Cardamom-Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 12 servings

Make these on a holiday morning, or any morning you want the house to smell like a bakery. The move is a tangzhong: a little of the dough's own flour cooked with some of its milk into a paste before anything else happens. That cooked starch holds extra moisture, so the rolls bake up soft and stay soft for days. Cardamom joins the cinnamon in the dough and the filling, brown butter makes the swirl taste toasty instead of just sweet, and an orange cream cheese frosting, spread while the rolls are warm, brings the tang and the brightness.

Ingredients

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Before you start

Read through the recipe before you start the tangzhong; most of the time goes to two rises. Gather the pan, saucepan, mixer, bowls, thermometer and measured ingredients, and set the eggs, cream cheese and frosting butter out to soften.

Directions

Measured cinnamon-roll ingredients sit in bowls beside the empty pan, with butter and cream cheese softening.

Measure everything and soften the dairy

For the whole recipe

Read through the recipe, gather the equipment, and use the ingredient lines to measure and prepare everything; most of the time goes to two rises. Set the eggs, cream cheese and the frosting butter on the counter to soften. Everything is measured and within reach.

A brush spreads softened butter evenly across the bottom and sides of the rectangular baking pan.

Butter the pan

For each pan

Butter the 9 x 13-inch metal or glass baking pan with the softened butter until the bottom and sides are evenly coated.

Melted butter swirls through warm milk in a saucepan while an immersed thermometer reads 105°F.

Cook the tangzhong

For each pan

Whisk about 1/2 cup whole milk and about 1/4 cup all-purpose flour in the small saucepan until no lumps remain. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens into a smooth paste that holds the lines of the whisk, about 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape this tangzhong into the stand mixer bowl and let it cool while you warm the milk and butter.

Why it works: the tangzhong

Cooking a little flour with milk swells its starch so it holds far more water than raw flour can. That water stays in the baked rolls, which is why they come out pillowy and are still soft days later. Nothing is added: the flour and milk come out of the dough's own totals.

Shaggy dough clings to the hook inside the mixer bowl, with no dry flour remaining.

Warm the milk and butter, never hot

For each pan

Warm the remaining whole milk and the dough butter in the small saucepan over low heat, stirring until the butter melts. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool until an instant-read thermometer reads 100 to 110°F (38 to 43°C); it feels warm on your wrist, not hot.

Why it works: warm milk, never hot

Yeast is alive: warm milk wakes it up and hot milk kills it. If the thermometer reads over 110°F, stir the milk off the heat and wait until it is back in range before it meets the yeast.

Hands stretch dough into an intact translucent windowpane above a bowl of smooth kneaded dough.

Mix the dough with cardamom

For each pan

Add the remaining all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, yeast, 1 tsp ground cardamom and 1 tsp fine salt to the cooled tangzhong in the stand mixer bowl. Add the warm milk mixture and the eggs, and mix on low with the dough hook until a shaggy dough forms with no dry flour left, about 1 minute.

Puffy risen dough fills an oiled bowl, retaining a shallow dent beside a lifted floured finger.

Knead to a windowpane

For each pan

Knead on medium-low until the dough is smooth and stretchy, pulls away from the bowl, and a walnut-size piece stretched thin lets light through without tearing, about 6 to 8 minutes. If it stays pasty, add extra all-purpose flour a tablespoon at a time, no more than about 1/2 cup for this batch; if it feels stiff and dry, add extra whole milk a teaspoon at a time, no more than 2 tsp for this batch.

Technique: the windowpane test

Kneading lines up the flour's gluten into a stretchy net that traps the yeast's gas and holds the spiral tall. When a small piece stretches thin enough to let light through without tearing, the net is ready. Tangzhong dough feels softer and tackier than plain dough, so trust the stretch, not the stickiness.

A fork leaves soft ridges in evenly mixed cinnamon, brown sugar, and butter paste inside a bowl.

Let the dough rise until the poke stays

For each pan

Oil the large bowl with the canola oil, turn the dough in it to coat, cover it, and let it rise somewhere warm until doubled and a floured finger pressed 1/2 inch in leaves a dent that springs back slowly and only partway, about 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Hands roll the cinnamon-covered dough rectangle snugly toward its bare far edge on the floured counter.

Brown the filling butter and chill it soft

For each pan

Meanwhile, brown about 3 oz unsalted butter in the small saucepan, wiped clean, over medium heat, swirling the pan often as it foams and goes quiet, until the bits on the bottom turn hazelnut brown and it smells nutty. Pour it into the small bowl, scraping in every brown bit, and refrigerate it, stirring now and then, until it is opaque and as soft as room-temperature butter, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Why it works: brown butter in the swirl

Browning toasts the butter's milk solids, so the filling tastes nutty and caramel-deep instead of just sweet. Chilling it back to soft keeps it a paste that stays inside the spiral rather than leaking into the pan.

