Raspberry Sweet Rolls

My cinnamon roll baking a few weeks ago has put me into a bit of a sweet bread baking kick.  The arctic temps might have something to do with it too.    

I'd pinned these raspberry breakfast rolls from Food & Wine a few months ago along with an orange sweet roll recipe and now that my oven is constantly on each weekend, I took the opportunity to finally whip something up.  I couldn't decide between the orange rolls or the raspberry rolls though so I combined the two.  Why not right?

My mom gave me this bowl right before she moved to Vegas.  It was my grandma's bread bowl --it's even engraved with the shop info and "Macomb, IL" right on the bottom.  I'm struck by how I purchase new bowls or even replace perfectly usable bowls with new ones based on color or design, and my grandmother used the same bread bowl from Macomb for so many of her baking years. 

See the little flecks.  Kind of?  Sort of?  Zest of one grated orange definitely gave the rolls a nice citrusy balance to the sweetness of the rolls and the icing.

I was a little worried at this stage as I was convinced these would fall apart during rolling.  I even pushed them into the dough just a bit before rolling them up into a log. 

So far so good.

Turns out my fear was for naught.  You do want to work quickly so the raspberries don't melt before you get it all into the pan for rising.  As the dough rises, the raspberries do release quite a bit of juice all around the rolls.  Turns out, that's not a problem. All of that juice goes somewhere during baking...don't ask me where though. 

I also swapped out the icing recipe for the one I used on the Cardamom Cinnamon Rolls.  I thought that recipe using heavy cream hit the icing needs spot on.

These rolls are more like a sweet danish than they are like cinnamon rolls.  I didn't really think that through so was a little disappointed when the smell of cinnamon rolls didn't fill the kitchen.  One bite though and all disappointment faded.  These were filled with lots of raspberry goodness and definitely a make again recipe.  I think this dough would also be phenomenal filled down the center with a sweet cream cheese filling, topped with the raspberries and then braided up as a more traditional braided pastry.  

Raspberry Sweet Rolls
adapted from Food & Wine Magazine Jan 2011

Ingredients
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
One 10-ounce package frozen raspberries, not thawed
1/3 c sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch

GLAZE
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp finely grated orange zest

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan or microwave, warm the milk gently until it's warm to the touch or about 95-100°. 
2. Pour the warm milk into the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the dough hook and stir in the sugar and yeast. Let stand about 5 minutes until mixture becomes foamy. 
3. Add the softened butter, eggs, grated orange zest and sea salt. 
4. Add the flour and beat at medium speed until a soft dough forms, about 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is no longer sticky, about 6-7 minutes
5. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly buttered bowl. 
6. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
7. Line the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, allowing the paper to extend up the short sides. 
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll it into a 10-by-24-inch rectangle.
9. In a bowl, toss the frozen raspberries with the sugar and cornstarch. Spread the raspberry filling evenly over the dough and gently press into dough. 
10. Tightly roll up the dough to form a 24-inch-long log.  Cut log into quarters. Cut each quarter into 3 slices for a total of 12 rolls.   
11. Arrange them in the baking pan, cut sides up.  
12. Cover the rolls and let them rise in a warm place until they are puffy and have filled the baking pan.  This will take longer than other rolls because the frozen berries lower the temp of the dough.(about 2 hours to rise)
13. Preheat the oven to 375°
14. Bake the rolls for about 20-25 minutes, until they are golden and the berries are bubbling. 
15. While the rolls are baking, whisk the powdered sugarsugar with the butter, zest and heavy cream until the glaze is thick.
16. Remove rolls from oven and glaze immediately.