Orange Rolls Recipe

A close-up of a cinnamon roll topped with creamy orange glaze, sitting on a white plate with fresh orange slices in the background.

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Orange rolls: not as good as cinnamon rolls, right? WRONG. I'm absolutely obsessed with these zingy orange sweet rolls. The filling is basically orange candy that melts into the rolls as they bake. I've never seen another recipe like it. Usually orange rolls are all like "hint of orange." Not these bad boys. They will knock you out with their orangey attitude. Easy to make ahead! Perfect for weekends or Christmas morning!

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Rising time1 45

Total Time2 35

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 462kcal

Author: The Food Charlatan

Ingredients

For the roll dough:

1 teaspoon orange zest from 1 large orange*
1/2 cup orange juice fresh squeezed
1/2 cup whole milk or half and half, don't use skim milk
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour spooned and leveled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup butter very soft (divided)

For the orange filling

3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup orange juice fresh squeezed
1 tablespoon orange zest from at least 3 oranges

For the orange glaze

1 (8-ounce package) cream cheese full fat, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons orange zest from at least 2 oranges
2 tablespoons orange juice fresh squeezed
3 tablespoons lime juice fresh squeezed

Instructions

Prep the oranges: Begin by zesting 1 large orange. Add the zest to the bowl of your stand mixer, or to a large bowl if you are making these by hand.
Use a citrus reamer to juice the orange into a liquid measuring cup. Keep going until you have 1/2 cup fresh orange juice.
Make the sweet dough: Add 1/2 cup whole milk (or half and half) to the measuring cup with the orange juice. There should be 1 cup liquid.
Warm the oj/milk in the microwave in 20 second increments until it is nice and warm. Stir it with a small spoon and feel it with your finger. It should be about 105-110 degrees F, or about the temperature of nice bath water. If it feels at all HOT, stick it in the fridge until is cools down.
Add 1 tablespoon of yeast and 5 tablespoons granulated sugar and stir. Wait 5 minutes and check to make sure your yeast is getting bubbly. If not, you have killed your yeast; dump it and start over. Better to start over now than after hours or rising!
Once you are certain that your yeast is alive and well, add add the yeast mixture to the bowl with the orange zest.
Add two eggs to the bowl.
Add 3 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour to the mixture. Use a spoon to add flour to the measuring cup, then level off the top.
Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt to the bowl. (Use 3/4 teaspoon salt if you are using table salt.)
Use a rubber spatula to beat the dough together by hand until it is starting to come together. Then switch to the dough hook, if you have one. (If not, keep beating but switch to a wooden spoon).
Using the dough hook, beat the dough on medium speed for about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides as necessary if it's not getting incorporated.
With the mixer running on low, add 1 tablespoon of very soft butter at a time, until the entire 1/2 cup has been added in. Make sure each tablespoon of butter is fully incorporated before adding more butter. The process of adding in the butter should take a couple minutes at least.
Once all the butter is incorporated, beat on medium low speed for 5 minutes. The dough should be silky, smooth, and shiny. After 5 minutes, it will not have cleaned the sides of the bowl, but it should be formed together in a loose ball. It is VERY wet and not workable at all.
Grease a large bowl with butter or oil.** Don’t be stingy now.
Use a spatula to scrape the sweet dough into the greased bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, or up to 2 days. (Chilling is not optional. You won’t be able to work with this dough until it is completely chilled!)
Make the orange filling about 90 minutes before you are ready to roll out the dough.
Use a microplane grater to zest 3 large oranges onto a plate or bowl (at least 1 tablespoon zest, or more); set aside, we are adding it later. Juice the oranges until you have 3/4 cup.
Add 3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks), 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar, and 3/4 cup orange juice to a 3 quart saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once it reaches a boil, let the mixture cook and bubble for about 6-8 minutes, until it reaches 240 degrees F.*** Stir occasionally.
Remove from the heat when it reaches 240, and add the zest that you prepared before.
Let the orange filling cool completely. It needs to be room temperature when you spread it on the rolls. Too warm, and it will just seep out when you try to roll up the dough. This will take up to 2-3 hours, so I like to put it in the fridge to speed this up, where it should cool down in more like 30-60 minutes. Check in on it to stir occasionally, so it doesn't get too hardened on the edges. Don't let it get TOO cold, or it won't be spreadable when you put it on the dough.
Prepare the water bath: When you are ready to roll out the dough, bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove. Place a 9×13 inch pan on a bottom rack in your oven. Place another rack above it. Turn your oven on to 350 for about 2 minutes, then turn it off. Your rolls are going to rise in the oven with a water bath.
Prepare a 9x13 inch glass pan**** with nonstick spray or grease with butter.
Roll out the dough: Prepare a work surface with a generous dusting of flour. I love to roll out dough on my pastry cloth, it makes it so easy.
