Orange Sweet Rolls |

This past week we celebrated Easter and we had a great time celebrating Jesus’ resurrection with family!

One tradition that my husband’s family had when he was younger was that every Easter they would make orange-infused bread in the shape of little bunny rabbits. It has been a few years since we have done this as a family {pretty much just because it is always so late in the day when we think about it and don’t really want to put the effort into it}, but Saturday afternoon I thought it would be fun for our kids and their cousins to be able to continue on this tradition. I put my husband, who is of course the expert at this point, in charge of most of the shaping of the bunnies.

I wasn’t really planning on doing a post about the bunny bread, so my pictures aren’t that great, but I did manage to snap a couple of shots of the dough and the finished product. Here they are, just in case you want to take a look!

So, I am not going to be sharing the recipe of the orange bunny bread right now {although it really is worthy of passing the recipe along}. After eating that sweet, orange bread…loving it…and not having any leftovers of it today, I got to thinking about what else I could make. I then started thinking about sweet orange rolls. Like cinnamon rolls, except with no cinnamon and instead some orange! I started looking at recipes on-line and found the recipe for Orange Sweet Rolls that I will be sharing with you today. Basically. I only tweaked it a hair. I have a hard time just following a recipe as is. I don’t know why I do it, but I always have an itch to change it, at least just a little bit, to make it my own.

Instead of just rolling up the dough, cutting it and placing each section as a standard cinnamon roll shape, I went ahead and took the advice of the previous blogger who shared her recipe, and stretched each section a bit and twisted it to form sort of a figure 8.

The resulting sweet orange rolls are utter yummy-ness. They were sort of a mess to shape because of the butter-orange-sugar mixture that oozed out as the rolling took place, but I wouldn’t change it a bit. If a sweet orange treat is what you are looking for, I encourage you to try this recipe out. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed! For now, enjoy the pictures and look forward to when you can make them yourself and eat them up! Enjoy! -Shelley

Orange Sweet Rolls
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients
Dough:
3/4 c buttermilk, warm {I didn’t want to unthaw my buttermilk, so just used 3/4 c milk + 3/4 t vinegar mixed in and allowed it to sit}
1/8 c orange juice
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3 large eggs
4 – 4 1/4 c All-Purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
2 1/4 t instant yeast
1 t salt

Orange Filling:
1/2 c softened butter
1 c sugar
2 T orange juice

Orange Glaze:
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
3 T orange juice

Directions
For the dough, add warmed buttermilk/milk and sugar to a large standing mixer with the dough hook attached.

Sprinkle yeast over this mixture and give a little mix. Allow to proof for a few minutes to get the yeast activated.

Next, add the rest of the ingredients, and give a quick mix.

Add a couple of cups of flour, adding slowly up to about the 4 cup mark until it all just comes together.

Knead about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic {or about 15 minutes by hand}.

Place the dough in a large, lightly greased bowl and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled.

For the filling, combine butter, orange juice and sugar in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.

When the dough has risen and is ready, turn it out onto a counter.

Roll out to about a 16 by 12-inch rectangle.

Gently brush the filling mixture over the rectangle.

Lift the longest edge closest to you and begin rolling the dough into a tight log. {Be warned this can get messy!} Pinch the seam closed and roll the log so it is seam side down.

Using a serrated knife, slice the log into about 12 evenly sized rolls. You can slice them thinner or thicker as you like. For a traditional cinnamon-roll-look, arrange the rolls cut side down on a lined or lightly greased baking pan.

If you want to try the twist method, one at a time grab each sliced roll and holding on to either end gently pull dough apart.

Gently twist the roll into a figure eight and place it on a parchment paper lined pan. Cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise in a warm place until doubled.