancing in my head, I searched around online for a low carb version but couldn’t find what I was looking for. Never fear. I broke out the food processor, turned on the oven, and here I am with a new recipe to share.
These are lightly sweetened and go perfectly with a cup of coffee in the morning. Trust me, I just ate two with my morning joe.
What is a sticky bun?
Sticky buns are a type of dessert or breakfast sweet roll that generally consist of rolled pieces of leavened dough — sometimes containing brown sugar or cinnamon — compressed together to form a kind of flat loaf corresponding to the size of the pan in which they are to be baked. –Wikipedia
How to make sticky buns
To make sticky buns you simply make a mozzarella dough, sprinkle it with sweetener, cinnamon, and pecans, roll it up and cut it. Bake it. Top with caramel sauce.
There are several parts to this recipe but it is worth it. It shouldn’t take you longer than 20 min of active work in the kitchen to have a batch of delicious sticky buns.
If you’ve made fathead pizza dough before you can make these. It’s only slightly harder than that type of pizza.
Can I sub other nuts?
Sure! If you prefer walnuts or cashews they are delicious in this. Almonds are a bit too hard but would work.
Mozzarella Cheese in Sweet Dough??
Yes! You cannot taste it a single bit. I promise. My biggest tip with mozzarella dough is to mix it in a food processor and make sure the cheese is completely melted. This ensures you won’t have strings of mozzarella in your sticky buns.
This dough tastes like a traditional flour yeast dough without the flour or the yeast. If you prefer very sweet baked goods add sweetener to the dough.
How to Make Caramel Sauce
It is very easy to make caramel for the sticky buns. The most important thing is stirring frequently and not forgetting about it. If you leave the kitchen to do another task the caramel can easily burn. I’ve made caramel dozens of times and can tell by the smell when it is almost done. It will start to smell rich and fragrant and like caramel. The color changes and it thickens. There may also be a few darker bits forming at the very bottom. Those will look almost burned. This is when you remove the caramel from the heat.
Make sure to take a peek at my other brunch sweets:
Healthy Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
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Ingredients
Caramel Sauce Ingredients:
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or my sweetener
- 1/2 tsp caramel extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
Dough Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp butter divided
- 1/2 cup pecan halves
- 8 oz shredded mozzarella
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup ground golden flax or additional almond flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or my sweetener
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Caramel Sauce Directions:
- Combine first three ingredients and cook over medium-low heat until bubbly, slightly thickened, and lightly browned. Remove from the heat and add the salt and extract. Set aside.
- Dough Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350. Spread 1 tbsp butter in a 9-inch pie plate. Sprinkle the 1/2 cup pecan halves on top. Set aside.
- Put cheese in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave one minute. Stir. Microwave 30 seconds. Stir. At this point, all the cheese should be melted. Microwave 30 more seconds (it should look like cheese fondue at this point).
- Add the melted cheese, egg, flours, and baking powder to a food processor. Pulse until well combined. Alternatively, you can mix this by hand by you will need to dump it onto wax paper and knead it to thoroughly incorporate the ingredients.
- Press it out into a 9×12 ish rectangle on waxed paper. Spread with 1 tbsp butter, sprinkle with 1 tbsp sweetener, chopped pecans, and cinnamon. Roll up along the long side. Slice into 1 inch thick slices. Put them in the pie plate. Drizzle half of prepared caramel sauce over the top.
- Bake at 350 for 35-40 min. until the dough is golden brown. Let cool for 5 min and quickly invert onto a serving platter. Scoop out any leftover pecans and caramel sauce and drizzle over the top. Pour the remaining caramel sauce over the sticky buns. Serve warm. Store in the fridge. You can reheat leftovers in the microwave.
Margaret says
Hi, what could I use to make these dairy free?
