When the holidays are past and your heart is full of memories made with family and friends, you might find yourself with one last bag of fresh cranberries hiding in the back of your fridge. If this is your scenario, I hope you will give these Cranberry Swirl Buns a try. To say “my husband went nuts for these” is an understatement. The fresh cranberry filling scented with a little orange zest is the perfect combination of tangy and sweet.
The yeasted buns are soft and flavorful and so much fun to make in a muffin pan. I get excited over the little things and love this rustic freeform style.
The dough is flavored with almond extract (big surprise!) and comes together in minutes in your stand mixer. There are two rise times at 60 minutes each so this is a great project when you’ll be home for a few hours. I really don’t care for doing the laundry but if I get to bake in between folding clothes and starting another load, it seems to be much more fun! The hands on time is minimal and the results are fantastic!
Drizzled with an icing made with confectioners’ sugar and fresh blood orange juice (pink!) they’re just sweet enough!
- For the dough:
- 1¼ cups lukewarm water (about 90 degrees on an instant read thermometer)
- 3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus a few extra tablespoons if needed)
- 3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk (I used Carnation)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1¼ teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- For the filling:
- 1½ cups fresh cranberries
- zest from ½ a fresh orange
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- For the icing:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (powdered or icing sugar
- Juice from ½ an orange, more or less as needed for the desired consistency
- For the filling: Combine the fresh cranberries, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the cranberries burst. Mash the cranberries and continue cooking until the filling thickens, about 5-6 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the orange zest. Set aside to cool or refrigerate. Stir before spreading on the dough.
- For the dough: Add the lukewarm water to the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast is dissolved. Add all remaining dough ingredients to the water and yeast mixture, and mix on low until combined. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until you have a soft, smooth dough. If the dough appears sticky add a little more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place free from drafts for 1 hour, or until puffy.
- Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan and set aside.
- Gently scoop the dough out of the mixing bowl and place on a clean, lightly floured work surface. Roll the dough into a 16x18 inch rectangle, taking care to make sure the dough is even from one side to the other with the short sides (16”) at the top and bottom.
- Spread the cranberry filling evenly over the dough leaving a 1-inch wide border at the bottom. Starting at the top (farthest away), roll the dough tightly, coming toward you. As you roll, stretch the dough away from you then roll toward you tightly, repeat until the entire roll is done. By stretching the dough and rolling it tightly, you will achieve the cork-screw top (hopefully - that’s the idea anyway)
- Slice the log into 12 equal pieces.
- Lightly push the bottom of the bun up in the middle to start the spiral. Place the buns in the muffin tins (cut side up). Once the pan is full, move to a warm place and let them rise for 60 minutes (I use my microwave as a proofing oven to let bread rise - with the task light on the microwave stays warm.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the buns for 24-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan while preparing the icing.
- For the icing combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice. Whisk until smooth adding more orange juice or sugar as needed for the desired consistency. Drizzle on the warm buns and serve.
Yeast bun recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour
Don’t forget your PIN!
I went to the mall today – it was crazy! Last minute shopping is not my thing – hope you didn’t have to go out there 🙂
I also hope you have a wonderful holiday filled with family fun and fabulous food. Blessing to you and yours!
Merry Christmas!
Tricia
If we don’t have dry milk, can we just replace the dry milk + water, with 1 1/4 cup milk warmed?
Hi De. I haven’t tested this recipe leaving out the dry milk. I don’t think you should add more liquid, but may try just leaving the dry milk out all together. Good luck – hope it works out for you. The powdered milk is easy to find in the grocery store, and keeps in the refrigerator for a good while. We like the Carnation brand. Thanks again.
Right, I know I shouldn’t add more liquid, I was thinking I’d REPLACE the water with milk, since isn’t the point of dry milk to “make” “milk” with dry milk + water? Basically my question was how much water your container says to mix 3 tablespoons of dry milk into to make milk, and whether it is more or less than the amount of water in this recipe.
Sorry I misunderstood De. I don’t have a package of the dry powered milk right now but I looked on the product information on Amazon. They have a photo of the back of the package displayed. The instructions say to mix 1/3 cup of powdered milk with 1 cup of water to make 8 ounces. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons powdered milk. There are 5 1/3 tablespoons in 1/3 cup and 4 tablespoons in 1/4 cup. Perhaps you can replace 1/4 of the water with regular milk and hopefully get the same results. Good luck!
I made these for my Sunday School class this past week and they were a huge hit! I loved them and were easy to put together; will be making again.
