Pecan Pie Cinnamon Rolls - in the dehydrator

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I am really excited about this recipe. Everywhere I go and bring them they disappear

I first had these delicious treats probably eight years ago, and immediately I was hooked. My mom had a copy of Serene Allison’s Rejuvenate Your Life book (available on aboverubies.org or amazon) and this was one of the recipes in the book. I have adjusted some of the ingredients and steps, but it’s basically Serene’s (thanks, Serene!).

First of all, this will take a few days only due to the sprouting wheat berries step. This is actually a fun and easy recipe, but you need to prepare ahead several days.

I will be working on a recipe that only calls for flour, not sprouting, in case you need to whip them up on short notice. When I have that figured out, I’ll be sure and post it.

Sprouting

For this recipe you’ll want 3 cups of sprouted wheat berries. I measure out 3 cups of wheat berries in a 1/2 gallon mason jar, and then fill the mason jar to the top with water (and screw on a lid). Let it sit overnight or 8-10 hours, then drain out the water and loosely cover. I usually use a white lid and don’t close tight at this stage, but I’ve also screwed down a thin piece of fabric with a metal ring and that also works.

For the next two or three days you’ll want to rinse the wheat berries two or three times a day until you see them sprout. I wasn’t very patient and stopped when they sprouted 1/4″ or so, but the longer you let them go (1/2″ or 1″ tails are great) the more nutritious they are.

Making the Dough

Food process:

the sprouted wheat berries
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup

They will be moist and pasty.

Now for this next step you can either knead the wheat berry mixture with 2 cups of whole wheat flour (I grind my own whole wheat flour) right on your counter, or if you have a stand mixer, you can do like I did and transfer the wheat berry mixture to your bowl (use your dough blade!) and slowly sprinkle in 2 cups of whole wheat flour until you have a dough you can roll out nice and thin without it falling apart.

Note: the original recipe actually calls for soaking 6 cups of wheat berries, reserving half after sprouting to dehydrate and then grind into your own flour. If you’re a stickler for soaking your grains, you can use that method. I was too impatient to taste this recipe and didn’t take that extra step.

Making the Filling

I left my dough in the bowl and went back to my food processor for this next step. Alternately, you could roll out your dough at this time so it’s ready to go. Up to you

For the filling, food process:

1 cup dates
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup honey
3 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp REAL salt

Once the goopy stuff is well blended, slowly add 3 cups pecans and 3 cups walnuts. You can use all pecans, but I like to cut some of the cost by using walnuts, and I find it still tastes super great. I did soak my nuts and dehydrate them beforehand (to lower the phytic acid), and you can feel free to do the same.

Process until well blended. Resist the temptation to sit down with a spoon and eat the whole bowl

Assembling the Cinnamon Rolls

Sprinkle the surface of your counter with flour. Remove the dough from your stand mixer, or grab the dough you kneaded by hand, and pre-flatten between your hands to get started. Lay the dough on the flour, sprinkle the dough with a little bit of flour, roll with the rolling pin, and then flip and roll as many times as you need to until you have a very thin piece of dough.

As you can see, my shape isn’t perfect - if you can aim for a rectangular or square shape, that is probably better, since we’ll be rolling this into a log. But it is very forgiving (and of course the “ugly” ones you can eat right away!).

Once your dough is ready, spread with 2/3rds of the filling. We’ll be topping the cinnamon rolls with more filling when we’re done, so you want to not use it all during this step.

Once you’ve spread your filling, you can start making your log. Roll the dough away from you, trying to roll as tightly as you can, and making whatever adjustments necessary. You can see on the right side of my dough I had some dough without filling, so I just trimmed that away and kept on rolling.

Now I have my log! You can see where my kids were helping make their own

As you can see, the dough was thin enough in some places the filling came through a little - not to worry. These are very forgiving!

I sliced mine about 1/2″ thick. They are soft and when you cut them they want to flatten a bit - I just re-shaped and then placed them on my dehydrator trays (my dehydrator is like this Nesco one).

Finally, spread some more filling on the top of the cinnamon rolls.

You certainly can try one right now - just be prepared to melt into a puddle!

Aren’t they so tempting?

Unfortunately, I neglected to get a photo of the finished product before we ate them. All of them. But they look basically the same. I dehydrated them at 115 degrees for about 12 hours, and they were still somewhat soft, but held their shape on their own (I like them that way). You can dry them longer for a firmer cookie - it’s all a matter of preference.

Enjoy!