Breakfast. At 3:01 in the afternoon.

(Don't you love my fancy serving plate of a... paper plate?)

I really did mean to have these ready by traditional "lunch time." Around noon. Or twelve-thirty. Instead, I got wrapped up in Donnie Darko and ignored my dough for a bit. Either way, I eventually got my orange rolls ready. I just had one. Sooo good. One of my sisters has refused to eat them. Apparently orange is gross. Her loss. But that means.. I have a bunch of orange rolls. Because, you know, I don't have enough cupcakes already to get rid of. Anybody live in the Kyle-area looking for cupcakes or orange rolls? You know you want some.

These rolls actually came about because of my blatant dislike for cinnamon rolls. Powdered sugar icing? Gross. It just tastes like.. sugar. I had a recipe for orange bowknots. Sounded good. Also sounded dry. Orange bowknots. Cinnamon rolls. Orange bowknots. Cinnamon ro-. Orange rolls. I was salivating already. So I grabbed an orange, grabbed my cookbook, and went at it.

Ta-da! Spring Break Lunch #2. (Oh, and, these rolls have a really nice bright orange flavour. Unlike those store-bought Pillsbury ones. I loved those things when I was little.)

Orange Rolls

6 cups all-purpose flour (or less if you need to.. I was actually going for 5 1/2 cups. But needed more.)
1 package active dry yeast
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 plus 1/4 cup regular milk (or you can just use all milk or all buttermilk even. I just had some buttermilk I needed to use.)
1/2 cup salted butter (just accept the fact that I only ever have salted butter in my house.)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons orange zest

Filling:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 fresh squeezed orange juice (or however much you want to reach desired consistency)


In your mixer bowl, combine two cups of the flour with the yeast. Mix until combined with the dough hook. Add the eggs and mix to break them up.

In a small saucepan, combine the buttermilk, milk, butter, sugar, and salt, and heat just until the butter is almost completely melted, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and stir to melt the rest of the butter. If it's too hot let it cool a bit before adding to the flour mixture. Once the mixture is around 105° F (I actually don't have a thermometer.. I just feel it to see if it's warm enough to me) turn the mixer back on and slowly pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture. Mix for about thirty seconds on low, then scrape the bowl. Mix some more, trying to get it completely combined. (I didn't succeed in that, but got as close as I could.) Add the juice and zest, mix in. Add the next three cups of flour a cup at a time, completely mixing after each addition. So far, there should be five cups of flour you have used. Gradually add the final cup while the mixer is on low. Let the machine knead the dough until it is all combined. The resulting dough should be moderately soft and slightly sticky. Cover and let rise until doubled. While that is rising, combine the sugar and cinnamon for the filling.

After the dough has risen, punch it down, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, divide in two, cover, and let rest for ten minutes. (Again, the movie distracted me.. I think I left mine for about twenty.) Take this time to grease two nine-inch round pans. (I just used my cake pans.)

Roll one portion into a 12 x 8 inch rectangle. Brush about half the melted butter over the dough. Sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar mixture.



Roll up starting from a long end and pinch the seam to close it, using some of the melted butter to help. (You'll wind up having one 12-inch long roll.) Using a sharp knife, bench scraper, or some heavy duty thread, cut the roll into twelve equal pieces and place in a prepared pan.



(I just used some thread I had folded over on itself twice. Just lay the the roll over the thread, criss-cross it above the roll, and pull quickly in opposite directions.) Repeat with the second portion of dough.




Cover the pans and let rise for about half an hour. At this point, I started pre-heating my oven to 375° F and placed the pans on the stove to let rise with the help from the oven's heat.

Place the rolls in the oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes.

When they've finished baking, invert the pan onto a serving plate and turn the rolls right side up. (I turned the rolls out onto one plate, upside-down. I then covered them with a second plate and turned them over so they were right-side-up. I did this with the second pan, except I inverted them initially into my first empty pan.)

Combine the zest, sugar, and juice for the glaze. Drizzle onto the hot rolls evenly. I was feeling fancy so I dusted the rolls with powdered sugar. It's not necessary, but you can if you want. Enjoy.