Pistachio Cardamom Rolls
Inspired by the flavors of persian love cake, this cinnamon roll dough is made with brown sugar and fresh lemon zest. It wraps around a brown butter, cardamom and pistachio filling and is topped with a rose water and lemon glaze.
Persian Love… Rolls? What is Persian Love??
‘Persian Love Cake’ comes from Yasmin Khan’s recipe from her book The Saffron Tales. Of the flavors of her very special cake she says, “of a Persian garden in the late spring, adorned with the floral scent of rose water and citrus, and decorated with bright green pistachios”.
I’ve been a little obsessed with her cake for years and earlier this year created persian love cookies that incorporate the same flavors. There’s a voice in the back of my head saying this would make a great babka too but, let’s roll with these first!
Ok, truly these are amazing. The filling gets all sticky and caramel-like on the bottom, there’s lemon in the dough and in the glaze and along with the salty pistachios it comes together in this perfect cacophony of flavors. It reminds me a lot of baklava but then there’s nothing crispy here, just a super tender roll!
Key Recipe Ingredients
Flour: I use bread flour but you can also use all purpose.
Milk powder: Also known as non-fat dry milk powder. You can also use buttermilk powder.
Oil: Any kind of flavorless oil will work here.
Lemon: Rub your lemons while washing to remove any wax. Zest straight into the dough. Reserve the lemon because you’ll use the juice for the glaze.
Pistachio: Pistachios should be toasted (so if you bought them raw, bake them on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 350 F).
Rose water: Found in the ‘middle eastern’ section of the grocery store, or sometimes near the extracts and baking aisle. You can also use orange blossom water.
Making persian love cinnamon rolls ahead of time
Either the first or second rise can be done in the fridge; but you’ll need to give them room temperature rising time afterwards. The dough should be doubled in size after the first rise and should be puffy after the second.
Before the rolls go into the oven you can be sure the second rise is complete by pressing the side of a roll with your finger; if it springs back quickly the dough needs more time. If it springs back very slowly and leaves an indentation, it’s ready.
Special notes about this recipe
Making the Roux: You’ll do this in a pot over the stove. It’s called a tangzhong and is a chinese technique used in japanese milk bread.
Kneading the dough: This won’t knead for too long but you’ll want a stand mixer & a dough hook, it’ll come together in about 5-7 minutes but in a shaggy, sticky mess. Don’t add any more flour!
Making the Filling: I like browning the butter for the filling but you can also just melt it. It’ll be looser (easier to spread). If you pour the sugar into the butter while it’s hot and mix it gets it melts it partially, giving it that caramel like taste.
Glazing & Topping: The glaze can be made thicker with more powdered sugar, looser with more lemon juice. Adjust to your liking.
Persian Love Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Persian Love Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 40g or ⅓ cup bread flour
- 240g or 1 cup g water
- 7g or 1 packet instant yeast
- 60g or ¼ cup water
- 3 tablespoons milk powder
- 60g ¼ cup oil canola or any flavorless oil
- Zest of 2-3 lemons
- 100g or ½ cup brown sugar
- 500g or 4 cups bread flour
- 2 large eggs
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling
- 113g or ½ cup butter to brown
- 210g or 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100g or 1 cup shelled pistachios ground
Topping
- 160g or 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp rose water
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Ground pistachios and rose petals
Method
- In a small pot, whisk together the flour and water for the roux. Cook over medium heat until thickened (it will be gloopy). Let cool just slightly.
- Mix together the yeast and warm water, sprinkle a pinch of sugar on top and set aside for a couple minutes to foam.
- Spoon the flour over the yeast mixture. Add the eggs, sugar, oil, lemon zest, powder and salt & vanilla. Add the cooled roux on top. Knead on medium speed until the dough mostly comes together, about 5 minutes, it will be a shapeless sticky ball. Set in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours at room temperature or until it has doubled in size.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling:
- Brown the butter by cooking it in a saucepan until you can see brown bits at the bottom. Pour into a heatproof bowl. Add the sugar, cardamom and cinnamon and stir.
- Grease the bottom of a 13x9” cake pan.
- Once the dough is ready, punch it down and place on a floured surface. Roll it out until it’s about 20x13”. Spread the sugar filling over it and then sprinkle on the ground pistachios into an even layer.
- Roll it up into a log and use unwaxed dental floss to slice rounds that are 1” tall. Arrange in the prepared pan leaving about 1.5 inches between each roll.
- Cover with a tea towel and let rise for about 1 hour, until the dough leaves a small indentation and springs back slowly when pressed. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, until dark golden all over.
- To make the glaze: whisk all the ingredients together then pour over the rolls. Sprinkle with additional ground pistachios, dried rose petals and fresh lemon zest.
Did you make this recipe?
Share & tag me on instagram @buttermilkbysam
These rolls were absolutely delicious! A nice change from my usual cinnamon rolls. They got raves from everyone who had one. Thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes!
Can i replace the water with milk instead? I still want to use milk powder too for a more intense flavor.
that should be fine!
Always delicious to make and loved by everyone in my house
Can’t wait to try this recipe it looks delicious! Is it possible to let these rest overnight before baking? Or do you think they would get over proofed? Want to prep night before to have them quick and fresh for a morning brunch 🙂
With this dough I’ve only tried doing the first rise overnight; so once you make the dough leave it on the counter for half an hour then in the fridge for about 8 hours. You really want to look for the dough’s signs it’s done rising: is it puffy and close to being almost doubled in size? A well rested and properly risen dough will also be quite easy to roll out rather than resistant to it so if you find it’s hard to roll, cover it with a tea towel and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
Can I make this with AP flour? Bread flour is really hard to find where I live :/
Yes as long as it’s a strong all purpose flour (check the protein content!) that is good for breads.
This was a great recipe! Best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever made! I’ve been trying (and failing) for years to make them as good, fluffy and gooey as the ones you buy in fancy bakeries. This recipe accomplished that on the very first try. Thank you! I just have one note of clarification: the recipe calls for instant yeast but then you say to add it to water. This makes me think you meant to say active dry yeast, since instant yeast is typically added to the flour. In any case, I made the recipe with active dry yeast and they came out perfectly.
Hi Em! So glad you liked the rolls =) The yeast in water step is purposeful, I find that with both active and instant will dissolve better into the dough if added to water first, so I always do it with both kinds.
Love the flavor combinations in these rolls! I made 24 smaller rolls and everyone finished them off.
Is there a replacement for milk powder?
buttermilk powder works too
Confirming you need to add the roux when adding ingredients to the yeast? I Don’t see in the steps, but caught it in the video .
Excited to see how these turn out!
yes! Will fix
Which bread flour measurement is supposed to be used, 500g or 40g? And is it possible to use regular milk instead of a powdered form? Thanks
40g goes into the roux, the 500g goes into the dough (along with the roux after it has cooked). You can use milk instead of water and skip the powder but the rolls won’t be as soft.
Made these for Easter brunch and everyone loved them!! The filling is next level. The only thing is that I couldn’t find an oven temp on the recipe. I set it to 375 and watched them carefully, but what oven temp would you suggest for this?
Oh my goodness, this looks like just the thing for the holidays. Sigh, these flavors are my *jam*.
I love your blog and find much baking inspiration from it. Thank you for sharing all your recipes.
Sam, in step 01…you mean mix flour and water for the roux right?
Yes! Fixed