Sourdough Croissant Cinnamon Rolls with Pistachio Cream

These Sourdough Croissant Cinnamon Rolls with Pistachio Cream are so easy to make, you won’t believe it. No laminating of the dough, yet flaky, buttery layers with a soft and fluffy center.

They are filled with my 5 minute Pistachio Cream and cinnamon sugar, giving them the perfect nutty-warm flavor you want in your favourite rolls.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• The Process
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

Summary

A viral recipe using cold grated butter in a simple white sourdough results in a flaky dough behaving like laminated croissant dough, just with a much easier process.
I’m using this trick to make very easily achievable Cinnamon rolls filled and topped with my Pistachio-White Chocolate cream that look like much more work than they actually take.

Read on if you’d like to learn how to make them, tips I found developing the recipe and what else you will love about them.

The Croissant dough

This recipe was inspired by a video I saw on Instagram from Amy of “Amy Bakes Bread” which really changed the complete croissant game for me.
She made sourdough bread into croissant bread by just adding cold grated butter. Genius!

If you read my Sourdough Brioche Feuilltee post, you know I adore anything indulgent buttery and flaky (No surprise there. I mean…who doesn’t, right?), but what I don’t love is all the laminating and rolling!

And yes, you have to roll out any dough for cinnamon rolls, but usually only once. And the brioche, due to the lamination process, has to be rolled out 4 times!
Don’t get me wrong, the dough with all it’s richness and layers is totally worth it. If you have the time.

This new one though is made by simply folding grated cold butter into the sourdough base dough, during the stretch and folds. Super quick and easy!

Pistachio Cream filling

I promised you more recipes using my 5 minute, 2 ingredient Pistachio Cream. This is one of them.
In these Cinnamon Rolls I use it additionally to the classic cinnamon sugar, replacing the butter from the filling with the cream, which is made just from Pistachio Butter and white chocolate.

This takes them from a classic to a more sophisticated version, introducing nutty flavor and healthy fats.

Pistachio Cream Topping

The Pistachio Cream does double duty being used inside and, after baking, on top of the rolls, saving you the work of putting together a separate frosting. If you use blanched, bright green pistachios to make your own pistachio butter, it’ll give you the super bright green you see in the pictures.

However, for flavor I would use roasted pistachio butter anytime. I explain why in the post about finding the very best Pistachio Cream to use for everything from Dubai Chocolate over these gorgeous Pistachio Brown Butter Cookies to the rolls in this post.

Sourdough for Flavor and Rise

For the rise of these rolls I solely rely on an active (fed) sourdough starter. It adds an incredible gentle tang to all the layers of flavor and balances out the sweetness of classic cinnamon rolls, which I usually find a bit one-dimensional.

This also means you can prepare them the day before and have Sourdough Croissant Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast.

In fact, the ones in my photos I prepared the day before attending a natural horsemanship clinic with Kachina over the weekend, baked them right in the morning before leaving the house and we had them still slightly warm for brunch. Needless to say, they were a hit! The satisfied groans and “Oh my god!” were all I needed to know I’m onto a winner with this recipe.

If you want to get even further ahead, you could also prepare them all the way to shaping the rolls, then freeze, covered with clingfilm or a freezer bag and just defrost on the counter overnight before the morning you’d like to bake them.

Variations

• Make the dough with milk or plant milk instead of water for an even softer and richer result. You might have to add a little more flour to roll them out if you do, as milk will result in a stickier dough. I kept it at water. Not just for the calories, but also to balance the richness from the butter.
• Fill them with just Pistachio cream or just butter (about 2-4 tbsp butter will do) and cinnamon sugar for a slightly slimmed down or more classic version.
• Add raisins instead of Pistachio cream for another take on the rolls theme
• Grate some orange or lemon zest into the dough, then some more into the sugar for the filling. Mash together with your fingertips until you have an intense lemon sugar. Fill the rolls with that. The same works with Orange zest.
• Use vanilla patisserie cream to fill the croissant dough, for a pudding-swirl-like version
• Fill with chopped dark chocolate to make sourdough chocolate croissant rolls

Topping Versions

• I left one batch simply sprinkled with brown sugar, caramelising and getting lovely and crisp in the oven. I honestly couldn’t decide which was my favourite version, as they were both fabulous. No other topping is needed.
• If you go for the lemon or raisin version described above, whisk * some icing sugar with a bit of fresh lemon juice and use that as a glaze once the rolls have cooled a bit (about 30min to 1h) for a really zesty and vibrant take.
• Create the classic cinnamon roll glaze by mixing 2 tbsp soft butter with about 1/3 cup cream cheese and ¼ cup icing sugar. Whip together and loosen with a bit of milk if needed.
• Brush with egg wash before baking for a super soft and not as sweet topping
• Brush with liquid honey before baking, to add a soft and gently sweet layer

Make them vegan

To create a vegan version of these, swap the butter into vegan butter. Make sure to use a block, not a spread and go for one with the highest fat content you can find. The Irish butter I used has around 80%.

