These cranberry orange cinnamon rolls became a tradition in my household the moment I made them! Our new Christmas morning breakfast, think soft, tender orange rolls but with a perfectly tangy, fruity cranberry twist. Add some cinnamon for warm holiday flavor, and you have the perfect holiday breakfast or treat. Seriously, I could eat an entire pan of these!

A cranberry orange cinnamon roll resting on a small plate with 2 loose cranberries.

Before You Get Started

It’s really important that your yeast is fresh. If you’re unsure how long those packets have been tucked away in your pantry, please go ahead and get some more! If the yeast isn’t fresh, your dough may not rise, which means you’ll end up with heavy, dense cranberry cinnamon rolls.
The temperature of your kitchen also has a hand in how well your cinnamon roll dough rises! If your kitchen is cold, or if you let your dough rise in the fridge, the process will take much, much longer. Too cold and the dough won’t rise as much as it needs to. On the other hand, if the kitchen’s too hot, the yeast will be overactive – meaning it will rise much faster, but it may not develop correctly. The ideal ambient temperature is between 72° and 78° Fahrenheit.

How to Make This Recipe

See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.

Make the Dough.

Start by blooming the yeast – and make sure you get this right! If the yeast doesn’t bloom correctly, your cinnamon roll dough won’t rise. Once it blooms, mix in flour, butter, sugar, and salt until you’ve got a beautiful dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl, cover it, and let the dough rise until it’s doubled in size.

now for the filling.

Combine fresh cranberries, cranberry juice, sugar, cinnamon, and orange zest in a saucepan and simmer the mixture for 20 minutes or so, until the cranberries burst. The mixture should be nicely thickened by then, so you can set it aside to cool.

Here’s where the “roll” comes in.

After letting the dough rise, turn it out onto a floured countertop or large cutting board. Roll the dough out into a large sheet, making sure it’s evenly thick all the way across. You can add flour as you need to keep the dough from sticking to the counter or the rolling pin, but try not to overdo it. You don’t want too much flour in the dough. Spread the cranberry filling out evenly across the sheet of dough, then tightly roll the dough into a log.

Be careful not to roll the dough up too tightly – you don’t want to squeeze out the filling! Too tight of a spiral will also make the dough bake unevenly, so you could end up with spots of raw dough throughout the rolls.

Slice and rise.

Slice the dough log into 16 individual cranberry cinnamon rolls. Mine were each roughly 1 ½ inches thick, but you don’t have to be exact. You mainly want to make sure they’re all the same thickness so they bake evenly. Place the cinnamon rolls in a prepared pan, cover them tightly, and let them rise again until they’re nice and fluffy.

Don’t forget the icing!

Pop the pan of cinnamon rolls in the oven and bake them ’til they’re golden. While they’re baking, combine softened cream cheese and butter with a mixer. Once all the cream cheese lumps are gone, mix in powdered sugar, cranberry juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract until you’ve got a smooth, creamy icing.

Decorate and serve.

Spread as much or as little icing as you like over the tops of the warm cranberry cinnamon rolls. The icing will melt a little from the heat of the rolls, so you want to make sure they’ve cooled off slightly first. Don’t ice them as soon as they come out of the oven!

Serve the cinnamon rolls while they’re still warm so you can really enjoy the gooey filling and the tender dough.

A spatula lifts a pink-frosted cranberry cinnamon roll out of a pan of cinnamon rolls.

The upper right corner of a full pan of cranberry cinnamon rolls topped with pink frosting.

What I Love About This Recipe

Made with homemade dough instead of canned, these cranberry cinnamon rolls are ridiculously fluffy, tender, and moist. And that’s just the rolls themselves! They’re filled with a tart, vibrant mix of cranberry, orange zest, and cinnamon. Beyond that, they’re topped with a creamy, tangy cranberry-cream cheese icing. Basically this is THE ultimate wintery twist on a classic cinnamon roll recipe.
In years past, we’ve typically opted for gluten-free cinnamon rolls or air fryer cinnamon rolls on holiday mornings. After trying these, though? Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re now a regular part of every one of our Christmas mornings moving forward. Thankfully I can make these up ahead of time and bake them in the morning, so we get the day-of ease of canned cinnamon rolls with all the flavors and textures of homemade!

Recipe Variations

For Extra-Gooey Cinnamon Rolls: Pour 1 cup of room-temperature heavy cream over the prepared cinnamon rolls just before baking them. Make sure the sides of your pan are tall enough to contain the run-off! This will make the cinnamon rolls a little sweeter, so you may want to use less of the icing to offset that.
For More-Intense Flavor: Cranberry and orange are a match made in culinary-heaven, with the citrusy orange complementing the tart cranberry beautifully. There’s a subtle-but-noticeable amount of orange zest in both the cinnamon roll filling and the cranberry icing, but you’re welcome to add a little more if you like! You can also add a tablespoon of fresh orange juice to the icing instead of increasing the zest.

Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.