Thank you so much for letting me know Kay! Our readers really appreciate knowing that the recipes turn out good. So thank you so much for trying it and commenting! Have a wonderful holiday season 🙂
Merry Christmas, dear friend!
And thank you for this delicious looking and festive post.
Merry Christmas to you Daniela and happy travels 🙂
I love cranberries and always freeze some for later use. Your rolls are so pretty and I’m sure they taste real good. Have a wonderful Christmas.
Thanks Gerlinde – Merry Christmas!
oh Tricia, those look delicious!! You are just a wonderful baker and cook!! 🙂
Awesome food photographs!! 🙂
Merry Christmas!!
Michael
Great to hear from you Michael! Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas 🙂 Thank you!
WOW!!! These rolls are BEAUTIFUL!!! AND I can ONLY GUESS, they’re SCRUMPTIOUS!!! Would you believe, I FORGOT the cranberries this Christmas????? I have a Jello-O thing doing it’s magic in the refrigerator…THANK GOODNESS, we have CANNED cranberries! LOL MERRY CHRISTMAS TRICIA to you & yours! HOPE you have a WONDERFUL time together!!! I KNOW you’ll eat WELL!!! 😉
Merry Christmas Becky!~ Jell-O magic in the refrigerator sounds great! My mom always made the best cranberry thingy 🙂 Blessing to you and yours!
So so cute and festive Tricia..
Happy Holidays!
Thanks Monique – you too!
Cranberry is so good, isn’t it? Love it any time of the year, but particularly right now. Happy Holidays, and see you next year!
Yes, yes it is John! I love a good zing of flavor and the color is pretty awesome too! Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
SO true, what to do with a bag of cranberries? Genius idea! And your photos are unbelievable- as always.
Have a wonderful Christmas! Blessings to you and your family!
xoxo Anna and Liz
Awwww – thanks so much! Big hugs to you from Virginia!!! Merry Christmas 🙂
oh wow…I LOVE them. So pretty and quite dainty for a Christmas treat. Wishing you and yours a very merry christmas!
And to you too Dom! I bet you have your lovely little cottage all decorated – I want photos!!!
These cranberry rolls look absolutely stunning, Tricia.
Thank you Angie – Merry Christmas!
These buns are so, so beautiful, Tricia! I could print up that first pic and put it next to my computer and just stare at it all day. So pretty with that red swirl and white icing! : ) And I think you must be able to look into my daydreams. I have been thinking about making buns/rolls in a muffin pan and the almond scented yeast dough sounds perfect. Wishing I had cranberries right now. So, so pretty…have I mentioned that already?? ; )
You are amazing Monica – thank you for being such a faithful reader and commenter. Hope you have a terrific Christmas and maybe some snow? We’re having record high temperatures – boo 🙂
This recipe makes me want to get to the grocery store and get some more cranberries just so I can make these! I never tire of almond extract either and cranberries are a personal favorite of mine. They are beautiful too! Again, Merry Christmas, Tricia, to you and your family!
Merry Christmas Susan and thank you so much!!!
Oh my, these area really beautiful. Just something about them makes my day.
Thank you Amy!
I can’t believe I only found your blog in 2015, Tricia, I feel like I’ve becoming to your beautiful blog and finding delicious treats for much longer. A very happy holiday to you and yours.
Amalia
xo
Thank you Amalia – you are a sweet lady and so happy to have gotten to know you this year!~
Oh, what lovely, colorful swirl buns! (I really like Sue’s use of “voluptuous”! They are!) I stock up on cranberries this time of year and freeze them. That way I can make these beauties any time of year! Your description of this being a fun project, has me willing to overcome my yeast phobia! I hope your holidays are full of fun and sweetness, Tricia. Merry Christmas.
Thank you Wendy! I hope you will try working with yeast – it is such fun (when it comes out okay – haha!) Have a wonderful holiday and thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Those swirls are absolutely voluptuous — I love how they rose every which way!
I was a little lax in rolling them up and got lazy at the end. But I thought it added a lot of interest to each bun! Such a fun baking project and tasty too. Merry Christmas Sue!
I really don’t like the fact that so often, cranberries are relegated to Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are so delicious in so many things. These rolls are so pretty and sound fantastic. They would cheer up the dreariest of days!
Thank you Chris and Merry Christmas to you and Scott!
I never tire of cranberry and this is the perfect way to highlight them. Love the hit of orange, too! Perfect 🙂
Thanks Jennifer – I loved your pumpkin swirl buns so much I couldn’t resist trying another version – tasty! Merry Christmas!!!