Soft and Fluffy Orange Rolls

How is this recipe different from cinnamon rolls?

While this recipe uses the same dough as my small batch cinnamon roll recipe, the filling and frosting are different (plus there's no cinnamon).

They are an orange sweet roll, filled with a chocolate orange filling. I love these as they are a super fun twist on the classic cinnamon roll, and the orange just compliments the dark chocolate filling so, so well.

Can I make these a regular sized batch?

Yes, that works fine! Just double the dough, filling, and frosting recipe, and follow the rolling dimensions in my brown butter cinnamon roll recipe.

Small batch brioche dough without a stand mixer

I worked really hard on developing this brioche recipe that can be made without a stand mixer. If you want, you can use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, but I wanted to develop a recipe that you can use even if you don't have a mixer.

It is a bit of a trust the process recipe though. When you add the butter, things will get really sloppy for a bit. Just keep working it in. It will get there eventually, and you'll have a nice bouncy dough to work with.

Why don't all the ingredients go in at once for the dough?

When you make an enriched dough like this brioche, which means that it has eggs and butter in it, you want to develop the gluten before adding the fat to the dough, in this case the butter.

Fat coats the gluten in the dough, and so you want to develop some dough strength before adding the fat. I tested it both ways - both with melted butter and incorporating softened butter and found the dough was much more pliable and easy to work with when incorporating softened butter once the dough had a chance to gain some strength.

How to make Orange rolls ahead of time

This orange roll recipe uses a cold first rise. This gives the butter in the dough time to chill down, which makes the dough super easy to roll out and makes a nice neat roll of dough which is easy to cut.

It needs at least two hours in the fridge, but you can do the first rise up to overnight. You don't want to leave it for more than 24 hours in the fridge, but making the dough ahead of time is the best way to make these orange rolls ahead of time.

How to get clean cuts on sweet rolls

There are a few methods to get a clean cut on cinnamon rolls / sweet rolls like these orange rolls. I usually like to use a bread knife or a similar serrated knife, as I find that it gives the cleanest cut, however for these orange rolls I prefer to use dental floss to give a clean cut on them as the filling can be messy.

To cut rolls with dental floss, measure out your rolls with a ruler, then using a clean piece of unflavoured floss or twine, place it under the log of dough, bring up either side, and cross over to cut the rolls.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tools and equipment do you use?
You can find a full list of the tools and equipment I use on my products page

Can I make these in a 9" pan?

Yes - just roll to the same dimensions as my small batch cinnamon rolls and cut into 9 instead of 6 rolls and arrange in the 9" (23cm) pan. This also works in an 8" (20cm) pan.

Can I use active dry yeast instead of instant?

Yes, if you want to use active dry yeast, this will work - you will just need to activate it first. Use the same amount that is called for in the recipe, but combine the lukewarm milk, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl and leave until the yeast is foamy then proceed with the rest of the recipe.