Sourdough Orange Cinnamon Rolls
These soft, pillowy sourdough cinnamon rolls, infused with bright orange zest and a hint of natural tang, are the perfect balance of cozy and fresh.
Equipment
- 1 measuring cups and spoons
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- ½ cup orange juice
- ½ cup sourdough starter
- ½ cup melted butter
- ½ cup sugar or honey
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4-5 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (optional - only use if baking right away)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (optional - only use if baking right away)
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
Filling
- ½ cup melted butter
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
Orange Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoon orange juice
Instructions
- To make the orange 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.
- Combine the filling ingredients 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 butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and orange zest on the dough (see video).
- Roll up dough, beginning with the long end of the rectangle.
- Using a sharp serrated knife, cut rolls into 12 equal pieces.
- 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 in a warm place 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 take them out of the freezer to raise and bake later on.
- For the quick version: proceed with baking.
Baking The Orange Rolls
- When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place rolls in the prepared pan. Bake rolls for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the rolls are baking, mix up the cream cheese frosting.
- Remove from the oven and spread the frosting over warm rolls.
- Serve with a cool cup of orange juice or milk.
- 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
Notes
- 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 sweet rolls in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of kneading or 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.
- You can use string to cut the orange cinnamon rolls if you’d like, but I find that cutting them with a knife works just fine for my family.
- The cinnamon sugar and other filling ingredients can be mixed together first and then spread on the dough, or added individually as shown in the video.
- 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 on the eggs.
