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Melissa,
I cannot wait to try this. It sounds wonderful.
Keith
Beautiful bake! On my “to try” list for Christmas 
Thanks!
I can’t wait to make this! Do you suggests stretch and fold method for the sourdough as it ferments? Thanks!
@Fermentada - this is beautiful. I love your photos and your clarity when describing your process. Thank you for the continued inspiration!
I don’t think stretching and folding is necessary with a thorough initial mixing. When you transfer the dough to the lightly oiled bowl, you can tuck it into a ball a bit and you’ll feel how smooth and tight it is.
Thank you!
Just looking at the photos and the recipe literally made my mouth water!
Where do I buy orange blossom water?
Orange blossom water can be found at grocery stores with a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern focus, also sometimes Whole Foods, and definitely online.
How long and under what conditions can the finished bread be stored? And, are there any places along the process where it can be stopped, stored, and baking resumed?
Thank you
The bread can be stored at least three days, wrapped in plastic, and softened up by heating briefly in the microwave. I haven’t had any of these stay uneaten longer than three days.
As with two of my test batches described in the recipe, refrigerating the dough is fine, though the longer the total fermentation time (both yeast and sourdough), the less Maillard reaction, and if sourdough, more sourness.
I happened to refrigerate during the first rise, but think it would be fine to also refrigerate the shaped dough the way one does with cinnamon rolls.
In my experience you can refrigerate yeast-leavened cinnamon rolls overnight right after shaping. They’ll continue to expand in the refrigerator. Whereas with sourdough leavened cinnamon rolls, I like to let them proof almost completely before refrigerating, so they don’t become totally dormant in the cold and need the entire next day to proof.
Recently I parbaked half a batch of cinnamon rolls, froze them, and then baked them two weeks later. I wasn’t very pleased with the results and I did follow the directions, more or less… I actually allowed them to defrost more time than recommended but then had to bake them almost twice as long as recommended, and they were still a little gummy. (I’m comparing them to the other half of the batch, which I baked completely two weeks prior.) Long story to say: I personally wouldn’t parbake and freeze again. Buy if you want to try that, the method was on kitchn.com
This looks like another fabulous recipe. Thanks for all the detail. An unusual Christmas table contribution for the end of an unusual year. I’m in Australia, if there are any other Aussies on the forum, Arabic shops, food co-ops, some health food stores and speciality Asian food stores will have the orange blossom water (next to the rosewater) before you have to go online. Even Woolworths and Coles have it, at least in city stores, otherwise a Harris Farm store or online https://www.harrisfarm.com.au/products/chefs-choice-orange-blossom-water, so no trouble sourcing the least common ingredient. I’ll grind my star anise in the coffee grinder reserved for grinding flaxseeds and chia seeds (ground fresh each day for omega 3). It should also be noted this is a vegan recipe. Can’t wait to practice 
Susi
You’re welcome. I did think to myself “and while buying orange blossom water, pick up a bottle of rose water too.”
The anise I used in this recipe is anise seed, but I imagine star anise would work too, though perhaps be a bit stronger. Both have a licorice flavor, but I did a little reading and they’re not actually related. 90% of the worlds star anise is used the manufacturing of the medication Tamiflu. Fun fact from the interwebs.
Thanks for the reply Melissa. I will put anise seed on the shopping list with orange blossom water - as you can see I didn’t know the difference, so thanks for that. Tamiflu, eh? The interwebs always has something up its sleeve for us. I’m in the Sydney region and a lovely guy who runs our local speciality shop gets me weird ingredients when he’s in some of Sydney’s more specialised shopping areas, so we spoilt locals don’t have to. We tend to make a lot of Asian food in Australia since it is our local region. So, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese regions, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean and Indian are all part of our normal fare and that makes us very lucky. Then of course, the pandemic has made us travel in the kitchen, so your Pompe á l’huile is just perfect to include the south of France in our Christmas table. I often print off some of my new vegan discoveries for other customers at my speciality store to check out. We’ll see if anyone picks up on the Breadtopia link, especially since the store next door is a locally famous Viennese baker!! Lol Susi
I love all of those cuisines. Lucky indeed!
Just tried this yesterday. It turned out well and exactly as described with no surprises. Nice balanced flavors. And it has “healthy” EVOO! Now, to make a few more batches for the neighbors…
I’m glad the recipe worked well for you. I too loved the “hey it’s kinda healthy” aspect of the bread.
I’d like to make this with sourdough starter. Can the dough, after the first rise of max 8 hrs (if 8 hours is required) then be put in the fridge overnight to then start on the rest of the recipe the next day? Otherwise, it can make for a very long day of trying to make this bread.
Thanks.