Candy Cane Sourdough Sweet Rolls – Overnight Recipe

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These easy candy cane sourdough sweet rolls will be your favorite sweet rolls in no time!  They can be made the night before, so you can quickly bake them fresh for breakfast in the morning, or you can bake them right away for a quick dessert.  You can mix them up in a mixer, or just do some quick stretches and folds by hand if you don’t want to dirty your mixer.  These sweet rolls can also be made with discard or active sourdough starter, and they will turn out just fine.  This is a very flexible recipe for soft and fluffy peppermint sweet rolls that you and your family are going to love! With a swirl of Christmas cheer in every bite, these soft, fluffy, and peppermint-kissed cinnamon rolls are a must for the Christmas season. 

There’s nothing quite like a delicious batch of sourdough candy cane sweet rolls on Christmas morning, for a family brunch, or even for a Sunday morning breakfast. They are delicious with a warm peppermint mocha or tea for a special occasion, or even with a bowl of chili for a comforting supper.  Because they can be made the night before, you can easily have them ready for a yummy breakfast even on busy mornings.  

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion.  Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well.  When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest.  A lot of people who struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac) can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.   

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks the absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down, and the nutrients are more bioavailable to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Ingredients

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Tools

Favorite Sourdough Recipes:

How to Make Candy Cane Sourdough Sweet Rolls

Prepare The Dough

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the first six ingredients.

If using a mixer, start mixing on low and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl and knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball.  Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple of hours.  This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.  

The baking powder and baking soda are optional and only needed if you are making these with sourdough discard, or if you want to bake them right away without letting them rise first.

Combine the brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to ¼” thick in the shape of a rectangle.

Spread the filling ingredients on the dough (see video).

Sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the top of the dough.

Roll the dough up, beginning with the long side of the rectangle.

Using a sharp serrated knife, cut rolls into approximately 1 ½” lengths.

Place in a greased cast-iron skillet or baking dish.

For the long fermented version:  cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise on the counter overnight.  If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish rising a couple of hours before baking

You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls at this point and thaw them to raise and bake later.

For the quick version:  proceed with baking.

Bake The Rolls

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.  

Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate and cream together in a saucepan. Add powdered sugar and whisk together to form a glaze. 

Frost The Rolls

Remove the warm rolls from the oven and spread the glaze over the top of the rolls.

Serve warm with a cup of coffee or tea from Farmhouse Teas.

Savor every bite!  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21 

Tips

• Make-ahead options: You can make these rolls the night before and let them rise on the counter overnight, or even freeze them before baking.
• To gain all of the health benefits from making these with long-fermented sourdough, be sure to allow them to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight.  This will ensure that most of the phytic acid and gluten in the flour are consumed by the sourdough starter making these much easier to digest especially if you are gluten intolerant.
• If your sourdough starter is really thin, you may need to add a little more flour to this recipe.  I always mix them until the dough pulls away from the sides of my mixer bowl, or until it’s not super sticky if mixing up by hand.
• You can mix these in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of stretch and folds every few minutes for about an hour to develop the gluten in these rolls.  Then just roll them out, shape and allow to rise until double and then bake.
• Use a food processor or blender to turn candy canes into small pieces, or you can purchase already crushed candy canes from Amazon.
• You can use string to cut the cinnamon rolls if you’d like, but I find that cutting them with a knife works just fine for my family.
• It is perfectly safe to add the eggs to this dough and still allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight because the good active bacteria in the sourdough starter will prevent any bad bacteria from forming in the eggs.

FAQ

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