High Altitude Cardamom Orange Cinnamon Rolls

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These high altitude tested 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.

You might also love these apple butter maple cinnamon rolls, cardamom almond star bread, and cardamom ginger cake with lemon curd.

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Cooking and Baking with 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.

Cardamom has a strong, complex flavor. I’d describe it as a little spicy and bitter, with notes of citrus and herbs. 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 almond cake. It’s a very popular spice in Sweden and other Norwegian countries, used in many of their pastries and baked goods.

It’s also delicious in savory dishes, and 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.

Cinnamon rolls drizzled with orange icing.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

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
Milk.
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, Brown Sugar, and Powdered Sugar.
Coarse Kosher Salt.
Cardamom, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg.
Yeast. The yeast is what makes the rolls rise. I use a premium 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.
Vanilla Extract.
Orange. You’ll need a whole navel orange, so you can use both the fresh zest in the dough, and the juice for the icing.

Orange icing drizzled over cinnamon rolls.

Instructions

Warm the butter and milk

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk 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.
Add the warm butter/milk mixture to the bowl along with the eggs, vanilla, and orange zest. 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 baking 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.
Once the dough has doubled in size, place the covered bowl in the refrigerator to rest overnight (or for at least two hours). Chilling the dough also makes it very easy to roll out the dough in the morning.

Roll and shape the rolls.

After chilling the dough, 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 (or just a 9×13 baking pan) thoroughly with butter or non-stick baking spray.

Dough about to be rolled out for cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon roll dough rolled out into a rectangle.

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.

Cinnamon roll dough sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar.

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.

Cinnamon roll dough being rolled up into a log.

Cinnamon roll dough rolled up into a log.

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”.

Bake.

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
Bake the rolls on the center oven rack for about 18-20 minutes (in a muffin pan) or 22-25 minutes (in a 9×13 pan), until they appear done in the middle, and their color is golden brown.
Immediately remove the hot rolls from the muffin pan so they don’t stick, 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.

Just baked cinnamon rolls in a muffin pan.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

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. I’d suggest kneading/stirring the dough with a Danish dough whisk, if you don’t have a mixer.

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. I highly recommend chilling the dough for at least several hours, as this makes it easier to work with when shaping the rolls.

How should I store leftover rolls?

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.

A cardamom morning bun covered in cinnamon sugar. — Cardamom Morning Buns

Sweet potato dinner rolls with butter and flaky salt. — Cardamom Morning Buns

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