Orange Sweet Roll Recipe

Homemade Orange Sweet Rolls

A tradition that has passed on in our family is to have these rolls on Christmas morning.

Dough Ingredients:

  • 1 pkg active dry yeast
  • ½ cup warm water
  • fresh zest from 1 medium orange
  • ½ cup orange juice
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 lrg egg
  • 2 tbsp softened unsalted butter
  • 3 – 3 ½ cups all purpose flour

Filling Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsps sugar
  • 2 tsps ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp softened unsalted butter

Glaze Ingredients:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • fresh zest from 1 medium orange
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Dough Directions:

Dissolve yeast in ½ cup warm water, water to be 105-115 degrees, for 1 minute.  Stir, then add orange zest, orange juice, sugar, salt, egg, butter and 1 ½ cup flour.  Beat together on slow with handheld mixer, scraping as needed. With wooden spoon stir in enough of remaining flour to make the dough easy to handle, about 1 ½ to 2 more cups.  Dough should spring back when poked with a finger.  Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 – 6 minutes.  Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl.  Cover and let stand in a warm place till doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.  Line the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish with parchment paper.  Turn the dough out on lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to form into a 16 X 9 rectangle.  Make sure the is smooth and evenly thick.

Filling Directions:

Mix sugar and cinnamon together.  Spread dough with softened butter then sprinkle with filling.  Tightly roll up the dough and cut into 16 slices 1 inch in width.  Arrange in baking pan, cut side up.  Cover and let rise in warm place for ½ to 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, cover the rolls with aluminum foil and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until they are lightly brown in color.  Transfer pan to rack to cool for about 15 minutes.

Glaze Directions:

In small bowl mix together all of the ingredients and drizzle over rolls before serving.

PS – if you get behind Pillsbury Orange Rolls are delicious also 🙂