Sourdough Gingerbread Rolls

These are better than cinnamon rolls! The spicy warmth of ginger and nutmeg come together with molasses to create sourdough gingerbread rolls that will have you eating the whole tray!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Sourdough Recipes

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 20

Fermentation Time 16

Total Time 17 20

Servings Rolls

Calories 439kcal

Equipment

Stand Mixer
Rolling Pin
Cast Iron Pan

Ingredients

Dough

500 g Bread Flour
100 g Sourdough Starter Fed and bubbly
200 g Milk Warm (37C)
10 g Salt
1 Egg (approx. 45g)
40 g Sugar Brown or caster/fine
40 g Molasses
50 g Butter Room Temp
5 g Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Powdered Ginger
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves
¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
Egg Wash 1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon of water

Cinnamon Butter Filling

100 g Butter Cold
100 g Dark Brown Sugar
50 g Molasses
2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves
¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

125 g Cream Cheese Block - not spreadable
25 g Butter Cold
100 g Powdered Sugar
5 g Vanilla Extract
1 pinch Salt

Molasses Glaze

50 g Powdered Sugar
20 g Molasses
10 g Water Warm

Instructions

To make the dough

Warm the milk to around 37C. Add the warm milk, sugar and molasses to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until the sugar has thoroughly dissolved.
You can just warm the milk in the microwave before putting into your stand mixer bowl. You just don't want cold milk in your dough as it will take forever to rise!
Now add your sourdough starter, egg, vanilla, salt and flour and use your stand mixer to knead into a rough dough. This shouldn't take too long (around 2 to 3 minutes). Leave the dough to rest in the stand mixer bowl for around 30 minutes.
Add the butter and spices and knead into the dough until the dough is smooth and fairly elastic.
Transfer to the dough to a bowl and allow to ferment. You want the dough to rise a little (around 30%) and feel soft to the touch. This needs to happen at room temp - not in the fridge.
Cinnamon is known to slow fermentation down, so just give your dough a chance. Keeping it nice and warm definitely helps.
Once the dough has finished bulk ferment, you will need to fill and shape the gingerbread rolls.

Rolling and Filling the Dough

Before you roll out the dough you need to make the filling. Add brown sugar, molasses, spices and butter to a stand mixer and mix until it is thick and creamy. Set aside while you roll your dough.
Turn the dough out on to the counter. It shouldn't be sticky and be easy the handle. Do not use flour when rolling out the dough.
Gently roll the dough out into a rectangle. 60cm x 30cm is a good size to aim for. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the bigger you can get it, the more perfect cinnamon sugar swirls you will get.
Spread the filling all over the dough, leaving a 10cm gap on one of the long edges. You need to leave a gap so that dough will stick to itself when you roll it.
Once the filling is spread, roll the dough into a log, starting on the opposite long edge to the gap you've left.
Roll the dough into a tight log, using the unfilled dough to seal the log. You can spray a little water on the part where the dough joins if you want to - but the dough should stick to itself without it.
Lay the log out with the seam underneath.
Cut the log into approximately 12 pieces (you can measure and divide by 12 if you want them to look even - or just go freehand if you're not too fussed). Using dental floss to cut them will help you keep their shape and give the cinnamon rolls a flat surface.
Place the rolls into a baking tray or cast iron skillet. Face all the seams inwards so that they don't unravel. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, a baking tray or casserole dish is perfectly fine. They don't have to touch as they will once the dough is puffy.

Second Rise

Cover the skillet containing the rolls with a tea towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise. The dough is enriched, so it will take a little longer than normal (especially since we are dealing with sourdough).
Once the dough is puffy, you can bake them straight away - or see baking timeline above to extend the second rise and hold them in the fridge overnight.

Baking

Once the rolls are puffy and have taken up the room in the skillet, it's time to bake them. Preheat your oven to 180C/356F.
Brush them with egg wash before placing into the oven (mix one egg and a teaspoon of water together and use a pastry brush to apply).
Bake rolls for 20 minutes at 180C/356F. Keep an eye on them though as they will burn easily due to the sugar.
Once they're finished baking, leave them to cool in the skillet for around 30 minutes before taking them out.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting & Molasses Glaze

Add cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt to your stand mixer. Beat the frosting until it's thick and glossy. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
For the molasses glaze, combine powdered sugar, water and molasses and whisk until it forms a thick, glossy glaze.
Once the rolls have cooled a little (I leave it about 30 minutes) smother them in the vanilla cream cheese frosting and then drizzle on the molasses glaze.

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