Taryn says
I’m sorry but it’s not possible to make this recipe dairy free. Try these instead: https://www.mypcoskitchen.com/sugar-free-low-carb-keto-cinnamon-rolls/
Mena says
Hi Taryn, I mainly use your recipes for my THM baking and love them all!! With this one I had some trouble though. My dough was dry – used the flours in your recipe, but added extra almond instead of flax. What should I increase to get more moisture in the dough? More cream cheese? It also didn’t rise much at all. Do you think it will help to let it sit a while under wrap to rise? It was still good, and filling!! I just want to perfect it, is all!! Thank you for extending your kitchen to ours!!
Taryn says
I use this dough in a lot of recipes and it shouldn’t be dry. Did you use pre shredded cheese? Many of those have potato starch coating them which could have caused the dryness. Or low moisture mozzarella? Next time you could use less coconut and almond flour. Reduce each by 2 tablespoons.
Aida says
This are delicious! Even my teenager boy loved it. Is the first keto recipe that doesn’t taste “keto”. I used Lakanto and instead of using 1/2 cup of sweetener I used 1/3
Cup
Robin says
What do you do with the pecans in the buttered pie plate?
Taryn says
You put the rolls on top of the pecans, bake it, and invert it. They end up on top.
Theresa K Williams says
These are DELICIOUS!! I had just started to press the dough out on wax paper when I noticed I hadn’t added the cream cheese! I just dumped everything back in the processor and added it then. 🙂
I will definitely make these again!
Kelley says
Made these this morning, amazing. Tasted like the ones I used to make using regular flour, Was a hit with the family. Thank you for sharing recipe.
Carrie says
Thank you for saving my Thanksgiving! I needed something miraculously good AND keto, and this is definitely it! I baked these for a brunch and also am serving to my family on Thanksgiving. I substituted monk fruit and stevia for the sweetener, but otherwise followed the directions to the letter. AMAZING results. Thank you!!!
Miriam says
Maria, how much monkfruit and stevia dud you add??
Maria says
Thanks for this recipe. I made this with thm baking blend and it was very dry I couldn’t get it to stick together..I used egg white to help.. do you think this may be due to not have my cheese melty enough? Thank you
P.s. still tastes good just crumbly
Taryn says
Baking blend is just drier. You need to use less than the amount called for. And it is possible your cheese wasn’t melted enough. It should be smooth like fondue. Using room temperature eggs can also help.
Terry says
What can be subbed for the flax seed? TY
Taryn says
You can use more almond flour.
Kari says
I tried making and my caramel sauce separated and became grainy while waiting for me to prep the dough. Any ideas what I did wrong?
Taryn says
If you warm it up and whisk it should come back together. When this cools it can get grainy due to the sugar alcohols.
Linda says
What is the sweeteners you are talking about and where do I buy them or what is your recipe for it?
Taryn says
You can buy Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet on their website or on Amazon. My sweetener and links to the ingredients are at: http://www.joyfilledeats.com/sweetener
Morgan Rich says
Could I use coconut, flax and oat flour instead of the almond?
Taryn says
That should work. I would use less than 1/3 part of the oat fiber though, it tends to be drier than almond flour.
Maria says
What caramel extract do you recommend?
Taryn says
I use Watkins but I don’t love it. I think it has an aftertaste. I’ve heard the Olive Nations extracts are good.
Jamye says
Hi!
We loved these and want to make them again for sure! I was wondering how I could premake and freeze. Would you recommend making the dough and freezing it before cooking (and add the caramel and extra pecans while baking)? Or baking and just reheating?
Thanks!
Taryn says
These freeze ok but not great. I’ve baked them and frozen them before. I’m not sure freezing the raw dough would work.
Debbie says
These sound so yummy. I want to make them using your baking blend but was wondering what is the difference between ground golden flax seeds and just ground flax seeds? I thought I bought the right ones and after I opened it I realized it didn’t say golden. Can I still use them?
Taryn says
Golden flax has a slightly more mild flavor and the golden color looks nicer in baked goods. But, yes, you can just use the regular flax.