Tangerine Sweet Rolls

Tangerine Sweet Rolls

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1 1/4 oz. pckg. Yeast
1 c. warm milk
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 c. all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons tangerine juice

grated tangerine zest

Icing:
7 tbs. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon tangerine zest

2-3 tablespoons tangerine juice


Directions:

Disolve yeast in milk. Mix in sugar, butter, salt, eggs, flour. Mix well.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead into a large ball (the dough is a very wet dough and very sticky and messy). Cover; let rise 1 hour.

Roll dough into a 21 x 16 wide rectangle.

Mix the filling ingredients together and spread over the dough rectangle. I just use my fingers to spread it generously over the dough.

Carefully roll up the dough. Using very sharp knife cut into 1 inch wide rolls, making sixteen. (If you want fewer, bigger rolls, cut them wider.)

Grease (butter) your preferred baking pan (11x 15 pan.) or use grease-proof baking paper as I did. . Let the rolls rise for at least 30 minutes (they will double in size).

Preheat oven to 400F (205 C)

Bake until the rolls are golden brown. .

Remove the rolls from the oven and let them cool slightly before covering them in icing*.

*Icing: Cream together butter, icing sugar, cream cheese, tangerine zest and juice with an electric mixer. Spread onto the warm rolls. They can be eaten warm but I think they taste better once completely cooled.

Cooks notes: I had been wanting to make some orange sweet rolls since I first had one at the Blackbird Bakery on Bainbridge Island off of Seattle. We visited there again in April and I had another Orange Baby Roll and knew that I would have to bake my own once I was home again and in a baking mood. I used tangerine instead of orange as I knew I wouldn't get any argument from the peanut gallery about them being too zesty. I researched recipes then went with the same dough I use for cinnamon rolls (I like the recipe and I wasn't about to start fiddling about with lard). I zested 5 tangerines and Boy helped squeeze the juice out and drank the few tablespoons left after I used what was needed for the rolls. I Also pressed the rolls down once in the pan so they were more flat to spread out instead of up.