Scrape the chilled dough onto the flour and knead it together a couple times with your hands. Press it out into a rectangle with your hands, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a large rectangle. It should be about 1/4 inch thick if not a little thicker. It should measure about 12 inches by 16-18 inches. It doesn’t have to be exact.
Add the orange filling: After 90 minutes, your orange filling should be quite thickened and moldable. If it has hardened too much to be spreadable, put it in a bowl in the microwave for just 5-10 seconds at a time, stirring thoroughly. We don't want it to get too hot or it will melt into the very soft dough instead of spreading on top.
Use a spatula to drop the orange filling in segments on top of the dough. Use a spatula to spread it to within a 1/2 inch of the edges. Work quickly so that your dough stays cold.
Roll up the dough, starting from the long edge. As you roll, use your hands to smooth out the dough from the center to make the roll even (so that the center of your roll is not way thicker than the edge of your roll.)
Use your fingers to seal the roll.
Use a very long and sharp serrated knife to cut the dough into 12 even rolls. Use a sawing motion. Dip your knife in flour in between cuts. The dough is pretty sticky on the inside.
Place each roll in the greased 9x13 inch pan.
Cover the rolls. Once all the rolls are on the pan, generously spray some plastic wrap with nonstick spray, and cover the rolls. Do NOT forget to spray the plastic wrap. Do NOT use a tea towel. The dough is pretty sticky, and if your cover sticks to them, it will ruin your beautiful rise when you try to take it off. No, I’m not at all bitter that this happened to me on one of my test runs, why do you ask??
Pour the boiling water that you have on the stove into the 9×13 inch pan that’s on the lower rack in your oven. Make sure that you have not left the oven on. It should be nice and warm but NOT HOT. You want the rolls to rise, not cook. If you accidentally left your oven on too long, leave the door open and let it cool down. If the racks are too hot to touch with your fingers, don’t put the rolls in the oven. Let them start rising elsewhere, and put the rolls in when the oven has cooled a bit.
Rise. Let the covered rolls rise for about 45 minutes. They should be nice and puffy.
About 15 minutes before the rolls are finished rising, remove the rolls and the pan of water from the oven.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Once the rolls are quite puffy and have doubled in size, bake at 325 for 30 minutes. After 14-15 minutes when you see that the tops of the rolls have started to turn golden, cover the rolls loosely with tin foil. This prevents the tops from becoming overly browned and hard.
The rolls should be golden on top when fully baked. The best way to know if the rolls are done in the middle is to use a thermometer: the center of the rolls should be 180 to 190 degrees F. (Insert the thermometer into the bread at the center of the pan, not into the orange filling.)
Set the rolls on a wire rack to cool for a few minutes.
Make the orange glaze while the rolls are in the oven. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat 8 ounces softened cream cheese with a hand mixer until there are no lumps.
Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and beat well. Scrape the sides and bottom and beat for a couple minutes until it’s nice and fluffy.
Zest 2 oranges into the cream cheese mixture.
Add 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice and 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice to the mixture. Beat until incorporated. (This is meant to be a thin glaze; you can add more powdered sugar to thicken it if you like, but it will mute the tartness of the glaze.)
Drizzle the orange glaze over the orange rolls. Sprinkle with additional orange zest, if you like. Serve immediately.
Storage: The rolls are really best served on day 1. Keep covered on the counter. After 1 day, transfer tightly sealed to the fridge. Be sure to heat up leftovers individually in the microwave for 10-20 seconds! They are best served warm!
Freezing: Transfer the rolls to a disposable aluminum pan and wrap in two layers of plastic wrap, and a layer of foil. They'll keep in the freezer for 2-3 months. To serve, remove the foil and plastic and put the foil back on the pan. Place in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until warm.

Notes

*BUY 6 ORANGES: You need at LEAST 6 oranges worth of zest for this recipe. You won't need all of the juice, so get ready for an orange halftime snack.

**TRANSFER DOUGH TO A NEW BOWL? Sometimes I am super lazy and just scrape down the dough into a ball, cleaning the sides as much as I can, then spray the heck out of the top of the dough and the sides of the mixing bowl so it's all greased. Then I cover and refrigerate.

***ORANGE FILLING: The orange filling needs to reach at least 238-240 degrees or it will be too liquid-y to roll with the dough (it will just seep out and make a mess). You don't need a fancy thermometer, any candy thermometer will do. If you don't have a thermometer, shoot for about 8-9 minutes of cooking after it reaches a rolling boil. The mixture will have thickened. I highly recommend the thermometer! If you cook too long, the mixture will harden like candy and you won't be able to spread it at all.

****GLASS PAN IS BEST! You can use a metal pan if you like, but the rolls will brown a lot quicker on the edges. You get softer rolls in a glass pan.

Source: this recipe is adapted from my husband Eric's cousin Alice's Great Grandma Maddelin! (not Eric's great grandma—the other side of the family). Thank you dear Maddelin, for the phenomenal recipe for the cooked orange filling recipe!

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