If you didn’t grow up with your mom screaming, “ORANGE ROLLS ARE READY!” on any given morning, we would just like to extend our condolences. There really has never been anything like waking to the fresh scent of orange zest, realizing mom had made them before you even knew it was daylight, and springing out of bed before you brothers and sisters got the gooiest rolls from the middle, with the most icing. It was a very serious feat, okay?!
Preface: We come in peace, but we can’t guarantee any arguing over these in the household. We just want to give you an alternative (healthier? Nah) version of orange rolls that are bigger, sweeter, and longer lasting than our childhood days of finding out the“rolls be gone.”
There are a couple of steps that are involved in making these guys just right, so let’s get this train moving.
Orange Icing Ingredients:
- 1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
- Freshly zest orange peel
- 4 Tbs. freshly squeezed orange juice (trust us, this is so much better with fresh!)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1/3 squeezed lemon
Filling Ingredients:
- ¼ cup salted or unsalted butter
- ¼ cup fine sugar
- 1 Tbs. freshly zest cinnamon
Dough Ingredients:
- Grab 1 package of active, dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup sugar
- ½ cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 Tsp. salt
- 2 Tbs. salted or unsalted butter
- 3 cups flour
- Coconut oil
Getting antsy over here just reading and writing out these ingredients. Let’s get started!
First, we have to tackle the dough, which means we have to tackle the yeast. Start by dissolving the yeast in 1 cup of warm water for 60 seconds. Stir. Stir. Stir.
Add in orange juice, sugar, salt, egg, butter and 1 ½ cups of flour. Begin blending with your best mixer. Stop occasionally and make sure to dissolve any clots of flour not blended. Slowly, start to pour in the rest of the flour, blending together for a doughy consistency.
Sprinkle flour across a clean countertop and place the dough on top. Start to knead the dough with your hands for around 5 minutes. Ball up the kneaded dough and place it in a steel mixing bowl, covered and in a room temperature area. The goal is for this dough to sit and double in size; around 2 hours. Good things take time, ya’ll!
In the meantime, let’s focus on the filling and the icing! Grab a small mixing bowl and add in the sugar and cinnamon.
Grab a sizeable baking dish and lightly grease with coconut oil on a paper towel. Roll out the new, enlarged dough with a bit more flour. Once done, use your softened butter to briefly cover the surface of the dough so the sugar and cinnamon mix can stick. Slightly sprinkle across the dough, and flip dough upside down. Sprinkle this new side with the mixture as well.
Roll up the dough and begin to cut it into rational rolls to place in a baking dish.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cover the rolls and continue to let them rise outside of the oven for around 45 minutes.
Continue to cover the rolls with foil to lock in moisture and heat and bake for 30 minutes – just lightly brown. Once you can tell the dough is cooked through, (you can go a little longer if you like them crisper) remove them to cool.
To top it off with the icing, mix together the vanilla extract, the powdered sugar, the freshly squeezed orange juice, orange zest, and sugar.
Once the rolls have cooled, drizzle the icing over the rolls as evenly as possible. Sprinkle a small amount of lemon juice over the top for an extra zing – perhaps a pinch of powdered sugar too!
