I’m enamoured with cinnamon scrolls. They are so delicious. And so naughty! But if you only eat them once per year: I can’t imagine a better time for it than Christmas. Using the red cranberries and green raw pistachios with the flavours of cinnamon and nutmeg is just one way these will make you glad it’s Christmas time! These would be great made Christmas Eve so they are ready for breakfast.
So..I’ve had a few disastrous attempts at cinnamon scrolls before, but this time they are a winner. I based my sweet dough on this recipe: basic sweet roll dough.
Now these take a fair bit of work….but trust me they are worth it!
Make sure you note: the dough needs to rest for a minimum of four hours, or overnight in the fridge so as to develop its gluten. You will get a workout when you roll this out, but a floured rolling pin and floured surface will help!
Cranberry and Pistachio scrolls
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 12
Cranberry and pistachio Christmas scrolls
Ingredients
- Dough
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 2.5 teaspoons of dry yeast (or sub 1 teaspoon live yeast)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons semi unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2.75 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Filling
- 1/2 cup raw pistachios, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- Icing
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoons cranberry juice
- 1/2 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Red food colouring of your choice: optional. Just a few drops.
Instructions
- Dough
- Warm the water and milk to body temp, about 37 degrees if you need to be precise.
- Add the yeast and a teaspoon of the sugar to this and whisk together.
- Leave to sit for 5 minutes or until frothy.
- Add the melted butter, egg yolk and vanilla to the frothy yeast milk mixture.
- In a large bowl, combine the rest of the sugar, the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing with a wooden spoon to create a dough.
- When it has come together, tip it onto a floured board and knead for 5 minutes. It will be a firm dough.
- Pop it in a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size.
- Knock back the dough on a floured board, rotating three times.
- Pop it back in the bowl, cover and put it in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin until about .5cm thick, you will be able to make a large rectangle approx 36x40 cms.
- Brush with melted butter, reserving some for the pan and on top.
- Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and spread over the dough, reserving some for the pan and the top.
- Combine the pistachios and cranberries and spread over the dough.
- Roll the dough, pressing down as you go to make a large sausage.
- Chop this into 3 cm rounds.
- Brush an 8" square lined pan with butter and sprinkle the sugar cinnamon combo on top.
- Cram the scrolls into the pan: it will make 12 and you can get them in there....trust me!
- Brush the top with butter and top with the remaining sugar and cinnamon.
- Leave in a warm place for 20 minutes and Preheat your oven to 180.
- Bake at 180 for 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven- but not the pan!
- Mix the ingredients for the icing together with a whisk until all the lumps are gone.
- Flick it over the top of the scrolls with your whisk!