Feed your starter the night before, because sourdough cinnamon rolls need most of a day. The dough rises for about 4 hours with a few stretch-and-folds, the shaped rolls proof for another 2–3, and they bake at 400°F for 18–22 minutes. In this version, orange marmalade goes under the cinnamon sugar and replaces the orange icing on top.
The base is King Arthur Baking's sourdough cinnamon rolls, a recipe by Charlotte Rutledge that leavens the dough with starter alone and makes commercial yeast optional. We've kept its dough and timings, and changed the starter and the orange.
Timeline for same-day and overnight rolls
Everything hangs on a ripe starter. A ripe starter doubles or triples in volume within 6–8 hours of a feeding, and a starter straight from the fridge may need several feedings, 12 hours apart, before it gets there. Plan backward from when you want to eat.
Same day
- Night before, about 10 p.m.: feed the starter.
- Next morning, 7 a.m.: mix the dough, rest it 20 minutes, add the salt and knead briefly.
- 7:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m.: first rise at about 75°F, with a stretch-and-fold roughly once an hour.
- 11:30 a.m.: roll, fill, cut and pan the rolls.
- 11:45 a.m.–2:45 p.m.: second rise, until puffy.
- 2:45 p.m.: bake for 18–22 minutes, cool 5–10 minutes, ice.
Overnight
Follow the same steps through shaping in the afternoon, let the rolls rise in the pan for 2–3 hours, then cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. In the morning, heat the oven with the pan on the counter and bake for 20–25 minutes, since the rolls go in cold. That's the version for a holiday breakfast.
Swapping in our starter and marmalade
Any ripe starter works in this dough. The Orange Blossom Sourdough Starter we sell is organic wheat flour and wild yeast, descended from a starter shared from a Whittier kitchen in the 1930s. It arrives dried, so rehydrate it following the instructions on the package and keep feeding until it doubles within 6–8 hours. From then on it behaves like any ripe starter here. The story of catching wild yeast in orange country is in our post on sourdough before commercial yeast.
The marmalade goes in twice. A typical orange icing, like the one on Averie Cooks' glazed orange sweet rolls, whisks confectioners' sugar with orange juice, grated zest and milk. Marmalade already holds the juice and the peel, cooked into sugar, so 3 tablespoons of it replace the juice and zest and bring shreds of peel and a little bitterness with them. Chop any long shreds first, and loosen the icing with milk a teaspoon at a time.
Averie Cooks also spreads orange marmalade over the buttered dough before the brown sugar, and warns that a thick layer leaks while a thin one doesn't taste of much. That layer carries orange through the spiral and makes the center stickier. Whitworths' marmalade cinnamon rolls go further and drizzle marmalade over the finished buns along with the icing.
Which marmalade to use
A sweet orange marmalade is the safe choice, since it tastes most like the orange rolls people already know. Our Navel Orange Marmalade is the classic here. Mandarin Marmalade, with its oil-rich mandarin peel, is the pick if you want the icing to smell strongly of citrus. A bitter grapefruit or Seville-style jar works if you like the contrast, but taste the icing before it goes on.
Sourdough cinnamon rolls recipe
Yield: 12 large rolls · Prep: about 40 minutes of hands-on time · Bake: 18–22 minutes (20–25 from the fridge) · Total: about 9½ hours, mostly rising
Based on King Arthur Baking's recipe, with the marmalade filling layer from Averie Cooks.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup (227 g) ripe, recently fed sourdough starter, ideally the Orange Blossom Sourdough Starter
- ¾ cup (170 g) lukewarm milk
- 1 large egg
- 4 tbsp (57 g) butter, softened
- 2¾ cups (330 g) unbleached flour (all-purpose)
- ½ cup (57 g) whole wheat flour (or more all-purpose)
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1½ tsp (9 g) table salt
- 1 tsp instant yeast (optional; shortens both rises)
Filling
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) orange marmalade
- ¾ cup (159 g) brown sugar, light or dark, packed
- ¼ cup (30 g) flour (all-purpose)
- 1 tbsp (8 g) ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- 1 tbsp (14 g) butter, melted
Marmalade icing
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) orange marmalade, long shreds of peel chopped
- 1½ tbsp (21 g) butter, melted
- 1½ cups (170 g) confectioners' sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1–2 tbsp (15–30 ml) milk
Steps
- In a stand mixer on low speed, mix the starter, milk, egg, butter, both flours and the sugar for 2–3 minutes, until no dry flour remains and the dough is sticky.
- Put the salt (and the yeast, if using) on top of the dough without mixing it in. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
- Mix on low for about 1 minute to work in the salt, then knead one speed higher for 2–3 minutes, until the dough is smooth but still a little tacky.
- Cover and leave the dough somewhere around 75°F (24°C) for 4 hours, giving it 3–4 stretch-and-folds in the bowl over that time.
- Meanwhile, stir the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and melted butter together for the filling. It should look like damp sand.
- Grease a 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33 cm) pan.
- On a lightly floured counter, pat or roll the dough into a 14 x 20-inch (36 x 50 cm) rectangle.
- Spread the ⅓ cup of marmalade thinly over the dough, leaving ½ inch (1 cm) bare along one short edge.
- Scatter the cinnamon-sugar filling evenly over the marmalade.
- Roll the dough up from the other short edge, toward the bare one. The log starts about 14 inches (36 cm) long and stretches to about 18 inches (46 cm) as you roll. Pinch the seam against the bare edge.
- Cut the log into 12 slices about 1½ inches (4 cm) thick and set them in the pan.
- Cover and let the rolls rise until puffy, 2–3 hours. (For overnight rolls, let them rise 2–3 hours, then cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.)
- Bake at 400°F (200°C), preheated. Allow 18–22 minutes, or 20–25 minutes straight from the fridge, until golden and the center roll reads 190°F (88°C) on a thermometer.
- While the rolls bake, microwave the 3 tbsp of marmalade briefly to loosen it, then whisk it with the melted butter, confectioners' sugar and salt.
- Add milk a little at a time until the icing is thick but spreadable.
- Cool the rolls for 5–10 minutes, then spread the icing over them while they're warm.
Notes
- Plain version: use any ripe starter. For the icing, swap the marmalade for ½ tsp vanilla, or for orange juice and grated zest. Leave out the marmalade layer in the filling.
- Storage: leftover rolls keep a day or so in a sealed container on the counter. For longer, freeze them un-iced and ice them after reheating.
- Reheating: warm un-iced rolls in a 325°F (165°C) oven for 10–15 minutes.
- If the filling leaks: some marmalade will caramelize in the pan. A lot means the layer was too thick or the log wasn't sealed along the seam.
Can you speed up sourdough cinnamon rolls?
Yes, with a teaspoon of instant yeast added alongside the salt. It's optional insurance for a starter that isn't fully ripe. With it, the first rise drops to 2 to 2½ hours, with two or three stretch-and-folds, and the second to 1½ to 2 hours. Your rolls are no longer leavened by starter alone, but the starter still flavors the dough.
The slower route is the one the recipe was written for. King Arthur credits the ripe starter, used without commercial yeast, with a boost in flavor and a slightly chewy texture, at the cost of longer proofing. If you're using the Orange Blossom starter for the first time, give it the full schedule once so you know how it behaves in your kitchen before you start adjusting.
Photo by Christelle Sison on Unsplash.
