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These delicious rolls are large, soft yeast rolls with a cinnamon orange filling and orange drizzle icing. Orange Cinnamon Rolls are perfect for breakfast, a holiday brunch, or just an afternoon snack.
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5 from 1 vote

Orange Cinnamon Rolls

These delicious rolls are large, soft yeast rolls with a cinnamon orange filling and orange drizzle icing. Orange Cinnamon Rolls are perfect for breakfast, a holiday brunch, or just an afternoon snack.
Prep Time40 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Rising Time1 hour 15 minutes
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Orange Yeast Rolls
Servings: 12 rolls

Ingredients

Yeast Dough

  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 1/4 ounce packets Active Dry Yeast
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 large egg

Filling

  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 tbsp orange zest zest from about 1 orange

Icing

  • 2/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Yeast Dough

  • Heat milk in a small sauce pan over medium heat until milk reaches 100-110 degrees If it gets hotter than this, let it cool to 110 degrees. Once milk is heated, stir together with sugar and yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes.
  • While yeast is sitting, stir together salt and flour in the base of a stand mixer. Then, add 4 tbsp of melted butter and stir well.
  • Once yeast mixture has sat for 10 minutes, pour into the stand mixer, and using the dough attachment, mix for about 20 seconds. Finally, add egg and beat until a soft ball of dough forms.
  • Spray a glass bowl with cooking spray. Remove dough from mixer and form into a ball. Place in bowl and roll dough around so that all sides are coated with cooking spray. Cover bowl and let rise in a draft free area until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. To do this, I turn my oven to 170 degrees, and once it reaches that temp, I turn the oven off. Then, I cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the off oven. It rises a bit quicker this way.
  • After dough has risen, punch down and kneed about 5 times.
  • Cover a working surface with flour and roll dough out on surface to a rectangle that is ~14" x 18". If the dough is too sticky to roll, sprinkle a small amount of flour over the top.

Filling

  • Brush the top of the rolled dough with the 4 tbsp of the melted butter.
  • In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest. Spread evenly over the dough, all the way to the two shorter sides of the rectangle, and all the way to one of the longer rectangle sides. For the final side, leave about an inch at the edge where you don't spread the mixture.
  • Starting at the bottom of the long side where the filling reaches the edge, roll tightly upward. You will finish with the non-filled inch pressed to the outside of the roll. Cut the roll into 12 even slices (each slice with be just about 1" in thickness).
  • Spray the bottom and sides of a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Place dough evenly on bottom of dish. Cover and let rise in a draft free area, or using the oven trick above, until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. If you want to make these rolls ahead, instead of letting the rolls rise at this point, cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and place dish in the refrigerator. Once ready to bake, remove dish from refrigerator and let sit in a warm, draft free area until rolls are doubled in size. This will take about 2 hours.
  • When rolls are ready to cook, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake, uncovered, until tops are golden brown, about 27-30 minutes.

Icing

  • In a small bowl stir together all of the icing ingredients. Drizzle over warm rolls before serving.