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Homemade Orange Sweet Rolls

Made with my favorite sweet roll dough, these orange rolls are rich and fluffy, and loaded with fresh orange flavor! Top them with a sweet orange glaze! Your family will love this orange roll recipe!

Ingredients

Scale

Dough Ingredients:

  • 2 cups (454g) warm water (about 115°F)
  • 1/4 cup (28g) nonfat powdered milk
  • 1/2 cup (43g) boxed potato flakes
  • 1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (12g) instant yeast *
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons (9g) salt
  • 1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (92g) butter flavored shortening
  • 2 large eggs
  • 56 cups (600-720g) bread flour

Filling Ingredients:

  • 6 Tablespoons (84g) salted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup (107g) brown sugar, packed
  • 1 Tablespoon orange zest

Orange Zest Glaze

  • 2 cups (227g) powdered sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon (6g) orange zest
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 24 Tablespoons milk, or enough to yield a thick glaze (use 2%, whole or cream)

Instructions

Prepare the dough.

  1. In a large bowl, combine warm water, powdered milk, potato flakes, sugar, yeast and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk. Pour into the mixer bowl and secure the dough hook attachment to your mixer.
  2. Add the butter, butter flavored shortening and eggs. Add 3 cups of the bread flour. Mix for about 30 seconds until ingredients are incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down sides of bowl with a spatula.
  3. Turn mixer on low and add 2 more cups of the bread flour, 1/2 cup at a time. After adding the 2 cups of flour, let dough continue to mix for about 1 minute. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. If dough is not mostly cleaning sides of the bowl, add more flour 1/4 cup at a time until it cleans the sides of the bowl. Stop the mixer and check the dough by gently pressing your finger into it. If the dough does not stick to your finger, it should be ready to knead. *When in doubt, it’s always best to go lighter on the flour. You can always add more flour, but you can’t take flour away. Too much flour in your dough will give you dry, dense rolls.
  4. Knead on low speed for 5 minutes.
  5. Remove dough from mixer and place in a greased bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.

Prepare the filling.

  1. Zest orange(s) into a bowl with the softened butter. Smash and mix up with a fork to get it all incorporated and set aside.
  2. Have your brown sugar handy.

It’s time to roll.

  1. Divide dough into two 28-30-ounce portions. If you don’t have a scale, you can eyeball it. Round each portion to an oval shaped piece of dough by pulling and tucking it under. This will make it easier to roll out into a rectangle.
  2. Flour your work surface and roll dough out to a rectangular shape, about 10 inches by 18 inches.
  3. Spread the orange butter on the dough, leaving an inch border on the top side of the rectangle. Reserve some of the orange butter for the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle about 1/4 – 1/3 cup of brown sugar on top of the orange butter, continuing to leave the inch border at the top edge. Leaving this border will help in sealing the dough shut when rolled up.
  4. Start with the long side closest to you, and working from left to right begin to roll dough up. You can tug and pull as you go which will tighten the roll and make more swirls.
  5. Once it’s all rolled up, pinch the seam shut.
  6. Using a piece of dental floss, make a light indentation where your cuts will be. Each of these roll outs will give you 9 large orange rolls. This will be your guide to know where to cut and to help make them all the same size.
  7. When ready to make your cuts, slide the floss under one end of the dough, bring the ends of the floss up, cross them over and tug to cut through the dough to make a 2-inch-wide orange roll. Continue to cut to get 9 equal sized orange rolls.
  8. Place orange rolls on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet about 1-2 inches apart. With rubber spatula, smear a small amount of orange butter on tops of the rolls and sprinkle with a small amount of brown sugar. Cover with clean kitchen towel and let proof for about 45-60 minutes, or until they double in size.

Bake.

  1. Bake in a fully preheated 350°F oven for 18-22 minutes or until edges are just golden brown. Allow to cool before frosting.
  2. Top with my Orange Zest Glaze.

Make Orange Zest Glaze.

  1. In a medium bowl, sift the powdered sugar. Add the orange zest and vanilla. Add 1-2 Tablespoons of milk at a time and mix with wire whisk. Continue to add just enough milk to get it to a thick glaze (similar to the thickness of Elmer’s glue). If you accidentally add too much milk, just add a bit more powdered sugar and whisk…add enough to get that thick consistency. (You may substitute the milk with orange juice, but it sets up better with milk.)
  2. Drizzle over cooled orange rolls. The glaze should set up within 10-15 minutes. Using a thick glaze like this will yield a stronger orange flavor to your orange rolls and prevent it from getting absorbed by the rolls.
  3. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

    • Store any leftover orange rolls by covering with plastic wrap. They will stay fresh for 2-3 days.
    • You can freeze the orange rolls to bake later. After rolling up the orange rolls but before they rise, place them on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and allow the orange rolls to freeze solid (usually takes about 24 hours). Then store in Ziplock bag in the freezer for up to 2 months. To bake, place on baking sheet and allow to rise and bake as usual. Rise time will typically be 4-5 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is. They could rise overnight and still not get too big – I wouldn’t go longer than 8 hours. I love doing this when I have extra dough. It saves my future self lots of time to have these on hand!
    • You can also roll them out and place in the refrigerator to overnight rise.
    • This dough is the same base dough for my Crescent Dinner Rolls. It can also be used for various sweet rolls by switching up the filling and the frosting.
    • Be sure to let them rise until doubled in size. Not letting them rise long enough will result in dense rolls. On the other hand, letting them rise too long will cause them to collapse and flatten after baked.
    • To make mini orange rolls, divide dough into one third the regular weight/size and roll out as directed. For example, instead of rolling out a 28-30oz dough ball, roll out a 13oz dough ball, but divide it into one dozen orange rolls. This will give you the mini size. Rise time may be slightly less. Decrease bake time by 2 minutes.