Blood Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Ooey, gooey homemade cinnamon rolls drizzled with blood orange icing. These Blood Orange Cinnamon Rolls are where comfort food and warmer weather collide!
It all started last week when my good friend Annalise who writes the awesome baking blog, Completely Delicious posted a recipe for Lemon Cinnamon Rolls. Little did she know I’d had a mad hankering to try my hand at cinnamon rolls for months now. It’s rare that a recipe really jumps at me like these cinnamon rolls did but it’s the lemon that did me over! It just so happened to be a day that I had little going on and I also had all the ingredients on hand. So within an hour of me seeing Annalise’s post, my first attempt at cinnamon rolls were underway. It’s what I like to think of as a perfect (dessert) storm!
I’m not sure why I’ve never made cinnamon rolls before. If I’m being completely truthful, I’m always a little scared to try recipes involving yeast. For whatever reason, they intimidate the hell out of me. But now that I’m a cinnamon roll pro (whatever, one time makes me a pro doesn’t it?), this was a fairly simple recipe to follow. Lengthy, yes, but easy none the less. It’s the kind of recipe that you do a handful of things in-between. Like I folded a load of laundry while my milk cooled off. Then I watched part of a Parenthood while the dough rose. Then I picked up the kiddos from school while they rose the second time. And then I finished Parenthood while they baked. See? A productive afternoon tackling household tasks AND making cinnamon rolls. Sheesh, I should make them more often……
But I can’t make them more often. No sir. Do you know why? BECAUSE I COULDN’T STOP INHALING THEM. And while inhale is a pretty graphic description of how I ate these, it’s the truth. As soon as them came out of the oven and I snapped a few photos on my iPhone, my oldest son and I inhaled two on the stop as we worked on his homework. Never mind that we totally ruined our dinner. Who can resist a perfectly warm, soft centered, citrus filled cinnamon roll? Not this girl. The best part is that when I texted Annalise to show her that I’d made her recipe, she immediately texted me back a picture of one of my recipes that was just about to go in the oven. So fun that without each other knowing, we’re making each others recipes for dinner! Because, yes, cinnamon rolls are indeed what we had for dinner that night.
So here’s the deal. I actually only had 1/2 a lemon on hand (grrrr….) and not wanting to run out the store, I substituted blood orange zest and juice for the lemon. Otherwise I followed her recipe to a T.
Winner, winner chicken cinnamon roll dinner. Make these, trust me.
Blood Orange Cinnamon Rolls
- Yield: 12 rolls 1x
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 3–3 1/2 all-purpose flour
- 1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoon) active-dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
For the filling:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/3 cup light or dark packed brown sugar
- Zest of blood oranges
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
For the glaze:
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 2–4 tablespoons fresh blood orange juice
- Zest of 1 blood orange
Instructions
- For the full set of instructions, visit Annalise’s site HERE.
Notes
I followed Annalise’s recipe only substituting the blood orange for lemon. I did however make a few time adjustments for high altitude. After warming my milk/honey, it took almost a full 30 minutes for the temperature to come down. Dough has a tendency to rise quickly at higher altitude so keep an eye on your rolls!
10 Comments
You’ve convinced me. I can do this. Nice photos BTW.
I think your rolls are prettier than mine. Can’t wait to try the blood orange variation!
What gorgeous and fun cinnamon rolls! I’ve always gone the ultra sweet route when it comes to cinnamon rolls, and I love how the lemon and blood orange zest play into your rendition of Annalise’s recipe. We’re definitely going to have to try these soon!
These are fantastic! I prepped them last night and they were a perfect Sunday morning breakfast – with a good cup of coffee, of course. Only change I made was adding pecan pieces to the filling. Thanks for so many great high altitude recipes – I’m just above 7,000 and haven’t totally mastered baking up here quite yet.
I love the addition of pecans! I so wish I’d had some this morning!!
Is there a way to make these without lemon or orange?
yep- just leave out the citrus zest and use water or milk instead of the juice in the glaze.
The rolls came out perfectly at 5,000 feet. They are super delicious, and while they take some time, they are very doable. My rising time was definitely more than an hour and my house was pretty warm (75-80 F). Next time I’m going to warm up the bowl and get the eggs to room temperature to speed up the rising time.
Can you use Rapid Rise Yeast and does it change anything with the recipe preparation?
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