Do you want to wake up in the morning and have freshly baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast? Especially on the weekends? These cinnamon rolls have an orange filling in the middle of them and they get topped with an orange-vanilla glaze. If you don’t like the flavor of orange, I have other options below.
This post has been recently updated on 12/14/2020 with new pictures and content.
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Make the dough the night before and prepare the rolls with the filling. Cut them and place them in a baking dish and cover them with saran wrap or a dishcloth. These can be left on a counter. In the morning all you need to do is bake them in the oven and frost them.
This method can be done with pretty much any cinnamon roll recipe.
Ingredients for Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Rolls
Water - must be warm or else the rolls won’t rise
Sugar - helps activate the yeast
Yeast - always check the yeast packet or jar to make sure your yeast isn’t expired or else the dough will not rise
Butter, Eggs, flour, and salt for the dough
Use your stand mixer to help kneed the dough. If you don’t have a stand mixer that is ok, just use your hands to kneed.
Filling
Orange Marmalade - Don’t like orange marmalade? Use your favorite flavor of jam. Raspberry or Strawberry would be really good as well.
Melted Butter - gets brushed over the top of the rolls
Icing - Powdered Sugar, Orange Zest, and Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
How to Make Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
For the full recipe please see the recipe card below.
In a saucepan over medium heat warm the milk. While the milk is warming, add the yeast and sugar to the stand mixer. After the milk has warmed up, add the milk to the yeast and sugar mixture and let that sit for 5 minutes until the yeast gets all foamy.
Turn the stand mixer on, and add in the rest of the ingredients. Softened butter, egg, and milk. I usually let the stand mixer kneed the dough for a couple of minutes with the dough hook. Place the dough in a greased bowl, so that the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl. Let the dough rise for an hour or 2 or overnight in a warm room covered with a towel.
Once the dough has risen, roll the dough out on a floured surface. Melt the butter in the microwave and spread evenly over the dough. Then take the orange marmalade and evenly spread that over the top of the dough. Sprinkle some sugar on top of the orange marmalade mixture.
Using your fingers, roll the dough up so that it looks like a really long log. Then cut the dough into about 1 to 2-inch circles and place them back in an 8 X 11 greased pan so that they can rise again.
For overnight cinnamon rolls, let the rolls sit overnight covered in the baking dish with a towel so in the morning all you have to do is bake them.
Preheat oven to 375.
Bake the cinnamon rolls for 25-30 minutes or until the tops have turned golden brown.
While the rolls are baking, make the icing. In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, orange zest, orange juice, milk, and vanilla until smooth. I usually just use a fork and mix that all together. Pour over hot cinnamon rolls right when they come out of the oven.
Other Recipes to Try
Buffalo Chicken Party Ring Dip
Smoked Salmon Dip
If you’ve tried this Overnight Cinnamon Rolls or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. Snap a picture and upload it to share on Pinterest or Instagram! Make sure to tag me in the photo.
Overnight Orange Cinnamon Rolls
- Cook Time: 25 to 30 minutes
- Total Time: 25 to 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
- ½ cup milk
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon Red Start Platinum yeast
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
- 1 large egg
- ¼teaspoon salt
- 2 and ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting/rolling
- Filling:
- 4 tablespoons of orange marmalade
- 3 tablespoons of melted butter
- 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
- Icing:
- 1 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 tsp of orange zest
- 1 tablespoon of a freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 tablespoon of milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a sauce pan over medium heat warm the milk. While the milk is warming, add the yeast and sugar to the stand mixer. After the milk has warmed up, add the milk to the yeast and sugar mixture and let that sit for 5 minutes until the yeast gets all foamy.
- Turn the stand mixer on, and add in the rest of the ingredients. Softened butter, egg, and milk. I usually let the stand mixer kneed the dough for a couple of minutes with the dough hook. Place the dough in a greased bowl, so that the dough doesn't stick to the bowl. Let the dough rise for an hour or 2 or overnight in a warm room covered with a towel.
- Once the dough has risen, roll the dough out on a floured surface. Melt the butter in the microwave and spread evenly over the dough. Then take the orange marmalade and evenly spread that over the top of the dough. Sprinkle some sugar on top of the orange marmalade mixture.
- Using your fingers, roll the dough up so that it looks like a really long log. Then cut the dough into about 1 to 2 inch circles and place them back in a 8 X 11 greased pan so that they can rise again.
- For overnight cinnamon rolls, let the rolls sit overnight covered in the baking dish with a towel so in the morning all you have to do is bake them.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Bake the cinnamon rolls for 25-30 minutes or until the tops have turned golden brown.
- While the rolls are baking, make the icing. In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, orange zest, orange juice, milk, and vanilla until smooth. I usually just use a fork and mix that all together. Poor over hot cinnamon rolls right when they come out of of the oven.
Notes
Cinnamon roll dough recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Orange filling adapted from the Pioneer Woman
I used both recipes to make my cinnamon rolls and kind of went back and forth between to the two. 🙂
Not a WW friendly recipe.
- Category: Medium
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
Keywords: orange cinnamon rolls
Carolyn C says
The recipe calls for 1 large egg yet step 2 of instructions say to add 2 eggs. Which is it correct?
Jenna says
That's because they don't need to rise in the refrigerator. What you did is fine. Step 5 tells you exactly what to do so. Nothing mentioned about a refrigerator. They can continue rising even though it looks like the rolls have completely risen.
Ann says
I think I just wasted all my effort! You did not say to let the rolls rise IN THE REFRIGERATOR. So mine have risen already, at room temp. I’m not sure if I should just leave them out or put them in the refrigerator now. It’s midnight. I hope they aren’t ruined. 🙁
Ronnie says
Looks easy,to make.
★★★★★
Jenna says
Hi Kerrin, sorry that wasn't clear before but I did add a step 5 to the recipe which explains that part. It's very hard to keep track of 1300 recipes on this site. 🙂
Kerrin says
Where are the instructions for the "overnight" part of this recipe?
Joy says
I would like to try to make these overnight but need some more instruction. Do I let them ride in the fridge overnight (I’m assuming not at room temp) and then do I need to let them get to room temp in the morning before sticking in the oven or do they go straight from the fridge to the oven?
Kelly - A Side of Sweet says
Orange rolls are the best! These look absolutely heavenly!
xx,
Kelly
http://asideofsweet.com
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says
These look delicious! I only buy small packages of yeast now too because I've started making sourdough everything and I had yeast beyond its use-by date. I hate tossing food out.
I'm going to try these gorgeous cinnamon rolls.
Kate @ Babaganosh.org says
That looks so yummy, I haven't made cinnamon rolls in a while.
Isn't it so sad when you have everything ready and then find out your yeast expired? It's especially bad in recipes where you don't let the yeast get foamy in warm water/milk but where you mix it all in together... you don't realize that your yeast is bad until you've wasted all the ingredients!
Happy new year!