If it goes wrong: the brown butter set hard

Leave it on the counter and stir now and then until it is as soft as room-temperature butter. If it smelled burnt in the pan, start again with fresh butter; burnt butter makes the whole filling bitter.

Twelve pale cinnamon spirals have risen puffy and touching in the buttered pan beneath a lifted cover.

Mash the brown-butter filling and taste

For each pan

Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and 1 tsp ground cardamom to the browned butter in the small bowl and mash until a smooth, soft paste forms. Taste a little of the filling. Aim for deep, warm cinnamon and cardamom that tastes sweet but not flat. If it tastes flat, mash in fine salt to taste.

House call: cardamom with the cinnamon

Cardamom alongside cinnamon is a pairing associated with Scandinavian buns. It adds a floral, citrusy lift that makes the rolls smell like a bakery and taste less familiar, and it plays right into the orange frosting.

The oven display reads 350°F above an empty center rack, ready for the risen rolls.

Roll out, fill and roll up

For each pan

Roll the dough on a counter dusted with some of the extra flour into an 18 x 12-inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick, with a long side toward you. Spread all the filling evenly to the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch bare strip along the far long side. Roll it up snugly from the near long side and pinch the seam until it is sealed closed.

Twelve deep golden rolls rest in the pan on a rack, with the middle roll reading 190°F.

Cut the rolls and let them rise

For each pan

Turn the log seam side down, mark it into 12 equal pieces with light knife nicks, and cut them with the floss or serrated knife, sawing without pressing. Set the rolls cut side up in the buttered pan, cover them, and let them rise somewhere warm until puffy and touching, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Technique: cutting with floss

Slide a length of plain, unflavored floss under the log at a nick, cross the ends over the top and pull. It cuts straight through without squashing the spiral the way a pressed knife does.

Make ahead: bake them in the morning

Cut the rolls into the pan the night before, cover it tightly and refrigerate it instead of doing the second rise. In the morning, let the cold rolls finish rising somewhere warm until puffy and touching, which takes longer than usual, then heat the oven and bake.

Lifted mixer beaters hold soft peaks of smooth cream-cheese frosting above the mixing bowl.

Heat the oven

For each pan

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with a rack in the center position while the rolls finish rising. Bake only after the oven reaches 350°F.

A spatula spreads cream-cheese frosting over warm rolls in the pan, melting it into the spirals.

Bake until the middle roll is done

For each pan

Bake on the center rack at 350°F until the rolls are deep golden brown, the middle spiral is set rather than wet when nudged, and the center of the middle roll reads about 190°F (88°C) on the instant-read thermometer, about 22 to 28 minutes. If the tops darken first, lay the foil loosely over the pan. Set the pan on the wire rack.

Why it works: check the middle roll

The rolls in the middle of the pan are surrounded by dough and finish last, so a golden top on the edges tells you little about them. A set middle spiral and the thermometer reading in the center roll are the real signal.

A spatula transfers one frosted cinnamon roll to a plate, revealing tender crumb beside the remaining pan.

Beat the orange cream cheese frosting

For each pan

Beat the cream cheese and the frosting butter with the hand mixer until completely smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 tbsp orange zest until fluffy, then beat in 1–2 tbsp whole milk until spreadable. Taste the frosting. Aim for sweet, clearly tangy and bright with orange, not plain sugar. If it tastes flat, beat in fine salt to taste or fresh lemon juice to taste. If it is too thin, beat in extra powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time, no more than about 1/4 cup for this batch.

Cool briefly, then frost

For each pan

Cool the rolls in the pan until warm but no longer steaming hard, about 10 minutes, then spread all the frosting over them so it melts into the spirals.

Pull apart and serve warm

For the whole recipe

Pull the rolls apart into 12 servings of one roll each and serve them warm.

Make it yours: from safe to wild

Safe: sprinkle chopped toasted pecans over the filling before you roll. Bolder: sticky pecan buns, baked over brown sugar, butter and pecans and turned out upside down. Wild: a savory twist with sharp cheddar and scallions in place of the sweet filling, and no frosting.

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Recipe url: https://isthebestrecipe.com/breads/cinnamon-rolls
Name: Cardamom-Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
Servings: 12
Recipe yield: 12 servings
Recipe ingredient: 1 tbsp butter softened, for the pan, about 1 cup whole milk divided, for the tangzhong and the dough, about 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour spooned into the cup and leveled, divided, about 2 oz unsalted butter for the dough, about 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 2 tsp ground cardamom divided, 1 tsp fine salt, 2 whole large eggs at room temperature, 1 tsp canola oil for the bowl, about 3 oz unsalted butter browned and chilled until soft, for the filling, about 3/4 cup light brown sugar packed, 1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon, about 4 oz cream cheese softened, 2 tbsp unsalted butter softened, for the frosting, about 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tbsp orange zest finely grated, 1–2 tbsp whole milk for the frosting
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