Cranberries Are The Perfect Tart Addition To Balance Sweet Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls certainly don't need any improvement — they're already one utterly irresistible dessert — but it doesn't hurt to switch them up now and again. One of the ways to make a unique batch of cinnamon rolls is to add an unexpected flavor — such as cranberries.

Tasting Table's recipe for extra fluffy cranberry cinnamon rolls infuses cranberries to bring in some tartness to balance out the sweetness of the dessert. The cranberries are cooked down and mixed with the other ingredients to become the filling, so the tartness is swirled into the cinnamon roll's interior, which gives you that perfect mix of tart and sweet in every bite. To bring everything together, orange juice is infused into the icing. 

Plus, the addition of the cranberry makes the treat a bit more seasonal. Recipe developer Jessica Morone said, "Normal cinnamon rolls are already delicious year-round, but adding cranberry and orange flavors to these makes them a really perfect fall or winter treat. I love how the tart cranberries really balance with the sweetness of the frosting."

If you're not a cranberry fan but still want to add tartness to your cinnamon rolls, then you can easily swap out the cranberries for another tart fruit. Other ideas include cherries or red currants, both of which will fulfill the tartness role of the cranberries, but with their own unique flavor. Or, if you like the taste of cranberries, but want a more subtle version, you can try experimenting with pairing the cranberries with another fruit — perhaps even cherries or red currants, for a burst of tartness but with more complexity. This is also a good way to tone down the tartness if that is more your preference. 

You can also play around with the flavor of the icing in this recipe. If you want to go all-out on the cranberry flavor, then you could swap out the orange juice for cranberry juice (or combine the two) to really up the ante on the tartness. Or, you could use the icing as an opportunity to bring in another fruit flavor by including a touch of peach juice, apple juice, or even pomegranate juice. Now that you know that cinnamon rolls don't have to just be confined to the traditional flavors, you can use the cranberry recipe as a jumping-off point to experiment with different unique variations of the dessert.