Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls With Citrus and Vanilla
It's heaven in your mouth. Soft bread with a slight bite, sweet and tangy frosting, rich and spicy filling, this treat will make any day a luxury. Go ahead and treat yourself. This frosting is enough for 2 batches of rolls, or one if you're feeling extra indulgent.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer (optional if you want to get swole)
- 9x13 baking dish
- Parchment paper
- Oil spray
- Rolling Pin
- Mixing bowls
- Rubber or icing spatula
- Food scale (optional)
Ingredients
Dough
- 84 grams (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature for dough
- 60 grams (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted for brushing before baking
- 107 grams (.5 cup) white granulated sugar
- 6 grams (1 teaspoon) fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs; 2 whole and one yolk
- zest of one orange
- 580 grams (4 cups) bread flour
- 1 packet (7g/2.25 teaspoons) instant yeast
- 242 grams (1 cup) buttermilk, lukewarm
- oil or cooking spray for greasing
Filling
- 225 grams (1 cup) light brown sugar
- 14 grams (1 tablespoon) muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar
- 18 grams (2.5 tablespoons) ground cinnamon
- 2 grams (.5 teaspoon) ground cloves
- 84 grams (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
Frosting
- 230 grams (8 oz) full fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 113 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 150 grams (1.33 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 grams (.5 teaspoon) fine sea salt
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped of its seeds
- 4 grams (1 teaspoon) vanilla bean paste or 3 teaspoons if you can't get a vanilla bean
- 5 grams (1 teaspoon) lemon juice
- zest of one orange yes, this is a second orange!
Instructions
Dough:
- In a stand mixer, combine 84g softened butter, 107g of granulated sugar, and 6g of salt. Cream together until light and fluffy, starting on a lower speed and increasing to higher speeds once beginning to incorporate.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding one at a time 2 whole eggs, one egg yolk, and zest of your first orange, incorporating throughly as you go. Mix on medium high until incorporated.
- At half or less power, warm buttermilk in a bowl in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring intermittently to avoid it curdling, until it's lukewarm--around 100F/38C. Add instant yeast to buttermilk mixture and whisk to combine. If it curdles a little, just whisk it to break up the clumps.
- Add 580g of bread flour, and your yeast and buttermilk mixture to the stand mixer bowl. Mix on medium low speed with paddle attachment until just combined.
- Switch to a dough hook attachment and knead for 10 minutes on medium speed, or by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5-8 minutes. This dough is sticky, but that's what we want. This doesn't need to 100% pass a window pane test, but makes sure it gets springy from good gluten development.
- In a lightly greased bowl that's at least twice the size of your dough ball, place your dough, cover with plastic wrap, and let proof for 2 hours. Feel free to make the filling at this stage, taking butter out of the fridge to let soften.
- Flour your work surface and rolling pin lightly, and then turn out the dough onto your work surface. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, about 14 x 18 inches in size.
Filling:
- With a rubber or icing spatula, smooth softened butter over the surface of your dough evenly and gently.
- In a medium-large bowl whisk together light brown sugar sugar, muscovado or dark sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Mix to combine and then spread it evenly over your rolled out dough, leaving a half inch border around the edges. Roll the dough from the bottom, away from you, to the top, in a tight roll.
- With the seam side facing down, optionally trim off about 1 inch from either end to keep these neat, then slice the rest into 12 even slices with a serrated knife.
- Oil and add parchment paper to a large baking dish (this will help us remove them from the dish later, so they can be pulled apart), and then add your cinnamon rolls. Make sure they have about ½ an inch of space between them, with the tails facing each other.
- Cover with greased, loose plastic wrap, and proof rolls at room temperature for 1.5 - 2 hours, or until about doubled in size. Make frosting during this stage if not already made ahead of time.
Frosting:
- In a mixer cream together 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese, and 4 ounces of room temperature butter on high speed.
- Reducing to slow speed, gradually add sugar, then orange zest, vanilla, and lemon juice. Mix to combine thoroughly, increasing speed as needed once sugar is combined.
Bake:
- Preheat your oven to 375F/190C.Remove plastic wrap and brush the tops of the rolls down with 60g/3 tablespoons melted butter.
- Bake in the oven at 375F/190C for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Tent with foil and bake an additional 10 minutes or until the rolls register as 200F/93C in the middle.Remove from oven, let sit and cool for only 5 minutes.
- Remove rolls as a whole from the baking dish, and place on a wire rack. Pull apart to serve, reheat if no longer hot. Apply desired amount of frosting on top of roll when serving, to avoid the rest getting soggy. I frost them only per serving as I eat/serve them, to keep them a bit crispy on top.
- Enjoy!
Notes
This frosting is enough for 2 batches of rolls, or one if you're feeling extra indulgent. Macros below for both options, with the calories above using half a batch of the frosting.
Cinnamon rolls nutrition (12 servings):
Calories: 436
Macros: carbs: 63.5g; fat: 15.7g; protein: 9 g
Frosting nutrition (for 24/12 servings):
Calories: 100 (for 24 servings)/200 (for 12 servings--or double frosting)
Macros: carbs: 8.1/16.2g; fat: 7.2/14.4g; protein: 0.7/1.4g