Cinnamon Rolls and Orange Rolls

I don't know what was better, the regular cinnamon rolls I always make or the orange variation I made out of my regular recipe.                                    
Cinnamon Rolls

Orange Rolls

This recipe was given to my Mom when I was in grade school. She was on the school board with this lady, I think. Wherever you are Klair Savage, thank you for a great recipe that has never failed me in the 15 years I have been baking cinnamon rolls. This makes about 24 to 27 cinnamon rolls. I made 2 pans of the cinnamon and adapted 1/3 of the batter for the orange rolls.

Fresh out of the oven.

Cinnamon Rolls

2 1/2 cups of lukewarm water
2 packages of quick rise yeast
1 box of yellow cake mix with pudding in the mix
1 cup of flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon of salt
5 1/4 cups of flour

for the filling:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 -3/4 cup brown sugar ( I prefer dark brown)
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

icing:
4 tablespoons of melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
3-5 tablespoons of milk

Dissolve the yeast in the water and let set 3 minutes. Add the cake mix, 1 cup of flour, eggs, oil and salt. Beat with a mixer til bubbles appear. This will happen in 2-3 minutes or less. Slowly stir in the 5 1/4 cups of flour. This will make a soft dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Let rise until double in a greased, covered bowl. Roll the dough into 1 large or 2 medium sized rectangles. Spread with softened butter and then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up jelly roll style and cut into 1 inch thick rolls. Place in 3 greased 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 45 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven and how dark you like you rolls. Mine took about 25 minutes. Cool. Mix up the icing ingredients and frost.

I took 1/3 of the dough and made them into Orange Rolls. That way I was able to have 2 kinds of rolls for not too much more work. You could make the whole batch as orange rolls and just triple my additions below. My husband and I were crazy for these, but my boys liked the cinnamon ones the most.

Orange Roll Variation:
For the dough, I added 1 tablespoon of thawed orange juice concentrate and 1 teaspoon of orange zest  to the dough before the 1st rise.

For the filling, I mixed 3 tablespoons of softened butter with about 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of orange zest

For the icing, I added 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest  and 1 tablespoon of thawed orange juice concentrate to the leftover icing. I had to add more powdered sugar to that because the orange juice thinned it too much. These are well worth the effort. Now to use this recipe to try all of the different roll filling I have pinned, such as: lemon curd, raspberry, blueberry and cookie dough.

Linking up to: Sweets for a Saturday and Breakfast Ideas Monday

Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter! For years I have planned to make hot cross buns at Easter time and have never gotten around to it. Thursday night I searched through my numerous recipes and cookbooks for a good recipe. I even went on the internet to look up more. By the time I was done searching and had watched the Pens game and The Big Bang Theory in between, it was too late to bake a yeast recipe with 2 rising times. I ended up making these yesterday morning. I halved a recipe from The Complete Guide to Country Cooking (A Taste of Home cookbook). This particular recipe comes from Dorothy Pritchett. An easy recipe, but you do have to factor in all of the time for rising. I am giving the recipe with the proportions I used, which made about 16 buns.

Hot Cross Buns
1 package of active dry yeast
1/4 cup of warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour (plus more for kneading)
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins or currants (I could not find currants and I really wanted to try them!)

Icing
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of milk
A small splash of vanilla

Grease 2 nine or eight inch round cake pans.
Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Add the milk through the cinnamon. Add about half of the flour and beat until smooth. I just used a wooden spoon,  no need to get the mixer out. Add the eggs, then the raisins and the rest of the flour until you have a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise one hour (until doubled). Punch down dough and shape into 16 balls, placing 8 in each pan, touching each other. Cover and let rise another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Cool and then mix up the icing and place it in a ziplock with the corner snipped off. Make a cross on top of the rolls with the icing. Let set.
Linking up to: Sweets for a Saturday