Use vegan white chocolate in the Pistachio cream.
That’s all you need to change here.

Make them Gluten Free

Now I haven’t tried this yet myself, but from the calculations in “The Elements of Baking”,* you would use the same amount of gluten free flour, but 1/3 less butter (ending up with 76g) due to the GF flour absorbing less fat, and about 1 tsp Xanthan gum to get the same results.

I’d love to hear from you if you try it!

The Ingredients

The Dough

• Sourdough starter (Levain) – Use a starter that you have fed with a 1:1 ratio of water and flour by weight (called 100% hydration as it has the same amount water as flour) about 10-12h before you plan to start the dough.
• Water – As mentioned above you could replace this with any type of milk or plant milk for an even softer dough. But you might have to add a bit of flour if you do, as this will come out much stickier.
• Salt – As usual, I’m using Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If you use sea salt or Morton’s, halve the amount of salt given
• Sugar – I just added ¼ cup to the dough to support the classic sweet flavor profile of cinnamon rolls. But honestly, you could leave it out if you wanted to. I feel the filling is sweet enough.
• Bread Flour – I’m using bread flour for the best gluten development, as it has a higher percentage of it than all purpose flour.
• Butter – Considering I’m living in Ireland, I’m of course using Irish butter. Unsalted, to have full control of the sdalt content. If you can find Kerrygold, it’s by far the best option for this, as has a very high fat percentage and a fabulous flavor.
  Important: Keep it cold!
  Do not, under any circumstances, use “spread”, since it’s too soft to stay intact during the kneading process, which would lead to a lack of flaky layers.
• Diastatic malt – Entirely optional, but adds a lovely malty flavor to the dough, helps with the rise and gives a crispier crust.

The Filling

• Pistachio Cream – I’m using my homemade 5 minute, 2 ingredients version, which is simply a mix of pistachio butter and white chocolate. You could also use the classic from Pisti if you can get it.
  It’s just decidedly more expensive. And I found the homemade one, due to using roasted pistachios in the butter, has a lot more flavor.

Note:

Do not use the classic Italian/Sicilian homemade Pistachio Cream version, as it is made with milk and would get the rolls decidedly too soggy.

• Brown Sugar and Cinnamon – You could use white sugar if you want. I like light brown for its gentle molasses flavor. Simple ground cinnamon to mix with it works best. Here in Ireland they call it “Sweet Cinnamon” as opposed to Cassia Cinnamon, which has more wood bark tasting notes and goes best with savoury dishes. If you are not sure which one yours is, have a sniff. If it smells like you would think cinnamon should smell, you are fine.

Topping

• My rolls were sprinkled with a little bit of brown sugar just before baking, to give them extra crunch and a caramelized top. If you prefer yours less sweet or slightly softer, just brush them with a bit of egg wash.

• I just used slightly softened (not melted) Pistachio Cream and topped it with some chopped pistachios for crunch.

The Process

This looks long, but honestly most of it is hands off resting time. The hard work of kneading is (ideally) done by a stand mixer* and the only other bit is rolling out the dough.

Tip:

If you’d like to know why I chose my particular equipment, how I make my cooking more efficient and what I use as a women with chronic pain to still enjoy baking as much as I do, check out my Page on How to Make Life in the Kitchen Easier!

Equipment I used for this Recipe

stand mixer

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box grater

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rolling pin

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spatula

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cast iron pan

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*

Bakers Schedule

2 days before baking

• Feed your sourdough starter in the evening and leave on the counter overnight to become nice and bubbly

1 day before baking

• Prepare your dough in the morning and leave to rise for 2-10h on the counter, depending on your room temperature. With sourdough being a natural product, highly dependent on temperature, you have to check when yours is ready. It should have about doubled in size and be nice and bubbly
• Once the dough has risen, roll it out, shape the cinnamon rolls and arrange in a cast iron pan * or springform.
  At this point you can either let them rise again on the counter for about 2h, then bake or leave them in the fridge covered with cling film and take them out 2-3h before baking in the morning.
• You could even freeze them covered with clingfilm at this point, then, once frozen, transfer the whole batch into a freezer bag. In which case you need to take them out to defrost and for the last rise the evening before baking and just leave them on the counter overnight.

