hot cross cinnamon rolls

When Easter brunch is days away and you can’t decide whether to make hot cross buns or cinnamon rolls, make both — in one recipe! These Hot Cross Cinnamon Rolls combine the best of both worlds with an orange-and-raisin-infused dough and a sweet-and-citrusy icing for a special morning treat worthy of any brunch spread.

Hot Cross Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

To me, brunch is incomplete without cinnamon rolls at the table. But also, Easter brunch is incomplete without hot cross buns at the table. So what is a gal or guy to do, if you want both but don’t have the time/energy/capacity/ingredients to make both separately? You MAKE THESE ROLLS.

These hot cross cinnamon rolls are the perfect combination of two beloved brunch treats. You get the soft dough and orange/raisin/cranberry flavors reminiscent of traditional hot cross buns (plus the classic cross shape on top) but the swirly-sweet, cinnamon-y goodness of a cinnamon roll with a decent slather of icing for good measure. They’re so good, you’d be remiss to make them only for a holiday weekend–I foresee these rolls making an appearance on weekends in our home over and over again (bonus: they make the house smell ah-mazing).

The Best Ingredients for Hot Cross Cinnamon Rolls

To make this recipe, you’ll need a decent amount of pantry-friendly ingredients (or ingredients you easily can acquire at any grocery store). As always, I recommend using the highest-quality ingredients you can find or afford, as it goes a long way in the end results of a baked good. Here’s what you’ll need:

• All-purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Instant yeast
• Salt
• Allspice
• Nutmeg
• Milk (preferably whole milk, or 2% milk)
• Unsalted butter
• Large eggs
• Fresh navel oranges (for zest and juice)
• Raisins
• Dried cranberries or currants
• Brown sugar
• Cinnamon
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla

It seems like a large list, but if you’re a regular baker, you probably have most of these ingredients on hand. And if not, most of the ingredients used in this recipe are used in a lot of baked goods, so you can consider this your starter kit.

How to Make the Best Cinnamon Rolls of Your Life

In general, cinnamon rolls rank near the top of easiest baked goods to make (and that’s great news, because they’re delicious). Still, there are always a few tips and tricks to keep in mind so you get, like, the best-best version of these cinnamon rolls possible.

• Always measure your flour correctly. I swear by the scoop-and-sweep method, which goes like this: First, use a spoon to fluff up the flour a bit in its container, so it’s not all packed down. Then, use that spoon to add flour to a dry measuring cup. Once full, use the handle of the spoon to sweep the top of the flour so it’s flat with the top of the measuring cup. When you measure flour correctly, you end up with light and airy baked goods, rather than tough and dense ones.
• If the recipe calls for room temperature ingredients, follow the rules. Calling for a room-temperature ingredient is done on purpose, because that means it will incorporate into the recipe most successfully that way. In this recipe, I call for room-temperature butter to spread onto the dough before rolling, because the dough is soft and tender, so we don’t want cold butter tearing into the dough as we spread it on top.
• When in doubt, always use unsalted butter, whole milk and large eggs for a baking recipe. These are the usual suspects when it comes to baking, and in the case of this recipe along with many others on my site, unless it is specifically mentioned otherwise, this is always the type of butter/milk/eggs that I use (Disclaimer: Sometimes I will use 2% milk instead of whole milk if that’s what I have on hand, but that is a common substitute that doesn’t usually affect the outcome of a recipe).
• Let the dough rest! Thankfully, we are using instant yeast for this recipe so we don’t have to wait as long to get these rolls into our bellies, but that doesn’t mean we can skip the rest/rise times completely. These are important steps to a recipe to allow the dough to puff up, the gluten to relax and the flavors to meld. Be patient!

Can I Make These Rolls Ahead of Time?

Yes, you can! If you want to make the dough the night before, once you’ve placed the rolls in the baking pan, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or about 8 hours). The next morning, allow the rolls to warm up at room temperature for about 1 hour before baking.

Can I Make These Rolls Gluten-Free?

I have not tested these rolls with gluten-free flour, but my gut says yes, you certainly can. I highly recommend using Bob’s Red Mill’s 1-to-1 Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour as a substitute for the all-purpose flour in this recipe.

Can I Swap Out the Icing for Cream Cheese Frosting?

Um, YES. You can use my favorite Cream Cheese Frosting recipe on these rolls and they will taste like heaven in roll form.

How Do I Store Hot Cross Cinnamon Rolls?

Like most cinnamon roll recipes, these rolls are best served the day they are made, but if you have any leftovers, you can store them, covered tightly with plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to 2 days. If you want to reheat them, I would recommend doing so in the microwave for a few seconds, as heating them in the oven will likely melt the icing off the rolls.

Friends, whether or not Easter is part of your weekend plans, I highly recommend giving these rolls a try. Be warned: You might not want to make them any other way ever again.

Print

More Cinnamon Roll Recipes!

• sourdough cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting
• cereal milk cinnamon rolls
• ooey gooey overnight cinnamon rolls
• brown butter pumpkin cinnamon rolls
• chocolate cinnamon roll wreath