Cardamom Orange Cinnamon Rolls

What’s a more special sweet breakfast than cinnamon rolls? These easy and delicious cardamom orange cinnamon rolls are soft and pillowy, with cardamom scented, enriched yeast dough, a swirl of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, and orange icing. Make the dough at night, then roll out and shape the rolls in the morning for a breakfast that will have everyone eager to get out of bed.

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What is Cardamom?

Cardamom is a spice made from the seed pods of various plants in the ginger family. While there are a few different varieties of cardamom, including green and black, what you’ll usually find at your grocery store will be ground black cardamom.

What does it taste like?

Cardamom has a strong, complex flavor. I’d describe it as a little spicy and bitter, with notes of citrus and herbs. A little cardamom goes a long way, so you really don’t need to use too much, or you’ll overwhelm the other ingredients in your dish.

How to cook and bake with cardamom?

Cardamom is a nice complement to cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice, and I’ll often add a pinch of it to my baked goods in the fall and winter. Think buns and sweet rolls, apple pie and cake. It’s a very popular spice in Sweden and other Norwegian countries, used in many of their pastries and baked goods. Cardamom is wonderful paired with citrus, like in my cardamom ginger cake with lemon curd, and of course, in today’s cardamom orange cinnamon rolls.

It’s also delicious in savory dishes, and I especially love it with beef. Whenever I make meatloaf, meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy, or even chili, I’ll often add a little pinch of cardamom for more depth and complexity of flavor.

Ingredients

Cinnamon roll recipes have three main components: the dough, the filling and the icing. While it may seem like a lot going on, these rolls are really quite easy to make.

Enriched Yeast Dough.

The dough is enriched, which simply means it contains fat, sugar and dairy (unlike a “lean” dough, made of just flour, water, yeast and salt, which you would use for something like pizza). These extra, rich ingredients make a soft, tender dough that bakes up into the most delicious cinnamon rolls.

• Unsalted Butter. Adds richness, fat and flavor for a soft, tender cinnamon roll.
• Buttermilk. Adds flavor, moisture and acidity, which contributes to the tender texture.
• Bread Flour. Bread flour contains a higher percentage of protein, resulting in a chewier roll that tears nicely (rather than the cakey texture you might get with all-purpose flour).
• Granulated Sugar. Adds a little sweetness to the dough, although most of the sugar will come from the filling.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Cardamom + Nutmeg. Flavor and spice.
• Yeast. The yeast is what makes the rolls rise. I use instant or rapid-rise yeast which doesn’t need to be hydrated or proofed first before you add it to the flour. Active dry yeast needs to be proofed first in the liquid.
• Eggs. Add richness and fat.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Filling.

• Unsalted Butter. Melted butter brushed over the dough adds richness, and helps the brown sugar filling stick to the dough.
• Dark Brown Sugar. Sweetness and moisture for a gooey, delicious filling.
• Cardamom + Cinnamon. Flavor and spice.

Orange Icing.

All of the orange flavor in these cardamom orange rolls comes from the icing, but if you like, add even more orange flavor with some freshly grated orange zest to the dough or the icing. I always have a jar of homemade candied orange peel on hand, and I finely chopped a bit of that to sprinkle over the iced cinnamon rolls.

• Powdered Sugar. Thickens and sweetens the icing.
• Unsalted Butter. Adds a little extra flavor and richness, but you can leave it out, if you like.
• Orange Juice. Use more orange juice for a thin, drizzling consistency in your icing, or less for a thicker, spreadable frosting.

Instructions

Warm the butter and buttermilk.

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the buttermilk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F. If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It’s important that you check the temperature – if it’s too cold, it won’t activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast.

Knead the dough.

• Meanwhile, in the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together 2 1/2 cups of the flour with the sugar, salt, cardamom, nutmeg and instant yeast.When the butter/buttermilk is ready, add it to the bowl along with the eggs and vanilla. Stir together into a rough dough.
• Fit your mixer with the dough hook, and knead the dough on medium speed for 5 minutes, gradually adding the last 1/2 cup of flour. The dough will be soft and stretchy, and will not form a firm ball.

