No doubt everyone has samples a cinnamon roll, warm and sticky with cinnamon oozing out the bottom and the glorious sweetness of glaze drizzled over the top. I'm salivating just thinking about it. But have you ever had an orange roll? Heaven. Pure and simple heaven. At least my mother's are and for me the aroma of hot orange rolls baking in the oven is the ultimate herald of Christmas. That sweet, tangyness wafting through the air. The delicious odors of yeast bread baking tinged with a faint scent of oranges...mmmm, perfection. For me this smell over almost any other stirs up images of my family gathering for the holidays. The warmth of our comfortable kitchen, my sisters and I sitting at the counter, legs swinging back and forth lazily watching my mother bustle about the kitchen. Her chastising us with, "Just because you're on vacation from school doesn't mean you don't have to help around the house!" The house filled with laughter and memories as we drag out the boxes of Christmas decorations and argue over where they should go on the tree. Laughing at our lopsided Kindergarten ornaments. Helping my mother adjust her village of electric houses on their cotton ball snow. Blowing on a steaming mug of hot chocolate after helping my father shovel the sidewalks. Funny how just a little thing like filling your own apartment with the aromas so familiar to your childhood can make it feel more like Christmas and more like a home. True it also makes me more homesick, but I'm trying to focus on the positive here.
So, on Tuesday I made up a batch of my mothers orange and cinnamon rolls. Being my first attempt I think they came out very well. Also being my first attempt I didn't think about the fact that my mother always baked to feed an army. Not only was her baking for our own household of five, but we would take rolls to my grandmother's house for Christmas eve dinner, she would make extras to give to friends at work, for people at church, etc. So, when I followed her recipe I ended up with nearly 3 dozen rolls! And I only have 4 people in the house to feed. Granted I did put some together as a little gift for our neighbors, but diminishing the supply by 4 rolls isn't really ALL that significant. Here is my mother's, now famous, recipe:
Yeast Rolls
21/4 cups milk
2 pkgs. Granular yeast
¼ cup water, I use about 1/3 with the 2 pkgs. Of yeast
¼ cup sugar
11/2 teaspoons of salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
7 to 8 cups of flour
Scald milk, 190F.
Soften yeast in lukewarm water separate cup
Measure sugar, salt, and shortening in mixing bowl
Add hot milk and stir until all is dissolved, add the softened yeast when mixture is about 95F (lukewarm)
Add egg and beat until well mixed
Add bout half the flour and beat vigorously. Add more flour, ½ cup at a time to make dough stiff enough to knead easily. Keep dough on soft side rather than too stiff.
Turn dough onto floured surface and allow to rest 10 min. covered with wax paper to prevent drying. Clean mixing bowl and grease bottom and sides with shortening.
Knead dough until it is smooth and satiny about 5 to10 minutes or until it springs back when you press it with your finger. Place dough in greased bowl and grease top and sides lightly, cover and let rise until double in bulk (in a warm place). When double punch down to remove air bubbles. For orange rolls split dough into two balls and roll 1 out to about ¼ thick. Spread butter or margarine on and sprinkle with granulated sugar and orange rind (if you do both balls as orange rolls you will need to use 3 or 4 oranges) Scrape the oranges to get the rind while the dough is rising. Roll up like a jelly roll and cut slices and place in a greased baking dish. I use 9 x 13 cake pans. Cover and let rise until double again. Bake in 400 F oven for 15 – 20 minutes.
For the icing I use a walnut size margarine and shortening, 1 tsp. vanilla, maybe 2 cups of confectioners sugar and orange juice to make a spreading consistency.
You can make cinnamon rolls with the other ball by rolling out the same way, spread with butter or margarine spread brown sugar
and sprinkle cinnamon over it. Follow directions for orange rolls. If you want to put icing on just use hot water instead of orange juice.
You can also make plain rolls by rolling the dough in balls and putting 3 to a muffin cup, they make nice dinner rolls. The recipe makes about 3 dozen if you want to freeze some don’t put the icing on until you are ready to use them.
As you might have noticed from the first picture I didn't have a candy thermometer so I just used our regular thermometer for when we get sick. Josh had a fit when he discovered this, absolutely sure that I had broken it. Apparently, and this does make sense, those thermometers are made to only go up to a certain temperature - if a humans temperature went up to 200 degrees they'd be dead. So, yeah, I get that I just didn't think about it. Luckily, Josh was wrong I didn't break the thermometer. I used it only to make sure the mixture was cool enough to add the yeast.
Well everyone has suddenly awoken. Isn't it funny how everyone gets up within 3 minutes of each other. Each stumbling out or their rooms, bleary-eyed, tousled hair, searching for their reviving cup of coffee. So, here's my last photo of my rolls to fee an army ( I made both orange and cinnamon rolls, by the way). Who knows when I'll be able to post again, but, gotta go!
1 comment:
OH, YEAH! The famous roll recipe! I was hoping to coax it out of your mom someday! Maybe I'll make these for my parents at Christmas. Hi Calvin and Judith!
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