Orange Rolls

I love bread. It is my absolute all-time favorite food. And.. if it werent for the fact that excessive bread-eating makes you fat.. I would eat it all day. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes I do.... shhhhh! One of my favorite things to make is rolls. Rolls just go so tastily with pretty much everything.

I created this recipe about 3 years ago, and havent made a different recipe since. Everyone who tries them wants the recipe.. even those who have a go-to recipe already. It really is THAT good! The best part about it is that its versatile. Its a great basic roll recipe. Great for cinnamon rolls. Great for breadsticks. Great for orange rolls, etc etc.

Todays post is about Orange rolls.

OH how I LOVE orange rolls. And we arent talkin Pillsbury from a can orange rolls. These are homemade, from scratch, all natural ingredients. So fluffy and tasty and pure sticky yummyness...

First you will need your handy-dandy Notebook Breadmaker. This is mine.

My wonderful MIL bought this for me a few birthdays ago and it is probably my most frequently used kitchen appliance aside from my KitchenAid. It makes dough OH SO perfectly. If you dont have a breadmaker, I would highly recommend investing in one, or adding it to your Christmas list. Its is definitely worth every penny.

Bread Recipe:
3/4 cup very warm milk
1/4 cup very warm water
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
4 TBS butter, softened
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Orange Topping:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 orange peel, finely grated (When I peel an orange, I pop the peel in the freezer. Frozen peel is really easy to grate)

Directions:
Put all ingredients into your bread maker in the order listed above. Your liquids need to be very warm, but not hot. Once the flour is added, dig a little hole in the top, add your yeast, and cover it with flour. *hint. having a cute kitchen helper makes your bread taste better*

Press the dough setting, and let your machine do its magic. When the dough making process is complete, it should look like this:

Oh, just look at it! Beautifully risen bread dough!

Grease your counter and dump your dough onto it. DO NOT KNEAD! 

Form into 2" balls and place on a baking sheet.

Mix up your Orange Topping.

If you find that its too thick, just pop it into the microwave for 30 seconds or so. You want it to be runny enough to spoon over your rolls and have it melt down the sides. Pour over rolls, and let them rise until double in size. 

**Quick-rise method! If you dont have a couple hours to let those babies rise, thats not a problem. Turn your oven on to the lowest setting (should be 150-170 degrees). Once pre-heated, turn your oven OFF. Put your rolls in. Set your timer for 15-25 minutes. Once they are doubled, remove the rolls from the oven.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Make sure to watch your rolls because ovens vary. 

Ta-Da! Arent they pretty? Theyre delicious too. I may (or may not) have eaten way too many when they were still warm. These freeze well too. Let them cool, place them on a cookie sheet or cutting board, etc and pop them in the freezer. When frozen, transfer to a freezer bag. Have freshly baked rolls with no effort in just a few seconds of defrosting. SO clever, yes? I thought so! (insert pat on back here). Thank you! Have a terriffic day!