These high altitude tested poppy seed rolls are flavored with fresh orange zest and filled with homemade poppy seed filling. Starting with my favorite simple yeast dough recipe for cinnamon rolls, poppy seed breakfast rolls are soft, light and fluffy, with a nutty, only slightly sweet filling. They’re delicious for breakfast with a cup of coffee!
You might also love these recipes for almond sweet rolls, biscuit dough cinnamon rolls, and pecan caramel sticky buns.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Make at Night, Bake in the Morning. The dough needs to chill for at least a few hours before you shape the rolls. I usually make the dough at night, let it chill overnight, then shape and bake the rolls in the morning. You can also refrigerate the shaped rolls overnight, and then bake them the next day. Be sure to see my original cinnamon rolls recipe for lots of variations and make ahead tips.
Not Too Sweet. You should note that the sweetness in these poppy seed rolls is subtle, since there’s not nearly as much sugar in them as you’d find in cinnamon rolls. The nutty flavor of the poppy seeds is strong, so this is a recipe for someone who loves poppy seeds! You can certainly drizzle the rolls with icing if you like a sweeter breakfast roll, and you can find icing recipes in the recipe variations section below.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. Today’s recipe should work at any altitude without adjustments, though, with the main difference simply being in how long the dough takes to rise. Yeast dough tends to rise faster at higher altitudes, so be careful not to over-proof the dough.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 recipe Cinnamon Roll Dough. This is my go to yeast dough for all of my cinnamon roll recipes. It’s soft, pillowy, fluffy, and easy to work with.
- Fresh Orange Zest. This is optional, but the brightness of the orange zest in the dough nicely balances the nuttiness of the poppy seeds.
Filling
- Poppy Seeds.
- Custard. You’ll be making a quick and simple custard with butter, milk, granulated sugar, salt, egg and vanilla. The custard will thicken slightly, and then you simply stir in the poppy seeds, and your filling is ready.
Instructions
Dough
- Prepare the Cinnamon Roll Dough, as instructed, adding the fresh orange zest to the dough.
- After letting the dough rise to double in size, cover and refrigerate the dough overnight.
- When ready to assemble and bake the rolls, on a lightly floured surface roll out the chilled dough into a rectangle measuring approximately 12×18 inches.
Filling
- Using a coffee grinder, spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind the poppy seeds until they become powdery and the texture resembles potting soil. Scrape the ground poppy seeds into a bowl, and set aside.
- In a small saucepan set over medium to medium low heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the milk, sugar, salt, egg and vanilla.
- Stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, heat the custard mixture until it thickens enough to coat the back of the spatula. This should take about 5-10 minutes.
- Set a fine mesh strainer over the bowl of poppy seeds, and pour the custard through the strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg.
- Stir the poppy seed filling until smooth, then refrigerate for about 10 minutes to cool it down before filling the rolls. You can also make the filling 1 day in advance, keeping it refrigerated until needed.
- Spread the cooled filling evenly over the dough.
Shaping
- Roll up the dough (starting on one of the long sides) 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. You can also use unflavored dental floss to cut the dough, by sliding the floss under the log of dough, then crossing it over the top to cut through.
- Butter a standard sized 12-cup muffin pan (or a 9×13 inch baking dish) and place the rolls, cut side up, in the pan. Cover the pan with a towel, and set in a warm place for just 20 minutes, until slightly puffed.
Bake
- Meanwhile, 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 (if baking them in a muffin pan) or for about 20-25 minutes (if baking them in a 9×13 baking pan). The rolls should be puffed, a very pale golden brown, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of one of the rolls should read 190F.
- Let cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm with softened butter or jam, or drizzle with icing. You can find icing recipes in the recipe notes section below.
Recipe Variations
Cream Baked Poppy Seed Rolls. For the ultimate gooey texture, bake the rolls in a 9×13 baking dish. Just before baking the rolls, pour 1/2 cup slightly warmed heavy whipping cream over the rolls, then bake as instructed.
Icing. For a sweeter finish, dust the baked rolls with powdered sugar. Or, combine 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 4-5 tbsp milk or cream, until smooth and drizzly. Drizzle the icing over the rolls. For an orange icing, replace the milk with orange juice.
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
Store leftover rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Reheat individual rolls in the microwave at 50% power for about 30 seconds.
If you don’t want to make the filling, you can use a can of Solo Poppy Seed Cake and Pastry Filling instead.
This is not a very sweet roll. I personally enjoy them less sweet, warm from the oven with some softened butter. For a sweeter treat, you can serve them with jam (orange marmalade or apricot preserves would be wonderful with the poppy seeds), or see the icing recipe in the section above.
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High Altitude Orange Poppy Seed Breakfast Rolls
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
- 12-Cup Muffin Pan (or a 9×13 Baking Dish)
- Coffee Grinder (or a Spice Grinder or Mortar and Pestle)
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 recipe Cinnamon Roll Dough
- 1 tsp fresh orange zest (zest of 1/2 a navel orange)
Filling
- ¾ cup poppy seeds
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- â…“ cup whole milk
- â…“ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Dough
- Prepare the Cinnamon Roll Dough, as instructed, adding the fresh orange zest to the dough.
- After letting the dough rise to double in size, cover and refrigerate the dough overnight.
- When ready to assemble and bake the rolls, on a lightly floured surface roll out the chilled dough into a rectangle measuring approximately 12×18 inches.
Filling
- Using a coffee grinder, spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind the poppy seeds until they become powdery and the texture resembles potting soil. Scrape the ground poppy seeds into a bowl, and set aside.
- In a small saucepan set over medium to medium low heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the milk, sugar, salt, egg and vanilla.
- Stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, heat the custard mixture until it thickens enough to coat the back of the spatula. This should take about 5-10 minutes.
- Set a fine mesh strainer over the bowl of poppy seeds, and pour the custard through the strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg.
- Stir the poppy seed filling until smooth, then refrigerate for about 10 minutes to cool it down before filling the rolls. You can also make the filling 1 day in advance, keeping it refrigerated until needed.
- Spread the cooled filling evenly over the dough.
Shaping
- Roll up the dough (starting on one of the long sides) 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. You can also use unflavored dental floss to cut the dough, by sliding the floss under the log of dough, then crossing it over the top to cut through.
- Butter a standard sized 12-cup muffin pan (or a 9×13 inch baking dish) and place the rolls, cut side up, in the pan. Cover the pan with a towel, and set in a warm place for just 20 minutes, until slightly puffed.
Bake
- Meanwhile, 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 (if baking them in a muffin pan) or for about 20-25 minutes (if baking them in a 9×13 baking pan). The rolls should be puffed, a very pale golden brown, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of one of the rolls should read 190F.
- Let cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm with softened butter or jam, or drizzle with icing. You can find icing recipes in the recipe notes section below.
These were delicious! My only mistake was rolling up the pastry from the short end. Oops. So I put them in a 9×13 pan and they swelled into each other. This was my most ambitious attempt yet in my quest to learn how to bake in high altitude after living in Colorado for 40 years. I did not change a thing- I would be afraid to.