I’ve been experimenting with blood oranges a lot lately and I’ve also been experimenting with new sourdough recipes. So this recipe is basically a big experiment gone right and luckily so because I fed it to a group of photographers documenting my house for listing it for sale. Why do I always try new recipes with guests?? Well I’m super glad they worked out!! We all really just wanted to sit down and dig into the cinnamon rolls but a las, we must get the house ready!
We’ve been cleaning, painting, packing, organizing, and cleaning some more. Everyone probably says this but now that my house is so clean, maybe we should just stay and enjoy it?? No turning back! We’ve lived in our little city home for 8 years now and it really has become a sanctuary for us. I spend a quiet moment in the mornings in the breakfast room, enjoy the late morning light for my food photography, and love to cosy up by our wood burning stove on frosty winter nights.
City Home Collective did a lovely job documenting our the life that we enjoy in our little bungalow. And at the end of the shoot, we all had a lovely breakfast with great coffee too of course!
About the Recipe
This recipe may appear complex but I promise, its just as easy as any cinnamon roll recipe. If you don’t have a sourdough starter then use your favorite basic cinnamon roll recipe and just sub out the filling and glaze. I made the dough for these rolls packed with great stuff like, chopped walnuts, seeds, and whole grains. If you’re using a different dough recipe you can totally add the nuts and seeds to that dough as well. The filling is not too sweet but sweet enough and butter can easily be subbed for coconut oil. As for the blood orange glaze, all you need are a few blood oranges and some powdered sugar.
In the midst of lots of big transitions like selling our home and growing our family, I highly recommend the consumption of these Blood Orange Sweet Rolls.
Sourdough Sweet Rolls with Blood Orange Glaze
Ingredients
Sourdough bread dough:
- 1 cup bubbly sourdough starter
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup walnut oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 cups flour, 2 cups artisan bread flour and 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 tablespoons flax seeds
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds soaked in 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons salt
Cardamom brown sugar filling:
- 3 tablespoons of butter or coconut oil, melted
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
Blood orange glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4-5 tablespoons blood orange juice, juice from about 1 1/2 blood oranges
Instructions
- Attach a dough hook to your stand mixer. Pour the 1 cup of bubbly (well fed) sourdough starter into the mixing bowl. Add in the water, oil, honey, flour, chopped walnuts, flax and chia seeds and mix just until combined. Let sit for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and mix for 3 minutes.
- Remove the mixing bowl from the stand mixer and set in a warm place, covered, for 5 hours or until doubled.
- Grease a 9 x 13 pan with butter or coconut oil. Punch the dough down and use a spatula to peel it away from the bowl and onto a large, lightly floured surface. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough out slightly. The dough may be too elastic at this point (quickly shrinking back to shape as you try and roll it out). If this is the case, let the dough rest here for 15-20 minutes then try rolling it out again. Roll the dough out into a 15 x 9 inch rectangle (approximate).
- Pour the melted butter or coconut oil out over the dough and use a spatula to spread it evenly. Sprinkle with cardamom and brown sugar then tightly roll the long edge toward the other long edge. Slice into 12 even rolls (I like to cut the long roll in half then continue cutting each segment in half until there are 12 equal pieces). Place the rolls into the greased pan and set in a warm place covered with a towel to rise again for 2-3 hours or until doubled. (when its winter rising always takes longer).
- Once rolls have risen, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge or bake right away. (I like to make these the day before so that all I have to do in the morning is bake them off).
- To bake, remove rolls from the fridge and preheat the oven to 450. Once the oven is ready place rolls into the oven. Cook at 450 for 5 minutes then turn the heat down to 425 and cook for 17-18 minutes. While rolls are cooking use a whisk to stir together the blood orange glaze. Add more sugar or juice depending on desired consistency. The glaze should be thick but still runny enough to pour.
- Once rolls are done cooking remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Pour glaze over the rolls and serve warm with freshly brewed La Barba coffee 🙂
Notes
Here are directions for feeding your sourdough starter. This should be done the night before you want to use your starter.