Easy Panettone Cinnamon Rolls Recipe 2024

This is the recipe for you if you like apple pie and cinnamon rolls. It tastes great, is full of dried fruit, has cinnamon in it, and is buttery. They're fluffy and the best sweet or dessert bread for breakfast or a snack in the middle of the night.

It's true that these are the only cinnamon rolls you'll need this holiday season. The fact that they are easy to make is even better: they mix two of my favorite treats, panettone and cinnamon rolls. This recipe will change your mind if you love or hate either. There is orange, dried fruit, cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar inside these buns. While they're not quite bread, they are more like desserts than bread.

 

What is a panettone?

Panettone is a sweet Italian bread that is only made during the holiday season. Making them is a labor of love and not at all easy. You have to practice for years because there are a lot of pressure points that need to be hit in order for them to rise, be light, flavorful, and tasty. If you want to bake something, my easy go-to recipe for homemade panettone will not let you down.

 

What are cinnamon rolls?

To make cinnamon rolls or buns, you just need to roll up buttery brioche dough, spread it with cinnamon butter, cut it into rolls, and bake them until brown. Put a cream cheese glaze on top and eat. Additionally, they taste great and are the best bread to bake for lunch, breakfast, or a sweet treat. This is where I keep my favorite recipe for cinnamon rolls.

What are panettone cinnamon rolls?

There are fruity and fluffy notes in panettone, and there are spicy cinnamon and buttery notes in cinnamon rolls. Together, they make these panettone cinnamon rolls. The orange, almond, vanilla, and dried fruit flavors go well with them. Not only that, but they are fluffy and light as a flower thanks to the instant dry yeast. We put orange frosting on top, and they taste best when they are still warm.

What ingredients do we need to make these panettone cinnamon rolls?

Dry ingredients 

For the dough, we need flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and dry yeast. We also need orange juice and cinnamon powder. If you have bread flour, you can use it here. When you use fresh yeast, you only need half of what is called for. For the dough, I used honey. You can use white sugar instead, but for the cinnamon sugar filling, we need brown sugar. I don't think you should make these rolls gluten-free because the ingredients would make them taste very different. To make the glaze for the orange icing, we also need icing sugar.

Wet ingredients 

Egg, yogurt, honey, orange juice, vanilla, almond extract, and warm milk and butter. Dried fruit should be soaked in brandy, rum, or any dark fruit juice. You can use any kind of milk you want. I used whole milk. For the dough, the butter should be melted (I like to use browned butter). The egg gives the dough taste and makes it rich, but you can use 50gm of full-fat yogurt instead of the egg if you don't want to use eggs. I used a mix of black currants, golden raisins, fruit peel, chopped dates, and black currants for the dried fruit. I soaked them in brandy for about 10 minutes before adding them to the dough, but you could also soak them in dark fruit juice or warm water. This makes sure they are juicy and well-hydrated.

What equipment do we need to make these panettone cinnamon rolls?

You can make this recipe in a stand mixer with a hook tool, just like most dough recipes. I used a big bowl and my hands to make it. To mix it faster and with less work, use a wooden spoon. If you don't have one, your hands will work just fine. I like using a 9x13-inch pan to bake these rolls. The rolls take less time to bake when they are smaller on a bigger tray. The rolls will be bigger and take longer to bake if the tray is smaller. So, the baking time depends on the size of the tray. To bake the rolls more slowly, you can put them on two trays if you don't have one that's big enough.

 

How to make these panettone cinnamon rolls?

To start, make the dough. Put three quarters of the flour, salt, honey, yeast, and orange zest in a bowl. Use your hands to stir the dough around. Mix in the melted butter, vanilla extract, almond extract, and warm milk. Then, use your hands to start mixing the dough together. At this point, we're not kneading; we just want the ingredients to be well mixed. It's okay that it will be a little sticky. Put a tea towel over the dough and let it rise for 30 minutes. Now that the time is up, put the dough on a clean work surface and add the rest of the flour and 1 tablespoon of baking powder. Knead the dough until it is soft and not sticky. It should take 8 minutes to do by hand and 3 minutes to do in a stand mixer. Put the dough in a bowl, cover it, and let it rise for an hour. Once all the flour is gone, the dough should have come together.

Now, soak the dried fruits in brandy or a little warm water for a while and set them away. Next, we'll make the cinnamon butter for the dough. Put room-temperature butter in a mixing bowl and use a spoon to mix it. Next, add the brown sugar and cinnamon powder and mix it well until there are no more lumps. Set it aside. Mix icing sugar, orange juice, and lemon juice together to make the orange icing. You don't have to use lemon juice, but I think it cuts the sweetness better than lime juice, so I wouldn't.

 

Now the dough will be twice as big as it was before. Sprinkle flour on the kitchen counter and roll out the dough until it's about 1/4 inch thick. It doesn't have to be perfect, but try to make it into a square shape. Evenly sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top of the dough. Then, drain any extra liquid from the dried fruit and put some more orange zest on top. Cut the dough into 9 strips with a pizza cutter. Then, roll up each strip into a little cinnamon bun. Wrap them up and put them on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Now heat the oven to 180℃. Bake the buns for 18 to 20 minutes, until they are golden and have risen. Put them out of the oven and brush them with the lemon glaze. Let them cool down for a while.

Serving and storing these panettone cinnamon rolls?

With milk or black coffee, these rolls are great. They taste best when they're warm. I think mulled wine would go well with them too. If you want to keep the rolls in different ways, you can cover them and put them in the fridge overnight to rise. The next morning, take them out and bake them once they have reached room temperature. You could also let them cool down at room temperature after baking and then put them in zip lock bags to freeze for up to a month. If they are frozen, heat them in the microwave for one minute. If they are defrosted, heat them for twenty seconds.