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He’s On A Roll

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Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls are loaded with carrot cake mix, rum soaked raisins, and slathered in cream cheese frosting.

This post was sponsored by Red Star Yeast.

I have always used their product and I’m thrilled to be working with them as we teach my hubby to get over his fear of baking with yeast!

As always the opinions, bad grammar, and overuse of smiley emojis are all mine.

It’s the third installment of baking with Red Star Yeast with my hubby.

He was quite excited about the fact that we were going to make cinnamon rolls.

Of course, in true fashion of this blog we couldn’t just make any ol’ cinnamon rolls; we had to make Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls.

Usually I make brioche based cinnamon rolls.

But since I taught him brioche for the bread pudding I decided to just to with a more classic cinnamon roll dough so he could learn something new.

Since that’s the whole point of teaching him. 🙂

He was much more comfortable this time and other than rolling out the dough he was actually quite the champ.

We once again went with the Red Star Yeast Platinum Superior Baking Yeast because it truly is superior.

And I’m not just saying that because they sponsored this post.

I have yet to have a failed yeast based baked good since I switched to it a while back.

Cannot recommend it enough!

Rolling out the dough was a challenge because well, it’s likes to spring back.

And so you have to be patient and roll and roll and roll.

He also stressed about it not being a perfect rectangle.

Then I showed him my amazing trick…roll it out…cut it into a rectangle. 🙂

He said that was cheating and I said “you bet, but it works”.

We decided that we wanted real carrot cake flavor and the only way to do that was to have carrot cake in there.

We thought about making a carrot cake and sprinkling the crumbs but that seemed like a lot of unnecessary work and the mix worked out great.

If you are anti-cake mix then feel free to go with the idea of making cake and sprinkling the crumbs.

We added raisins to half of our batch as not everyone likes raisins.

We also soaked ours in rum to reconstitute the moisture in them.

If you do not like the idea of rum, simply replace the rum with equal amount of hot water.

As you can guess these turned out amazing.

The fact that they are slathered in cream cheese frosting doesn’t hurt either. 😀

These Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls would be a great treat for your guest as they are a fun twist on a classic.

P.S. It’s a great day to buy my cookbook Holy Sweet!

Want More Sweet Roll Recipes?

Vanilla Brulee Cinnamon Rolls

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sugared Buns

Creamsicle Crumb Topped Cinnamon Rolls

Bourbon Brown Sugar Caramel Peach Sweet Rolls

Sugar Cookie Cinnamon Rolls

Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls

Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

  • For the dough:
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten
  • 4 1/2 tsp. Red Star Yeast Platinum Superior Baking Yeast
  • 7-8 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup finely chopped carrot
  • For the filling:
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • ½ cup carrot cake flavored cake mix (without the carrot and raisin pack)
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/3 Raisins (optional)
  • ½ cup warm rum (optional and in use with raisins)
  • For the frosting:
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 2 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. For the Dough:
  2. Warm 2 cups milk and ¼ cup butter in a microwave-safe dish until it reaches 120-130°F. Butter does not need to melt.
  3. Add 7 cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt to a stand mixer bowl. Whisk to combine.
  4. Add warm milk/butter mixture and egg. Mix until dough comes together.
  5. Add additional flour, ½ cup at a time until a soft dough forms.
  6. Transfer the dough to a well-floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (You may also use your stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment.) Place the dough in a large, well-greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
  7. Grease two 9X13 inch pans; set aside.
  8. Place the raisins (if using) into the warmed rum and let sit for 15 minutes. Drain the raisins and set aside. You can discard the rum or drink it as a shot. 
  9. For the Filling:
  10. Combine cake mix and cinnamon in a small bowl, stir to combine. Melt butter.
  11. Punch the dough down, place on a lightly-floured board, and knead in the chopped carrot pieces. Do your best to evenly distribute them.
  12. Cut dough in half. Roll dough out into a 10x18-inch rectangle and brush it with ½ of the melted butter (or enough to cover the dough).
  13. Sprinkle half of the filling mixture over the buttered dough. Evenly distribute ½ of the rum soaked raisins, if using.
  14. Starting at one of the long sides, roll the dough up, and pinch the seam well to seal.
  15. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into 1 ½ -inch thick slices, and then place them in the prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with 2nd dough.
  16. Let rise until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
  17. Preheat the oven to 350°F. When the rolls have risen, bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes. While rolls are cooling, prepare the cream cheese frosting.
  18. For the Frosting:
  19. Using your stand mixer with a paddle attachment beat together the butter and cream cheese about three minutes.
  20. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.
  21. Once cooled, frost cinnamon rolls.
© Peabody

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Comments

  2. Hi Peabody, this is a perfect recipe for Easter brunch!! You combined two amazing food, so of course it is going to be delicious! I love that you made them carrot cake style! I will make this again. Thanks a lot for sharing this awesome recipe 🙂

    Reply

  14. We made these in a Foods and Nutrition class and they did not turn out very well. The dough was very sticky yet were dry and doughy when they were baked. I questioned 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of sugar–a large amount for most cinnamon roll recipes. Please help us out on this one because we were disappointed in the finished product.

    Reply

    • Hmmm. Well, if it was sticky then I would have added some flour. Humidity (especially in winter) will effect how the flour is absorbed. These have 1 cup of sugar because they are a more sweet dough.

      Reply

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