once the dough was no longer sticky, and I still had quite a bit of flour left. And what do you know? Those rolls had perfectly smooth dough from start to finish on ALL of the rolls – no cracking, splitting or filling spilling out. I’m convinced that the issue had to do with the dough being too dry and, as a result, cracking and splitting, which can cause the filling to come out.

The exact amount that you use will vary wildly depending on the time of year, the ambient air temperature and humidity levels, but definitely go with a little flour at a time, and then stop periodically to feel the dough as you near the end of the flour. It shouldn’t be sticky, but should still be quite soft and supple.

Baked Nut Roll

So that’s it! This is my go-to nut roll recipe and has been for years, and I hope I’ve made it a little bit easier for you to tackle it. At first glance it might look like a lot of work (8 nut roll!) but it’s really not a lot of hands-on time and they only require one (long) rise, so totally doable. I made my Christmas batch last week and managed to get them totally mixed and assembled in an hour while Joseph was at preschool and Dominic was napping. I left them to rise and baked later that afternoon. Done!

You can buy nut roll from bakeries and tons of churches in this area around the holidays, but I’m always surprised once I dig in and tackle them at how uncomplicated they are. If you’ve been too intimidated to try nut roll before, have no fear! I’ve also successfully scaled this recipe, so if you don’t need this many nut roll, feel free to cut it in half.

In a word, this nut roll recipe is spectacular. Too often I’ve had nut roll that are doughy and dry and/or don’t have enough filling. The dough for this recipe is very, very soft, and the filling is supremely moist. Plus, the filling-to-dough ratio is very high, which keeps everything from drying out and packs a ton of flavor into even the smallest of slices.

I hope you’ll give these a try and that they become one of your Christmas traditions as well!

A plate with slices of nut roll.