Orange Pecan Cinnamon Swirl

I had some time on my hands, was feeling generous and know how Nick loves cinnamon buns. And so, I decided to bake up a delicious breakfast bread for him to bring to work…a riff on the sweet cinnamon buns he adores.

I started by making my favorite breakfast dough recipe. This dough is easy to put together and an absolute dream to work with. The only thing to watch out for with this dough is to make sure that the butter is room temp before incorporating it into the dough. If it’s not, it won’t incorporate smoothly and will take a bit more work.


Once the dough was smooth and silky, I rolled it out and filled it with orange zest, cinnamon, brown sugar, and toasted pecans (toasting nuts brings out a much stronger, richer flavor). I then rolled up the dough like I was making cinnamon buns, but then switched gears a bit. I wrapped it into a circle and cut slits 2 inches apart. Then I turned up these wedges so the filling was visible.

While it was baking, the whole apartment smelled of sweet cinnamon and I got an overwhelming feeling of comfort and “home”.

And then, out of the oven it came, and after some contemplation, I christened it “Orange Pecan Cinnamon Swirl”. I let it cool briefly and then drizzled an orange glaze over the top.


Lucky for me there was still one piece left when Nick came home that evening. It’s funny how people often feel bad taking the last piece of anything. If there’s a piece of something delicious left and I want to eat it…well, I see that as fate.

Turns out, the Orange Pecan Swirl was just as yummy for dessert as for breakfast.

For this recipe, go to the end of my post on August 28th and add the zest of 1 orange and 1 cup of toasted pecans to the filling, and substitute orange juice for the water in the glaze.