Who doesn’t love breakfast? It’s the number one meal of the day in my book (well, apart from the 8pm Cadbury chocolate button binge, of course). And sometimes a bowl of cornflakes just doesn’t cut it. For those occasions when you really need to step up your breakfast game, I’ve got just the recipe for you. Apricot & Marzipan Breakfast Rolls.
Why apricot and marzipan? Why not just stick to cinnamon or raisin? If you’ve been around here before, you’ll know what I’m a sucker for anything almond. Marzipan is such an under-appreciated treat, and I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate it into a new recipe, without it being too festive. Yes, there’s still a place for marzipan at Christmas too, but brighten it up with some apricot jam and vanilla drizzle, and you’re on to a breakfast winner.
Don’t be scared if you’ve never made breakfast rolls before. Yes, there’s some yeast involved, and the dreaded waiting around for dough to rise, but if you’ve got a stand mixer then this recipe isn’t much of a headache at all. In fact, when waiting around is the hardest part of a recipe, you know you’re good.
The dough itself is a piece of cake. You’ll need standard plain flour (there’s no bread flour here) and some dried yeast. Add in the usual – sugar, eggs, butter, milk, flavourings – and knead together. The dough is going to need to be left to rise twice, but the second time we are going to speed things up with a slightly warm oven. Yep, if there’s a way to speed things along, you can always count on me to share it.
After the first rise, knock it back (which is just a fancy bread way of saying ‘knead it a bit’) and roll out into a rectangle. You’re then going to want to smother the dough with shop-bought apricot jam, and top with grated marzipan and little pieces of dried apricots. Roll up the dough into a sausage, and chop into 12 rolls. Pop them in a brownie pan or roasting dish, and use my speedy oven method to let them rise again in double quick time.
If you want to make these apricot & marzipan breakfast rolls ahead of time (breakfast tomorrow, anyone?) then don’t put them in the oven to rise. Instead, cover with clingfilm (that’s plastic wrap to you Americans) and leave to slowly rise in the fridge overnight. You can then take them out of the fridge in the morning, pop the oven on, and bake them for 25 minutes.
Homemade breakfast rolls are always going to impress, and you needn’t let on how easy they were. That’s our secret.
I topped mine with my favourite vanilla drizzle and some flaked almonds, but you can keep them plain if you want to cut out a bit of the sweetness. I’m all about the sugar though, can you tell?
With autumn starting to take hold – I definitely saw some brown crunchy leaves on the way to work this morning – then who’s going to say no to a warm fluffy sweet roll for breakfast on Sunday morning. Not anyone I want to be friends with, that’s who.
- 120ml (1½ cup) warm water
- 7g (¼oz) dried yeast
- 120ml (½ cup) milk
- 50g (¼ cup) caster sugar (US granulated)
- 75g (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 500g (4 cups) plain or all purpose flour
- 250g (¾ cup) apricot jam or preserves
- 200g (7oz) marzipan
- 100g (½ cup) dried apricots
- 40g (1/3 cup) icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 2-3 teaspoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- A handful of flaked almonds (optional)
- Place the warm water into a small bowl and add the yeast. Give this a little stir and set aside. Place the milk in a small saucepan on a medium heat until you can see steam starting to come off it, just before it starts to boil. Pour the milk into a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) and add the sugar, melted butter, egg, salt, and vanilla. Give this a good mix and then set aside to cool slightly, so it only feels warm to the touch (not hot).
- Add half the flour in to the wet ingredients and mix together until smooth. Add the activated yeast and mix again. Beat in the remaining flour a little at a time, until the mixture forms a dough. You may not need all 500g of the flour, but make sure the dough isn't too wet.
- Knead the dough on a floured surface, or using a dough hook attachment in your stand mixer. If kneading by hand then do this for about 10 minutes, or if using a mixer then 5 minutes should be fine. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and leave to rise for about an hour somewhere warm, until almost doubled in size.
- Once the dough has pretty much doubled in size, remove from the bowl and place on a generously floured surface. Give it a gentle knead to knock it back, and then roll out into a 15 by 9 inch rectangle. Warm the apricot jam in the microwave slightly, and then spread it over the dough, leaving a slight border around the outside. Grate the marzipan over the top of the jam, making sure to have a nice even distribution over the whole surface of the dough. Chop the dried apricots (I use scissors to make this easier) and evenly sprinkle them on to the dough.
- Pick up one of the long sides of the dough rectangle and roll up the dough into a sausage. Make sure to get it as tightly rolled as possible, but don't roll it so tight that all the filling comes out. Cut the sausage into 12 slices, and carefully place them in lined brownie pan - there's no need to grease. Leave a little bit of room between the rolls for them to expand when rising, but you want them to send up nice and squished together once baked.
- Turn off the preheated oven and place the rolls inside to rise again. This should take about half an hour, in which time the rolls should have increased in size. Remove from the oven and set aside, covered with a towel, whilst you preheat the oven again, this time to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan).
- Bake the rolls for about 25-30 minutes, after which time they should be nicely brown on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tray. Once slightly cooled, make the vanilla drizzle by combining the icing sugar, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl, and mixing well. Drizzle generously over the warm rolls, sprinkle with flaked almonds (optional), and serve immediately.
- The rolls are best eaten on the day of baking, although will keep for a day or so if kept in the fridge covered in clingfilm or plastic wrap.
- To make these rolls ahead, prepare them up to the point before the second rise, and instead of placing in the oven to prove, cover them with clingfilm or plastic wrap and leave them in the fridge overnight. The rolls will then rise slowly during the night, and be ready to pop in the oven to bake when you wake up in the morning.
They sure did impress me!
Breakfast is the best meal of the day <3