Orange Rolls

These orange rolls take me back to the honeymoon phase of our marriage. When my husband and I were first married, we lived in this little old 4-plex in the basement. I think we must have felt pretty invincible when it came to sweets because we ate them like there was no tomorrow! On our honeymoon in St. George, we discovered Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk and Chubby Hubby ice cream flavors. They were our favorite and still continue to be (although we restrain ourselves much better now than we used to).

Rhodes Orange Rolls were another treat we indulged in quite often. And what made it better was that there would always be a $1.00 off coupon on the package so we'd use it to buy the next one. Mmm, we would pop these rolls in the oven at night after work and school and snarf a couple of hot ones while watching TV. We'd always leave 2, one for each of us for breakfast the next morning. I'm not sure when we stopped doing that, but It was probably a good thing or we'd each be about 500 lbs!

I got this recipe from my sister years ago and I think it is every bit as good as those Rhodes rolls. I'm not sure where she got it, but it is just delicious! The dough is a basic sweet roll dough and really could be used for many different kinds of rolls. You could do cinnamon rolls, or even try cream cheese and chocolate chips rolled up inside. What do you put in your rolls?

For the dough:
4 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 Tbsp. dry active yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs, well-beaten
1 1/4 cup warm water

For the filling:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 1 orange

For the glaze:
juice of 1 orange
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
powdered sugar

In mixing bowl fitted with dough hook, combine flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix for a few seconds. Add remaining ingredients and mix for about 30 seconds. Make sure it's not too wet or dry and add water or flour if necessary. Knead for about 5 minutes on low speed. Dough will be slightly sticky. Remove dough to another bowl, sprayed with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Gently deflate dough and divide dough in half. Roll one half of the dough out into a rectangle. Spread half of the butter onto the dough, followed by half of the sugar and orange zest.


Roll up and pinch off slices about 1-1/2 inches thick with a piece of dental floss.


Place rolls into 2 foil pie tins, about 7-8 per tin.


Bake at 375 degrees F for 13-17 minutes or until slightly golden on top.


Mix glaze in a medium-sized bowl and whip until smooth. Spoon over warm rolls.


*NOTE:By putting these in two different tins, they are perfect to give away. You could also bake one and freeze one to pull out later. No need to thaw frozen rolls, just stick them in a cold oven. Turn on the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden. Make all of the glaze at one time and just freeze half of it in a small tupperware with the rolls. Thaw completely before glazing rolls.

*This recipe linked to Potluck Sunday @ Mommy's Kitchen.