Sourdough Cranberry Orange Rolls

For the cranberry filling:
In a small saucepan, place cranberries, orange juice, and sugar. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Most of the liquid should have evaporated.

Remove from heat and stir in the orange zest. Cool completely. Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For the dough:
Warm the milk and 2 tablespoons butter over the stove. Set aside to cool a bit.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add egg, starter, sugar, flour, and salt. Pour the warm (not hot!) milk and butter mixture on top. With the paddle attachment, mix until a dough forms (this can take about 1 minute). You want the dough to be soft, but not overly sticky. Add more flour as needed.

Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Switch to the dough hook attachment and knead on medium-low to low speed for 8 minutes. The dough should be smooth and cohesive.

Grease a medium-sized bowl with butter. Transfer the dough to the buttered bowl, turning once. Cover and rest for 30 minutes. Grab one “corner” of the dough, stretch it up, and pull it over towards the middle. Repeat for the other 3 “corners” of the dough.

Cover and let rise overnight at room temperature until the dough has doubled in bulk. Since this is sourdough, it will take 8–12 hours to double, depending on how warm your kitchen is.

After the initial rise, lightly butter a clean work surface and dust it with flour. Gently dump the dough out onto the work surface and deflate it by pulling the “corners” into the middle. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper.

Roll the dough into a 16×12-inch rectangle, dusting the dough and rolling pin with flour if needed to prevent sticking.

Spread the dough with remaining 2 tablespoons of soft butter, leaving 1/2-inch around all the edges. Spread the cranberry filling evenly over the butter, leaving 1/2-inch around all the edges. Starting on the longer (16-inch) edge, roll up the dough gently but tightly.

Cut the dough into nine 1 1/2-inch rolls using a serrated knife. Transfer the rolls to the parchment-lined baking dish. Cover and let rise for 2–4 hours, or until the rolls have visibly risen. They won’t get crazy puffy, but they should increase in size.

30 minutes before you plan to bake the rolls, preheat oven to 400°F . Once rolls are ready to bake, pop them into the oven for 10 minutes. Without opening the oven door, lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for 25–35 minutes more, or until the rolls are deep golden brown and the bready part registers 200°F on an instant read thermometer.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove, parchment paper and all, to a cooling rack to cool further.

Once the rolls aren’t too hot, frost them with the cream cheese drizzle:

For the cream cheese orange drizzle:
Place cream cheese, maple syrup, and orange zest in a small bowl. Beat until smooth. Gradually add enough orange juice to make a nice thickish drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the warm rolls.

Serve warm with butter for spreading!

Notes:
• For the cranberry filling, you should use about 1/2 cup of liquid. If your orange doesn’t yield quite 1/2 cup, you can fill the measuring cup the rest of the way with water.
• Unfed sourdough starter means that it’s bubbly, active, passes the float test, and has been fed about 8 hours in advance. It should also be 100% hydration, which means it was fed equal weights (not volumes) of water and flour.
• I have used all all-purpose flour, and also half all-purpose, half bread flour. My favorite version was made with half bread flour, so use that if you have it!
• There are several schedules that you can use to bake the rolls:
Bake immediately: The morning before you plan to bake, feed your sourdough starter. 8 hours later (that evening), mix together the dough. Let it rise overnight. The next morning, fill and shape the rolls, let rise for 2–4 hours, and bake.
Refrigerator rise: 2 nights before you plan to bake, feed your sourdough starter. The next morning, mix together the dough. Let rise 8 hours. In the evening, fill and shape the rolls and place in a pan. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, pull out of the fridge and let rise at room temp for 1–2 hours. Bake.

Recipe for the dough adapted from Emilie Raffa of The Clever Carrot.