The day of baking

• Take the rolls out of the fridge and leave them on the counter to rise for about 2-3h, depending on room temperature.

In Detail:

Ideally use a stand mixer * for this dough, as it’s very sticky to begin with. Though it gets much easier to handle after the second and third stretch and fold.

The Butter

Your butter should be fridge or even freezer cold. Either works. Grate it on the coarse side of a box grater* and put it in a bowl * covered with clingfilm in the fridge. Do not leave it outside or it will just melt into the dough, which achieves the opposite of flaky layers. It really has to be cold.

Mix the wet

Add your sourdough starter and, if using, the diastatic malt to the water. Whisk * until well incorporated.

Mix the Dry

In the bowl * of your stand mixer * or a bowl for kneading by hand if you don’t have a mixer, combine flour and salt.

Mix wet and dry

Make a little well in the middle of your flour and pour in your sourdough-water mix. Gently fold a few times until the flour from the sides is very roughly mixed with the water.

I found this step keeps my stand mixer (both Kenwood and Kitchen Aid) from uselessly spinning in the water.

Lower the hook of your stand mixer into the bowl and start mixing on low speed. Once the flour and water are well combined, switch to medium speed and knead for about 5 minutes until you have a very smooth dough.

At this point it will look decidedly too sticky and wet to ever roll out. Don’t worry, that will change over the next few hours while the flour absorbs more of the liquid. Trust the process.

Tip:

Temperature is particularly important with this dough, as the butter should not get too warm at any point. So ideally it should never be above 75 F/ 24 C. I left a meat thermometer beside my bowl, to check the room temperature from time to time, as mine was rising on the kitchen counter.

It’s still early spring here and the heating is on. I noticed my room was just fine all the time.
But if your oven is on a lot or it’s summer, you might want to put the dough in the fridge in between.

Resting and Stretch and folds

Cover your dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

Perform and Stretch and fold by pushing your wet hands under the dough, lifting it up and folding it over itself. Turn bowl by 90 degrees, repeat twice.

Let your dough rest for another 30 minutes.

Before the next stretch and fold, deposit half of your cold, grated butter on top of your dough. Stretch and fold as described above, incorporating the butter while you do so.

Rest again for 30 min, add the remaining butter and perform the last 3 stretch and folds. You should now have a nicely shaped and easy to work with dough ball. If you feel it’s still too wet, add a bit of flour until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

You can do another stretch and fold after 30 minutes if you feel your dough doesn’t have enough structure yet. Mine was perfect at this point, so I left it to rise.

Cover your bowl and leave your dough to rise for 6-7h or overnight in the fridge. You can leave it in the fridge like this for up to 3 days, though after 2 your sourdough might slowly get weaker.

If you leave it in the fridge, take it out about 2h before shaping, so it can rise a bit more and get easier to work with.

Grease your Baking Dish

I used a 14” Cast Iron Pan* for my rolls, which worked great. Though the first time I made them the butter seeping out of the cinnamon rolls was bubbling over a bit. So put a parchment or tinfoil lined baking sheet below it in the oven for easier cleanup.

You could also use a springform lined with parchment paper, to get softer sides. Personally I love the crispy edges the cast iron gives me, but if you don’t, that’s the way to go.

Both of these options will have the cinnamon rolls very close together, so the sides pointing to the inside will remain very soft and squishy. If you’d rather have the classic croissant-crisp flaky edges, use a very large roasting tin * or even a large baking sheet and place the rolls well apar from each other.

Prepare the filling

Mix the brown sugar with cinnamon.

Heat the Pistachio cream in the microwave for about 30 seconds, to get it soft enough to spread.  Stir until creamy.

Shape

Flour your worktop or a silicone baking mat*. Transfer your dough onto it, stretch it and fold it like and envelope twice, to get a roughly rectangular shape.

Flour a rolling pin* (or a glass bottle with straight sides if you don’t have a rolling pin *) and roll out your dough until you have a rectangle that is about 40-50 cm wide and 30 cm deep.

