Your kitchen is going to smell like heaven while this vintage sweet roll recipe is baking.
Jump to:
❤️ Why I love this recipe
- These old fashioned pecan rolls rise overnight in the refrigerator so you bake them fresh in the morning!
- Buttery, light, and fluffy texture with a gooey, buttery pecan filling - so good.
- They are easy to make with a stand mixer and a dough hook.
I love a good cinnamon roll but this vintage sweet rolls recipe takes the blue ribbon for yum!
The house smells unbelievable when you pull them out of the oven in the morning. They're absolutely perfect for the holidays!
🧾 Ingredients
This is an "at a glance" list of ingredients. You'll find the list and the measurements in the printable recipe card below.
🔪 Instructions
- Add a little of the sugar and yeast to some of the warm water in a small bowl. Set aside until foamy.
- Pour the foamy yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and mix in remaining ingredients until a soft dough forms.
- Knead with dough hook attachment.
- Place dough in a warm spot and let rise until double.
- Test to make sure the dough has doubled.
- Punch down.
- Spread with filling and toasted, chopped pecans.
- Roll up, pinch seam, and cut in equal slices - place rolls on a parchment covered cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and let dough rise overnight in the refrigerator before baking. Next day bake pecan cinnamon rolls, add icing, and serve!
🥫 Storage
Cover with plastic wrap or place in an airtight container and store for a day or two at room temperature.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
🧑🏻🍳 Baker's notes
⭐ Expert Tip: Out of powdered sugar? If you're out of Confectioner's (powdered) sugar you can try this easy substitute. Just blend 1-½ cups regular sugar and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a blender until powdered. It will take about a minute. Use as you would Confectioner's sugar.
- If you spray the inside of the plastic wrap with cooking spray it won't stick to the unbaked dough in the refrigerator or the frosting after the sweet rolls are done.
- When you melt the butter be sure to let it cool to at least 110F or a comfortable warm temperature before adding it to the yeast dough ingredients or you will kill off the yeast and the dough won't rise.
- Cutting the pecan cinnamon rolls from the roll is easy with dental floss! Just run a string under the roll, bring it up the sides, cross over on the top and pull gently. The floss will cut through the dough cleanly and easily.
- You can also cut through them with a sharp knife.
- Always place cinnamon rolls cut side down on the greased baking sheet.
💡Great Idea: Add dried cranberries for your cozy Christmas morning breakfast!
✨ FAQs
The ball of dough will last about 3 days if you punch it down once every 24 hours. After that it starts losing it's ability to rise. Once you've formed the pecan cinnamon rolls you'll want to bake within 16 hours.
An hour to an hour and a half (more or less) for the first rise and 30 minutes for the second. This recipe rises overnight, however so it's much easier.
These old fashioned pecan rolls are crazy easy! They're the perfect treat for Christmas morning! No time to make these?
Try the 15 minute crescent roll cinnamon rolls!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Old Fashioned Pecan Rolls
Equipment
- baking sheet
- stand mixer
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt if using regular salt use just 1 teaspoon
- 2 packages active dry yeast
- ¼ cup water 110F
- 1 cup buttermilk warm (110F)
- ½ cup butter melted and cooled to warm room temp
- 2 egg yolks room temperature
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Filling
- 1 ⅓ cups brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup butter melted, divided use
- 2 cups pecans chopped
Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- cream to thin it out as needed
- 1 ½ cups pecans chopped
I earn a commission from Instacart from qualifying purchases.
Instructions
Dough
- Mix warm (110F) water and a tablespoon of brown sugar; stir in yeast.
- Set the mixture aside for a few minutes until it begins to bubble. I know this is no longer necessary but I think it still gives better results.
- Mix about 2 cups of the flour, eggs, egg yolks, remaining brown sugar and buttermilk into the yeast mixture until smooth.
- Add the vanilla, salt, and butter.
- Slowly add more flour until a soft dough is formed. You can do this by hand or with a heavy duty mixture and a dough hook.
- Once the dough holds together turn it out on a floured surface. You can also knead with your mixer if you prefer.
- Knead a few minutes until smooth and satiny, but still somewhat soft. It will feel like your earlobe if you pinch it.
- Place in a large, greased bowl and turn the ball of dough over to grease the top. Cover with a tea towel, place in a warm spot, and let rise.
- Let rise for 1 hour, or until double.
- Punch dough down; let rest for 5 minutes. This gets some of the elasticity out and makes it easier to roll.
- With a rolling pin roll the dough out into a rectangle that is about ½ inch thick or a little more.
Filling
- Spread the dough with ¼ cup of the cooled, melted butter.
- Mix the remaining ¼ cup of melted butter, cinnamon, salt, and brown sugar together.
- Spread this over the dough and sprinkle with the pecans pressing in lightly.
- Roll up as for a jelly roll, pinch the long edge to seal, and cut in 12 thick slices.
- Place the slices, cut side down, on a greased cookie sheet.
- Cover with greased plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate the rolls overnight, or about 8-12 hours. You can also just let them rise at room temperature for about an hour if you want to bake them immediately but they aren't as good.
- Next morning place the rolls on the counter while you preheat the oven. Remove the plastic wrap gently.
- Bake the pecan cinnamon rolls in a 375F oven about 30 minutes or until done. (An insta-read thermometer in pushed in the center will read 195-200F) Be sure to use a middle oven shelf and a heavy baking sheet. Watch carefully because the sugar will make the bottoms burn if you are not careful.
- Remove from the oven.
Icing
- While the rolls are baking mix the topping ingredients together until smooth.
- Spread on warm rolls.
- Cover with chopped pecans.
Leave a Reply