Orange Cinnamon Rolls

I know we're in September, but just for a second, sink your mind back to a morning in December where snow is outside - not the disgusting snow, but the fluffy, white, moon looking snow.

Are you imagining yourself wrapped in a Snuggie near the fireplace with slippers around your family sipping coffee with peppermint mocha creamer?

If so, which I really hope you are, what is missing? A CINNAMON ROLL! Not just any cinnamon roll, but an ORANGE CINNAMON ROLL!

Alright, now we're talking!

We won't deny a single thing on this blog - Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls is the go-to. We got that. BUT, that was before, these cinnamon rolls came into your life.

What if I told you that these can be prepared the night before and in the morning, you bake them in the oven just as long as you would an Entenmann's Cinnamon Roll? Does that make you want to try these?

For the dough, we use an electric standing mixer with the dough hook attachment. Depending on how much time you have, you can use either the rapid yeast or the normal active dry yeast. To tell you the truth, I don't know exactly what the difference is, but I feel like the cinnamon rolls are both more moist and tastier with the normal active dry yeast. I have no idea why, may I just can't get the rapid yeast right...who knows!

I usually start preparing the dough around 8PM the night before, that way, when I wake up in the morning, I can just pop them in the oven. The difference with my cinnamon rolls that I have not seen just yet, is that I put some cinnamon in the dough mixture. I do this because the good stuff is always at the top of the roll; but what if you eat a chunk at the bottom?! You just taste plain dough, that's not fun.

The dough is just a concoction of yeast, warm water, sugar, and flour; plus the ground cinnamon. The filling for the dough is butter, sugar, and cinnamon. You add the filling BEFORE you start rolling the dough into a log. Rolling the dough, is actually my favorite part. Again, I have no idea why but I enjoy rolling it into a log. After the rolls are cut into your preferred size, this when you let the cinnamon rolls rise overnight.

They will get puffy and large, so just keep that in mind if you are cutting your own rolls. For me, since I like the bakery size items, I cut the rolls about 1-1 1/2 inch thick and they rise to about double in size, which a lot of the people who have tried these rolls, enjoyed.

Now, you can sleep if you are using normal yeast...SWEAT DREAMS. Or, if you are using rapid yeast, you can go enjoy a movie on Netflix.

When you wake up in the morning, or just finish the movie, you can preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake them until the outside is just getting crispy. I like it crispy on the outside and softer on the inside.

THE ICING! Okay, this may be an unpopular opinion, but I do not like cream cheese frosting. If you do, all the power to you and if you were to buy these from me one day, I will make you cream cheese frosting.

But, for this post, I use a very simple icing with orange extract and some orange zest. The icing is a mixture of powdered sugar, milk, orange extract, and orange zest. The consistency I look for is just so that when you lift the icing with a spoon it doesn't flood back into the bowl like water; it's more like a yogurty texture.

Ice the rolls away! The icing will set, just like the pictures I have in this post. The rolls will look fluffy and beautiful.

I recommend either eating these right away or they can be stored for up to 3 days in an air tight container.

Now, snuggle up and enjoy!

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Thank you for reading! I appreciate your support and time to read my posts as Cafe Nessa. Please give me a like on this post if this is something you would buy to add to your dessert/breakfast options.

Stay happy,

Vanessa