Cranberry Orange Wholewheat breakfast rolls

Tis the season to be baking. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! Haha, somehow I feel it carries more meaning when you bake for someone during Christmas. Well, it is a season of gifting right? Let's start off baking something with breakfast, Cranberry orange wholewheat breakfast rolls, sounds good isn't it? Saw this lovely recipe from Smitten Kitchen awhile back and had KIV it till now. My cranberries which has been sitting in my freezer was perfect for this recipe! Yeah...like FINALLY! Furthermore, with my new Jamie Oliver Terracotta dish from Tangs, I have all the more reason to bake it. :P

I can't imagine what's better then waking up on Christmas morning to this lovely breakfast. :) The amazing smell alone is able to drag you out of bed. Awesome. Cranberries are just so christmassy...I think it brings out the holiday mood!

I did some modifications to Deb's recipe, replacing plain flour to bread flour and also replacing portion of that bread flour to wholewheat flour. I also replaced the store bought buttermilk with homemade version (lemon + milk) and also added more milk to my recipe, which I think helps made the bread softer. 

With that, let's get down to it shall we?

Recipe for Cranberry Orange Wholewheat breakfast rolls (makes 12-14 rolls or 9X5" dish pan)

4 large egg yolks
1 large whole egg
50g caster sugar
85 grams unsalted butter, melted, plus additional to grease pan
175 ml buttermilk (I used 165ml fresh milk and 10ml fresh lemon juice)
100 ml fresh milk
Zest of 1 large Navel orange, finely grated (to be used in dough and filling, below)
350 g bread flour
120g wholewheat flour
7 grams or 2 1/4 teaspoons instant dry yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse or kosher salt, or more to taste
1 teaspoon butter to grease the baking dish

Filling:
25g salted butter at room temperature 
150g packed light brown sugar (reduced)
130g fresh cranberries
Orange zest leftover from above

Icing: (Optional)
20 ml+/- orange juice (I used part orange, part lemon juice, because I love the tang)
120g powdered sugar
=> Mix everything together till you get a smooth, thick gooey paste

• First, you weighed out the fresh cranberries and zap it in a blender till it resembles a thick chunky paste. Set aside in the fridge for use later.
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• Next you place all ingredients for the main dough into your mixer bowl and start to knead the mixture till it all comes together.
• Continue kneading till it is pulling away from the side of the bowl completely and it is very elastic.
• Grease another big bowl and place the dough in to proof for a good 1.5hrs to let it double in size.
• Once proofed, punched out the air and place roll on a lightly floured work area. Roll out into a large rectangle about the 18" by 12" . 
• Use a spreading knife, butter the whole surface leaving about 1" at the edges using the reserved room temperature butter.
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• Then sprinkle evenly the light brown sugar on to the surface of the dough. The follow by scattering the cranberry paste all over the surface as well.
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• Gently roll up the dough from the longer end and try to make it as "tight" as possible so you will get really nice swirls in the middle. When you rolled to the other end, pinch and seal the edges nicely.
• Use a sharp knife, divide the log into 2 equal halves, then divide the halves into 2 halves. And repeat till you get 12. Grease the baking dish with some oil and place the rolls in, lining them neatly in rows. Rolls in rows, hah! 
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•  Again cover the rolls loosely with plastic wrap and let proof for another hour or so till it doubled in size. Alternatively, you can leave them to proof in the fridge overnight and bake them in the morning....nice!
• Preheat the oven to 175C. Once the buns have finished proofing, bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 33 minutes till it is golden brown on the top.
• Remove from oven and let cool a little before tearing into it and chomping it all down. Yes...a little self control is required haha.
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Be still my heart....I know, such a glorious sight isn't it. And it smells and taste incredible too. :) 

Such a genius idea to use cranberries as the filling I have to say. It's tangy, it's sweet, it's fluffy and it's comforting. You can make it a little more sweeter by coating the top with some icing. I opted for partly lemon juice because I find orange juice is not tangy enough to bring out the citrus flavor. Or you can opt not to put any icing at all of course. But again....

Why not?

Anyway....hope you like my rendition of this amazing recipe and give it a try. I am sure those that stuffed this in their mouths are gonna be super happy. :) And one last important note, make sure you have a nice baking dish to bake this...go treat yourself and grab Jamie Oliver's at Tangs haha!

Till my next Christmas bake....stay happy guys!