Cranberry-orange cinnamon rolls with pecans

Ingredients

Dough Ingredients :

• 1 packet active yeast (1/4 ounce)
• 1 cup warm milk (between 105 and 115 F)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 1/3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 4 cups flour

Filling Ingredients :

• 8 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Icing Ingredients :

• 8 tablespoons butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 6-10 tablespoons hot water

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Preparation

• Dough :
  Roughly chop the cranberries and pecans; warm the milk to between 105 and 115 F; melt the 5 1/3 tablespoons butter.
  Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Add sugar, melted butter, salt, egg, & 2 cups flour to the yeast and milk. Stir until combined.
  
• Add the remaining flour. The dough will be slightly sticky. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes. You can knead with a stand mixer, or by hand on a floured surface.
• Grease a bowl with butter. Place the kneaded dough into the bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size about 1 1/2 hours.
  
• Filling :
  Preheat the oven to 350F; Melt the stick of butter; Mix the cinnamon with the sugars; line a quarter baking sheet with parchment paper & use a little of the melted butter and cinnamon sugar mixture to cover the parchment paper.
• Punch the dough down. Knead briefly by hand for about 30 seconds to a minute*. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes**.
  *Kneading again will give the yeast in the dough more gluten to eat, producing a lighter, more tasty dough. It will also encourage it to rise quicker the second rise.
  
  **It is good practice to let dough rest briefly after kneading a second time before shaping it. This will make it easier to roll out the dough.
  
• Lightly flour your working surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough out to a 15″ x 10″ rectangle. This will take a little work as the dough will be elastic and attempt to retain a smaller shape. Don’t be afraid to play with dough a bit and stretch it.
• Pour (or brush if you are more delicate) the melted button onto the dough.
  Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture over the melted butter. Spread evenly.
  Add the orange zest, cranberry, and pecans.
  
• Roll the dough and toppings fairly tightly, using the long side.
  Mark the half point of the dough, then mark the half-way point of each half (essentially quartering the roll). Each quarter will provide 4 cinnamon rolls for a total of 16.
  Cut the rolls at the marks you made. Lay the cinnamon rolls out on the baking sheet, fairly close to each other.
• Allow the cinnamon rolls to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the rolls are doubled in size. They will begin to merge together; this is good.
  Bake in a 350F oven for 25 minutes until just golden brown.
  Let cool out of the baking sheet on a wire rack.
• Glaze :
  Combine all the ingredients (softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and hot water into a mixing bowl). Beat until well combined.
  Spread the icing evenly over the top of cinnamon rolls while still warm. If you like pecans, spread more over the top of the rolls.
• While there may seem to be a lot of steps, this is a fairly straight forward recipe, and it is fairly simple. The two rising breaks, and baking time gives you more than enough time to prep each next part (prep the filling ingredients while it rises the first time; prep the glaze ingredients and/or the glaze while it rises the second time or bakes).
  Enjoy these while they’re warm! They also keep well in an airtight container. Just pop them in the microwave the next day–if they last–for about 12 seconds and they’ll be perfect!

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