Let the dough rise.

• Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Scrape the dough into the bowl, and cover tightly with plastic. Set the dough in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
• If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise.

Refrigerate the dough overnight.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, place the covered bowl in the refrigerator to rest overnight. Making the dough at night and chilling it overnight will not only save you time in the morning, but also makes it very easy to roll out the dough in the morning.

Roll and shape the rolls.

• In the morning, flour your work surface with 1/4 cup of flour. Turn the chilled dough out and dust with flour. Roll the cold dough out into a rectangle measuring about 15×22 inches, then let rest for a couple of minutes while you prepare the filling.
• Grease a standard 12-cup muffin pan with butter or non-stick spray.

Spread the dough with the filling.

• Melt the butter and use a pastry brush to brush it over the rectangle of dough, all the way to the edges.
• In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. Sprinkle over the buttered dough.

Shape and cut the rolls.

• Roll up the dough (starting on one of the long ends) into a log, keeping it as tight as you can. Using a gentle sawing motion with a sharp, non-serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 rolls.
• Place the rolls, cut side up, into the greased muffin pan. Set in a warm place for 20 minutes, just until the rolls fill the muffin pan and puff up gently over the top. Note that they will continue to puff up and rise as they bake – this is called “oven spring”.

Brush the rolls with egg wash and bake.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Use a fork to lightly break up the egg yolk and whisk it together. Use a pastry brush to very gently brush the egg wash over the rolls.
• Bake the rolls on the center oven rack for about 18-20 minutes, until they appear done in the middle, and their color is golden brown.
• Immediately remove the hot rolls from the muffin pan, using a spoon to slide underneath the rolls to help lift them out of the pan. Set on a cooling rack or platter while you make the icing.

Drizzle the warm rolls with orange icing.

• In a bowl, stir together all the icing ingredients until smooth. Immediately drizzle over the hot rolls.
• Serve the rolls warm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should my ingredients be warm or cold when making the dough?

• All your ingredients should be room temperature. Your eggs will be too cold if you use them straight from the fridge, and the chill could prevent your dough from rising.  Let them sit out for about an hour (or place the eggs in a glass of hot water) to warm up to room temperature before adding to your dough.
• It’s very important that you check the temperature of your melted butter and warmed buttermilk, so that it reaches between 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.  This temperature is not a suggestion; it’s essential to correctly activating your yeast.  Too cold, and the yeast won’t be activated.  Too hot, and it will kill the yeast.

If I don’t have instant yeast, can I use active dry yeast?

• This recipe calls for instant or rapid-rise yeast, which does not require any proofing first, so you can just mix it right into the dough.
• Active dry yeast, on the other hand, needs to be proofed, or hydrated, in liquid first. To do this, heat your butter and buttermilk as instructed, then sprinkle the yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar, over the liquid.  Stir in and let sit until foamy, about 5-10 minutes.  Add to your dough and mix as instructed.

Can I make cinnamon roll dough without a stand mixer and dough hook?

• You can make the dough without a mixer and dough hook, but it will be more difficult to knead the dough by hand. Since the dough is soft and sticky, it’s tempting to add too much flour when kneading by hand, resulting in a drier roll.

Can I skip the step of chilling and resting the dough overnight?

• Making the dough at night and chilling it overnight will not only save you time in the morning, but also makes it very easy to roll out the dough in the morning. That said, though, if you’re an early riser, and you want to do everything in the morning, then you can certainly do so.

Do I have to bake these rolls in a muffin pan, or can I bake them in a 9×13 pan?

• You can bake the rolls in a 9×13 pan as well, just adding a few extra minutes of bake time. Cinnamon rolls baked in a pan will be square-shaped, of course, while rolls baked in a muffin pan will maintain their pretty round shape.

How long do these rolls stay fresh?

• Store the leftover rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Re-warm in the microwave at 50% power to make them warm and soft.

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