Orange Rolls

I love to bake, especially delicious treats that make the waistband of my jeans fit a little snugger just by thinking of them.

So, after a monotonous day of school, why not make some ORANGE ROLLS? :D
Homework? ...Naaaw! These take a few hours...

But never has there been a better use of butter, sugar and oranges.

First, I had to set up my work area. A preparatory snack of a warm tortilla and cheddar cheese, then stealing the speakers from the old computer downstairs and struggling to hook up the tangle of wires to my netbook, so I can hear my music better. Yes, I sing while I cook, and yes, it is loud in my kitchen. =]

I give credit to the wonderfully ingenious Mama S for this recipe, I don't know where she got it, but I got it from her. Warning - I don't really have detailed instructions, I usually just go for it and see how it turns out. So, sorry if you are an exact direction-follower kind of person.

Fasten your seatbelts (not too tight, because these rolls will definitely shrink your jeans), and here we go -

Orange Rolls

Dough
1/2 C butter
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 C milk
2 T yeast
2 eggs
6 C flour - more or less ;)

Orange butter
1/2 C butter
1 C sugar
4 T grated orange peel

Orange glaze
(basically enough powered sugar to make a good glaze with the juice from the zested orange)
1 C powdered sugar
2 T orange juice - if you wanna be technical

Alright, starting with the dough -
(Note-unless you have a KitchenAid mixer, use a VERY large pot - you will be putting over 7 cups in it, which will then rise...)
Melt the butter, and combine in the sugar, salt and milk. Let it cool to lukewarm, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.
At this point, I transfer it to out super-fabulous red KitchenAid, but you can keep it in the pot.
Add the yeast, and let it sit to activate, until it looks rather brainy, kinda like shown below, though I did let mine sit a bit longer than necessary...but no biggie.

Then add the flour, roughly 6 cups. Mix that up, but not too much, let it be stay a bit floury (Is that a word? oh well). Let that rise. I like to cover it with a cloth soaked in hot water and COMPLETELY wrung out, but I have no idea if that actually helps. Could all just be in my head...

Anyway, when that is risen pretty well, time varies, knead it out on a hard, floured surface,
like your counter. I use my handy-dandy pastry mat. Then roll it out into a rectangle, about 1 ft. by 2 ft?

Now make your orange butter! Grate/zest (whichever word you prefer) an orange, and add that to the butter and sugar. Melt it all together, of course! Yum!

While that is still warm, spread it evenly over the dough, to the edges. Use a pizza cutter or such to cut it in half longways, then cut 5 even-ish, long strips from each half. Confused yet? Just wait.
Stack the 5 strips! On the fifth, flip it over, so all the yummy butteryness is kept inside.
Then cut the strips into your little rolls, about an inch? Guesstimate - they just need to fit into your muffin tins and not overflow when they rise. Place them in the muffin tins, it takes 3 pans for me.

Put them in a nice, warm-ish place to rise, I usually set them in the oven with the light on, but NOT HEATED. Don't bake them yet...

When they are risen, nice and fluffy, take them out of the oven (if you put them there), and preheat the oven to 350 F. Then bake them! About 8 minutes for me, until the edges are golden brown. Let them cook on a wire rack, then drizzle the glaze over them.
The Glaze - juice the orange you zested previously, then add powered sugar to that until you reach your preferred glaze consistency. Simple as that.

And there you go! Killer deliciousity =]

They are great to give to friends, or ding-dong ditch your neighbors (nicely) with.

Questions, comments, or clarifications? Let me know! =]