Christmas is almost here! I’ve been so busy this year finishing up projects before the end of the year, I haven’t been baking nearly as much as I would like to. That’s what next week is for! But just in time for Christmas morning, I’ve got a really good recipe for Pecan Cranberry Sweet Rolls with White Chocolate Glaze that I developed in partnership with Red Star Yeast. (I’ve loved working with them again this year!) I think I kind of blew all the other sweet rolls I’ve made out of the water in one fail swoop with this recipe. It’s that good.

When I started out to develop this recipe, I was going to go in a completely different route. I’d been wanting to come up with a yeasted cranberry bread recipe that I could slice, toast, and eat with a smattering of butter. But then I thought back to the Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls I made last year and remembered how much we love them, and how long it’s been since I made them. And then I thought, What I’m really craving is cranberry sweet rolls with pecans…and white chocolate. So, I decided to go that route because I’m itching for something new to serve for Christmas morning breakfast. Though if I’m honest, we’ll probably eat cold cereal first thing, then I’ll get around to making these for brunch instead. (My family sort of expects that from me.) The kids and Dad play with the new toys, and I head into the kitchen to bake. I suppose that’s our Christmas tradition, and we all love it.

I tried a few different approaches when it came to the filling and finally settled on a pecan frangipane. Frangipane is typically made with almonds and sometimes pecans. It consists of ground nuts, butter, eggs, and sugar. Occasionally cornstarch and/or flour is added. We really love frangipane in any shape or form, and I felt like this was definitely the right filling for these rolls! I also settled on using dried cranberries. A fresh or cooked cranberry compote would have been lovely here, but I like the texture of dried fruit in sweet rolls. I also didn’t want these to be too messy to roll up. The dough is super soft and fragile, which makes them utterly delightful to eat, but a bit challenging to work with if the filling is too runny. (As I found out the hard way!)

As I said, the dough is very soft. I left it that way on purpose because I feel like sweet rolls need to have a tender crumb. Because these rolls are gluten-free, the texture is somewhere between a yeasted cake and a biscuit. To keep them soft after baking, the dough needs to be very soft. It has a little more butter than I typically use for the amount of gluten-free flour, but it adds a richness to the dough – almost like brioche.  (more…)