Orange Rolls

Ever since I was a young girl I have been a Pillsbury Orange Roll fanatic. No kidding, I can finish off an entire package of those rolls by myself and the strange thing is I don’t even like oranges or orange juice. Now that we have children who also love orange rolls, one package is just not enough. That fact coupled with several snow days and a gift of Hale Oranges from my grandmother had my curiosity peaked, and I spent last Saturday night looking up Orange Rolls.

There were not as many recipes as I would have thought but I did find a recipe with stellar ratings and went for it. Many sweet rolls take so much time due to prep work and rising that I altered this recipe to include the first rising the night before and then let the second rising happen over night in the fridge.

The result? A seriously surprising sweet for Sunday morning’s breakfast. The recipe said you would get 30 rolls but I barely got 24.

I made three different icings for the rolls. One was the original icing called for in the recipe which I did not care for at all and I scrapped it after making it but before covering the rolls with it. It tasted of nothing but butter. The second icing was a confectioner’s sugar, milk and freshly squeezed orange juice icing which is what we had on the first batch that morning for breakfast. However, I whipped up an even simpler confectioner’s sugar and milk icing for the second batch that I found just as pleasing. Where as the rolls themselves were a total success I think I may keep looking for an icing that really completes these rolls. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Orange Rolls

(borrowed from MizzNess from this wonderful site here)

Ingredients

(for rolls)

1 package yeast (2 1/4 tsp Rapidrise Yeast)

1/4 cup water (~110*)

1 cup warm milk (~110*)

1/4 cup shortening

1 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

~3 3/4 cup all purpose flour

(for filling)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter softened

2 tablespoons orange zest

(glaze)

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

4 tsp milk

2 tsp orange juice

directions

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in small bowl for about 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl combine milk, shortening, sugar, salt and egg. Add yeast.
3. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough and knead on floured surface for 8-10 minutes or with a dough hook in an electric mixer.
4. Grease a large bowl and place dough inside turning to cover dough with oil.
5. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
6. Punch dough down and divide in half. Roll each half out on a floured surface to 15x10 or there abouts.
7. Mix filling until smooth and spread evenly on each rectangle.
8. Roll up starting with long end and cut each into 12 rolls. Place rolls into 2 greased pans. Cover and let rise until doubled about 45 minutes or cover and refrigerate overnight. If refrigerating overnight take out the next morning long enough to take the chill off the dough.
9. Bake at 375* for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Mix glaze ingredients and spread over warm rolls.

Note : Remove these rolls from the pan almost immediately as they can stick to your pan and make clean-up more trouble than the rolls themselves.

I went to be anxious about waking up the next morning and eating these rolls. I’m crazy like that.