Christmas Tree Rolls

There’s nothing better for Christmas morning than having a beautiful batch of Christmas Tree Rolls in the freezer, ready to go for a festive and ridiculously delicious Christmas breakfast. In the fall, I made a half batch of the recipe for Buns that my mom has made since the 1960’s, and I used 1/3 of that half batch to make the small pan of Lingonberry Rolls that we enjoyed for our Thanksgiving morning breakfast. With the other 2/3 of that half-batch, I made these rolls for us to enjoy for our Christmas morning breakfast. My mom made these rolls for the family for Christmas morning sometimes during my childhood. She would make the Buns, then once she was tired of making the buns, she would use the last of the dough to make caramel rolls. Earlier on she would make Swedish Tea Ring to give away as gifts, or for us to have on Christmas morning. In later years, she would sometimes change it up and make Christmas Tree Rolls (occasionally also giving those away as gifts) and pop them into the freezer for Christmas morning. Now, I have to say, these Buns and caramel rolls have been a totally necessary item for everyone in the family for all holidays and anytime in-between. There’s nothing better slathered in melty butter, warm out of the oven. If you make the full batch of these Buns, it’s a big chore. My sister and I would help mom out (when we HAD to), but it’s a lot of work to do the whole batch. You mix up the big bowl of dough, knead it, let it rise, form the buns one by one, let them rise, and then bake them. I’m not complaining – besides learning how to make them, those warm buns were totally worth the work, and they freeze perfectly so there was usually a container of buns in the freezer (if my sister didn’t get to them – she had a thing for frozen baked goods – ha). Slowly, over time, mom hasn’t been able to continue her bun making. That means it’s time for the rest of us in the family to pick up the slack and start making them again – even if it’s for special occasions like a holiday, because they’re perfect for leftover turkey or ham sandwiches! But it’s still a lot of work to make those Buns, and when we get tired, we’ll just make caramel rolls like mom did. For now, I’m glad I only tackled a half-batch and made these melt-in-your-mouth delicious Christmas Tree Rolls for Christmas morning!

Yes – this a very well-used and well-loved recipe and recipe card!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Christmas Tree Rolls

Follow the recipe for Buns or Lingonberry Rolls.

I used about 2/3 of a half batch for these rolls.

If you want to make buns, too, use half of the batch of the original recipe to make these rolls and the rest of the dough can be made into buns.

For the frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

2-4 Tablespoons milk, or enough to make it spreadable

food coloring, if desired (I used green)

For ornaments:

maraschino cherries (I let them sit on a paper towel for awhile to dry off a bit)

sprinkles

Roll out dough into a long rectangle – or close to the shape of a rectangle.

Spread with about 1/2 cup softened butter, and sprinkle generously with about 2-3 Tablespoons cinnamon and about 1/4-1/2 cup sugar. You could mix the cinnamon and sugar together, if you want to, but I didn’t here. I didn’t do it here, but if you really want to make these special, you could also add chopped raisins, nuts, and cherries at this point.

Roll it up as tightly as you can, and cut it into slices to make the rolls.

I cut the tube of dough, with a serrated knife, into 12 rolls to make this tree – arranging them right on the baking sheet. They don’t look exactly the same size, but after rising and baking, they’ll be fine. You can see the cinnamon and sugar peeking through! Can’t wait!

After baking – oh yum. See – the rolls all ended up about the same size. Ha! They almost ended up right off the sides of the pan! To keep these for Christmas morning I wrapped a piece of foam core with foil (making a “platter” to set them on), taped it on the backside, and put the rolls on that so I can wrap them well with plastic wrap and a piece of foil and put them in the freezer. Just make sure that the “platter” you make will fit in your freezer before you go to all the work and have to do it all over again!

After putting the rolls onto the serving “platter”, I frosted them with the above recipe of frosting, put cherries in the middle of each roll as an ornament, and used holiday sprinkles (plus a little brown sugar for the “pot” on the bottom) all over it for added festiveness! I mean, really! Just look how festive! Perfect for Christmas morning. Or gift giving. Or a hostess gift. Or a teacher gift. It’s just perfect. Make some Christmas Tree Rolls for your Christmas morning breakfast, make a big pot of coffee to go with them (since you had a late night putting together toys, wrapping, etc.), and let the festivities begin!

 

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