Orange Glazed Rolls

Soft, sweet, warm, delicious and you don’t have to use cinnamon!!
Taste: 5 (out of 5)

Difficulty: 3 (out of 5)

Source: Gingerbread Bagels blog

Ingredients
For the dough
- 3/4 tbsp / 1 package active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water (110 – 115F)
- 1/4 cup sugar (195 cal)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature (140 cal)
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (610 cal)
- 1/2 cup sour cream (250 cal)
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1595 cal)
For the filling
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened (305 cal)
- 2 tbsp orange zest, finely grated
- 1/2 cup sugar (390 cal)
For the orange glaze
- 6 tbsp sugar (280 cal)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened (200 cal)
- 1/4 cup sour cream (125 cal)
- 3 tbsp orange juice, from about 1/2 orange (20 cal)
Total: 9 rolls, 4110 cal, 410 cal/ roll (because you discard an equivalent of one roll)

Instructions
For the dough
1. In a large mixing bowl or container combine the yeast and warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast dissolves and becomes bubbly.
2. Add in the sugar, salt, eggs, melted unsalted butter sour cream and 2 cups of flour. Mix the ingredients together with a wooden spoon (if you like me don’t have a stand mixer). Gradually add in the remainder of the flour. At this stage you might need to start working with your hands.
3. Knead the dough for 6-7 minutes. Put the dough in an oiled bowl (or use the same container in which you mixed the ingredients) and cover with plastic wrap or lid. Place the bowl in a warm place to rest and rise for about 1.5 hours. After the dough has risen you can also refrigerate it, covered (not airtight) for several hours or overnight (that’s what I did); or you can proceed to the next stage without the refrigeration.
4. Sprinkle flour on the counter and your rolling pin. You don’t need much flour; the dough is not very sticky and really easy to work with (even for someone like me, who dreads rolling the dough). Roll the dough out into a 14×18 inch rectangle. Spread the softened unsalted butter over the dough. Leave a 1 inch border. Mix the grated orange zest with the sugar. Sprinkle the orange zest/sugar mixture over the butter and press it down a bit. Make sure you still leave a 1 inch border.
5. The 18 inch (the longer) side should be closest to you. Starting with the shorter sides, roll the dough over once on each side. Then from the bottom (the end closest towards you), tightly roll the dough away from you (see very instructive photos on Gingerbread Bagels).
6. Cut the ends of the dough off with a serrated knife or with a string and discard. Then cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch rolls. Place the rolls into a lightly greased 9 inch cake pan. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and let them rise for 45 minutes. Bake the orange rolls at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
For the glaze
7. When the rolls are almost done baking (the last 5 minutes), begin on the orange glaze. In a small pot, whisk together the sugar, softened unsalted butter, sour cream and orange juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to boil the glaze for 3 minutes.
8. Once the rolls are done baking, pour the glaze over the rolls. Serve warm.

Afterthoughts
- I’ve always loved the idea of cinnamon rolls, but… I can’t stand cinnamon … So I was super excited to see this recipe on Gingerbread Bagels blog (a wonderful website, by the way). And I had all the ingredients, so I knew it was my fate to make these rolls this weekend :-). And they turned out absolutely amazing! Yum yum yum!
- I made only very minimal changes to the original recipe – primarily I refrigerated the dough after the initial rise overnight, because it was getting very late, and then I rolled the dough out first thing in the morning. I don’t think this hurt the taste.
- The only thing I would have changes – I placed the rolls a bit too far from each other on a 9-inch square pan, and they were not pressed together when they baked, so they “unrolled” a bit :-). They don’t look as nice as the ones on the Gingerbread Bagels, but I could eat them with my eyes closed ;-).