Liz's Livelihood: Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Another reason this Easter was so special, besides my father's birthday, was because it was the last church service for the church my husband and I have been apart of for the past 2-3 years. Soma Orange County, was a little start up church that was led by our dear friends and mentors, Ryan and Sara Rosenbaum. We have had such a great time with Soma and the community of people that attended Soma. So although it is sad we won't be meeting in person every week anymore, I know we will all follow God's lead and scatter and take what we've learned from Soma with us. So anyway, for our final service, we had a brunch together and I decided to bake one of my old childhood Pillsbury favorites, orange cinnamon rolls. Although the batch I made was overcooked, due to my cutting the rolls into .5" slices instead of 1" slices, they still tasted delicious. So the lesson learned here is to be careful not to overcook your rolls and to make sure if you decide to make smaller sized rolls that you bake them for less time.

Ingredients:

Roll:

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm/hot water

1 1/2 tsp orange zest

1/2 cup orange juice

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

2 tbsp butter

3- 31/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

Icing:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp orange zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add orange peel, orange juice, sugar, salt, egg, butter and 1 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Beat ingredients on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly; then increase the speed to medium, beat 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough easy to handle.

4. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

5. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours (dough is ready if an indentation remains when dough is touched).

6. Punch dough down and, on a lightly floured surface, roll into a rectangle 15x9". Spread w/ 1 tbsp butter and sprinkle w/ combined 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.

7. Roll up, beginning at one of the long sides; pinch edge of dough into roll to seal well; stretch to make roll even. Then cut roll into 15 slices at least 1" wide.

8. Place slices slightly apart in a greased oblong baking pan, 13x9x2". Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.