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These easy orange rolls start with store-bought crescent roll dough and include a simple filling and citrus icing. I love them for special occasions like birthdays or weekend brunch and I always make them for Christmas morning!
Update: This recipe was originally published in 2016 and has been republished with all new photos.
These Shortcut Orange Rolls have been on my website for 10 years and I’ve been making them in my home for at least 12 years! My kids beg for them for birthdays and they’re an important part of our Christmas morning tradition. These plus my Sausage Cheddar Breakfast Casserole (which I prep the day before and pop in the oven while we open gifts).
To give you a little background, David’s mom always makes small cinnamon rolls using crescent roll dough for Christmas. What a brilliant shortcut, right? I used her recipe as inspiration for an easy orange version. When I originally shared them here I kept them mini like hers, but I recently revamped the recipe to make them larger so they could be made in a baking dish for a prettier presentation. I am just so pleased with the change and I know you’re going to love these citrus beauties!
They can be made with just 5 or 6 ingredients depending on if you squeeze the juice from your orange you zest or prefer to use orange juice from a carton. I usually just slice up the orange for the kids and use Tropicana or Florida’s Natural orange juice in the recipe. Either is perfect.
I know you’ll love every bite of these delicious pastries and you’ll especially love how uncomplicated they are to make.
Ingredients for Shortcut Orange Rolls
- Crescent roll dough: It’s shortcut time! We’re using three tubes of crescent roll dough to create large, fluffy orange rolls. (I use Original Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.) After unrolling the double we pinch the perforated lines to close them up and create a sheet of dough.
- Butter: The filling of our orange rolls starts with butter. That helps give us a rich flavor and gooey texture.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar then gets sprinkled on top of the butter.
- Orange zest: I want a bit of citrus flavor both inside the rolls and on top of the rolls. Adding orange zest to the filling helps accomplish that. We’re also including orange zest in the icing!
- Orange juice: Stir together orange juice and powdered sugar to create the most incredible citrusy glaze for these orange rolls.
- Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar (also known as confectioners sugar) is finely powdered which makes it perfect to quickly stir into a liquid (in this case we’re using orange juice) to make an icing/glaze.
How to Make Shortcut Orange Rolls
Flour the surface of a large cutting board to prevent the dough from sticking to it. Open and unroll one tube of crescent roll dough on the floured cutting board. You should see triangles that are connected by dotted lines. Pinch the dough together where the dotted lines are (to close them) so that you have one long rectangle of crescent roll dough. Flip and pinch the dotted lines on the other side too.
Spread softened butter evenly on top of the dough. Sprinkle granulated sugar and orange zest. Fold the rectangle of dough in half, from left to right. Now roll it from top to bottom to create a log. (Photos of this process are included in the recipe card below.) Slice into fourths. Now you have 4 rolls! Repeat with the remaining two tubes of crescent roll dough until you have 12 orange rolls. Place the rolls in a greased 9×13 baking dish. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
In a bowl stir together powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Pour over the finished orange rolls and serve immediately.
Shortcut Orange Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 tubes crescent roll dough, I use Original Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Filling
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- zest of one orange
Orange Icing
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- zest of one orange
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 baking dish. (I use an avocado oil spray.)
- Flour the surface of a large cutting board to prevent the dough from sticking to it. Open and unroll one tube of crescent roll dough on the floured cutting board. You should see triangles that are connected by dotted lines. Pinch the dough together where the dotted lines are (to close them) so that you have one long rectangle of crescent roll dough. Flip and pinch the dotted lines on the other side too.
- With a knife spread 2 tablespoons of softened butter evenly on top of the dough.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar evenly on top of the buttered dough.
- Zest one third of an orange on top of your dough.
- Fold the rectangle of dough in half, from left to right.
- Now roll the dough from top to bottom to create a log.
- We're going to quarter this dough. Slice the log of dough down the middle. Then slice each half in half so you have four orange rolls. Place the four orange rolls in the prepared baking dish.
- Repeat steps 2 through 8 with the two remaining crescent roll tubes. You'll have 12 orange rolls in the baking dish when you're done.
- Bake orange rolls for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden. 30 minutes is the perfect cooking time in my oven.
- While rolls are baking, stir together powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of orange juice, and the zest of one whole orange in a bowl until smooth.
- After baking, remove the baking dish from the oven and let the rolls sit for 5 to 10 minutes to start to cool (they won't cool completely). Then pour the icing over top of the warm orange rolls and serve.
Orange rolls were a favorite when I was growing up. I have to go gluten free now, but once I have made the dough, the rest is a breeze. Pinned this!
Thanks, Amanda! I don’t know how I went to adulthood before discovering them!