Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

These Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls are the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning. These rolls are soft, pillowy, creamy, and packed with a ton of gingerbread flavours.

About This Recipe

• This Roll recipe comes together very quickly; you can prepare it the morning you decide to have it for breakfast.
• The recipe calls for Active Dry Yeast, which makes the dough rise and proof. However, you can substitute it for Instant Yeast if you want to avoid the activation process. I personally like to activate the yeast first.
• To activate the Active Yeast, we need some warm liquid, and we use warm Milk in this recipe.
• Sugar stimulates the Active Yeast and makes it bloom. This recipe uses Brown Sugar to activate the yeast.
• Use All-purpose flour and Salt as the dry ingredients. Sift the flour a couple of times to aerate it as much as possible. This will give you a fluffy bread texture.
• The dough recipe contains Gingerbread Spice. You can get the recipe from this post. Spice Blends
• To have the ultimate gingerbread flavour, We will add two tablespoons of Fancy Molasses.
• These Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls use one Egg to create a bond between ingredients.
• Every Cinnamon rill recipe needs a fat content to keep it moist and delicious. This recipe calls for Room-Temperature Butter.
• Last but not least, use a good quality Vanilla extract.
• In my opinion, the combination of nuts and spice is always a winner. I am adding one cup of Ground Walnut to this recipe. You can add pecan if you like and adding nuts is totally optional.

How To Make These Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

• Warm up the milk to a lukewarm temperature, add the sugar and active yeast, mix and let the yeast bloom. It takes about five minutes.
• In the meantime, sift the flour, spices, and salt.
• Make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast mixture, egg, soft butter, and Molasses. Use the hook attachment to mix all the ingredients for 5-8 minutes.
• Cover the dough with a dishcloth, place the bowl in a warm spot for one hour, and let the dough rise (First Rise). You can turn your oven to 300F, turn it off, and place the bowl in the oven.

Make The Filling

• Brown the butter and let it cool down and solidify.
• Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and ground pecans well. The mixture should have the consistency of wet sand and spread easily.
• Grind the pecans in the food processor.

Assembly

• Grease a 9X13 casserole dish with butter and set aside.
• Lightly flour a working surface, and roll out the dough to have a roughly 14X16 inch rectangle. The dough should open out easily.
• Spread the filling all over the dough, but avoid about one inch of the side that is far from you. This edge will seal the dough log.
• Sprinkle the filling with ground pecans.
• Start rolling the dough tightly from the side that is close to you. Roll as tight as possible.

• You will end up having a long log. Use an unflavoured floss, string, or serrated knife to cut the log into 12 equal rolls. Place them in the greased pan. Cover the pan, let the rolls rise for the second time, and fill up the pan.
• Preheat the oven to 350, pour the heavy cream over the rolls and bake them for 30-35 minutes or until the rolls turn golden brown.
• Let them cool down before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Beat the butter until soft, pale and fluffy.
• Add the cream cheese in chunks and mix well after each addition.
• Add the powdered sugar in ¼ cup each time.
• Mix in the vanilla extract; if the frosting is stiff, add 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream.
• Spread the frosting all over the rolls and serve.

See more related recipes here;

Brown Butter Apple Blondies,

Cinnamon Bun Cookies

See more related posts here; Christmas Morning Cinnamon Bun Cake

📖 Recipe