I was on a layover in Charlotte, NC a couple years back and came across a Cinnabon in the food court. I was getting fussy from a day of running around airports and felt like just having some but I still have a few standards so I checked online for an ingredients list to do a gelatin check and was shocked at what I saw.
While it qualifies as vegetarian, the list of ingredients for the Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon roll were as follows:
Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Brown Sugar, Water, Margarine [Partially Hydrogenated Soybean And Cottonseed Oils, Liquid Soybean Oil, Water, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Whey Solids, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A Palmitate Added], Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Soybean, Cottonseed), Cinnamon, Eggs, Buttermilk, Yeast , Salt, Soybean Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Egg Whites with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Whey, Molasses, Modified Corn Starch, Invert Sugar, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Azodicarbonamide, L-Cysteine, Ascorbic Acid, Lactic Acid, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Natural and Artificial Flavors, Yellow #5. source
Yeah.. no thanks. I personally try to avoid corn syrup and food coloring whenever possible, but the rest of the list was just plain unacceptable. I ended up going to one of the newsstands and grabbed a bunch of instead.
So fast forward two years or so when I randomly came across in the freezer aisle. They’re brand new and it was by pure chance that I happened to see them. I knew that Annie’s had some good stuff so I decided to give them a try, though I expected them to be gritty and have a ‘healthy’ taste to them. Fortunately I was very wrong.
They come in tubes similar to those but are just a little bit fatter. The tubes are a bit more tough to open too (but I guarantee you that it’s worth it). The instructions say to peel off the wrapper and press a spoon along the seam, but personally just smacking it along the edge of a countertop is a lot more fun and effective. The 5 rolls are pre-cut and ready to go, so all you need to do is place them on a and heat them up for around 20 minutes (you can unroll or cut them up too if you’d like). Inside the bottom of the can is a packet of to add to the rolls when they’re done – it’s not a lot of frosting, but there’s enough to cover all 5 rolls with a generous amount of gooeyness.
They smelled great out of the oven so I was hopeful.. and was not disappointed! They were absolutely amazing and were just like what you’d expect a cinnamon roll to taste like – except without all the creepy ingredients found in other buns. The only possible downside is that they contain wheat, so if you have gluten allergies you’ll probably need to pass on these. Below are the ingredients of for comparison:
are my new favorite. They’re great for breakfast, for a snack, or well, any occasion really. You can find them in specialty stores or get them directly from .Organic Wheat Flour, Organic Cane Sugar, Water, Organic Palm Oil, Organic Expeller-Pressed Sunflower and Canola Oils, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda), Organic Invert Syrup, Organic Cinnamon, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Organic Wheat Starch, Organic Tapioca Starch, Organic Vanilla Extract, Organic Rice Extract, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Natural Flavor.