This dough is pretty bouncy, so the rolling out might take a while. Be patient, you’ll get there. If it’s too resistant, let it rest and relax for a few minutes.

Fill the Cinnamon Rolls

First drizzle your rolled out dough with the Pistachio Cream. Spread it out using a spatula *.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top.

Roll

Starting at the long side that is pointing your way, roll your dough slowly and tightly. Don’t rush it. You want it rolled pretty snugly, so it doesn’t come apart. Finish by pushing it onto the seam, so it stays closed while your portion it.

For portioning you have 2 options:

• Use a very sharp* or even serrated knife * and gently, without squishing, “saw” the rolls into portions.
  
  I got the portions reasonably equal by using a ruler and dividing my final measurement by 10. (or rather: I should have, but I miscalculated and cut 12, baking 2 of them in another tin. 10 is what fits perfectly into a cast iron pan * from Lodge.) So, if you, like me can’t do math and bake at the same time (I swear, if my life depended on even the simplest math, I’d be lost!) if your roll is around 40 cm each piece should be 4 cm and if it’s more around 50cm they should be 5cm each.

• The second method would be using a string like unwaxed dental floss, wrapping it around the (marked for measurements) log and pulling evenly on both sides.
  Many people swear on it, as it doesn’t flatten the rolls. For me, it just cuts very uncomfortably into my fingers, so I use a knife *. Do what works for you.

Arrange Cinnamon Rolls

Starting from the outside, arrange your Sourdough Croissant Cinnamon rolls evenly around your cast iron pan* or baking dish *. There will be a little space between them, which will fill out with the next rise.

Last Rise

Cover with cling film and let them rise for 2-3 hours before baking.

At this point you can also store them in the fridge overnight or freeze them.

If you leave them in the fridge, take them out at least 2h before baking, so they can have a last rise.
From the freezer, take them out the evening before you want to bake them and leave them covered on the counter overnight to defrost.

Bake

Preheat your oven to 375°F/190°C.

Either sprinkle the Cinnamon rolls with a bit of brown sugar for a crunchy caramelised top or brush with egg wash for a softer finish.

Bake in the middle of the oven (with a parchment of tinfoil lined baking sheet underneath to catch possible butter drops) for about 30-40 minutes, depending on how brown you like yours.

There will be butter seeping out of the rolls. That is working as intended and creates a lovely caramel at the bottom of the pan *, which will stick to them in the very best way.

Top with Pistachio Cream

Take the pan * out of the oven and let it cool for about 15-30 minutes.

Now, I was using the Pistachio Cream I made with blanched, bright green Pistachios in my Vitamix*. Which I figured would look rather stunning and I had plenty left, so I wanted to use it up. But using roasted Pistachio butter in the cream gives you much better flavor.

However, if you want still a fairly strong green colour, you could mix either 1-2 tsp of matcha powder into the cream or use a few drops of green food colour.

Gently heat your pistachio cream for a few seconds in the microwave. You want it spreadable, but not liquid. For me 10 seconds did the job for room temperature cream.

Once your Sourdough Croissant Cinnamon rolls have cooled a bit, spread the cream on top, creating some pretty swirls.

Top with optional chopped pistachios for crunch.

Watch the Video on how to make them here:

To serve

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, pull out the prettiest of the rolls. Squish, see how soft it is. Peel apart the outer layer and admire the lovely flaky inside. Bite into it and feel proud for making Croissant Cinnamon rolls at home. Better than from a bakery, isn’t it?

Meal Prep

Prepare in Advance

As described in the bakers schedule above, these are fabulous to prepare in advance, as you can leave them in the fridge or freezer in between steps and just bake when needed.

Store

Once baked, they keep in an airtight container on the counter really soft for about a day. At a stretch for 2. If you want to keep them longer, I would only top with the cream what you want to eat within 2 days and keep the rest either in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Pop them (without Pistachio Cream) into the air fryer * or oven at 350°F/175°C for about 5-6 minutes to re-heat and then spread the cream on top.

I’m saying without Pistachio cream as it contains white chocolate, which might not just melt but burn in the time the rolls take to re-heat.

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like some of my other Pistachio Recipes:

Protein Brown Butter Pistachio Cookies filled with Pistachio Cream

A stunning Pink Glazed Blood Orange Pistachio Cake

Brown sugar Pavlovas filled with Protein Pistachio cream and topped with juicy lime-marinated strawberries. Perfect to make the most out of Strawberry Season