general conference | orange rolls

Growing up we would always eat bagels from Einsteins. (yum!) But since we dont have that here... and City Market's doughnuts just dont cut it for me, I decided to start a tradition to have orange rolls. I make the dough the night before and throw it in the fridge. So in the morning all I have to do is roll the dough out, rise and bake.

For the dough:

1 package active dry yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup warm water
fresh orange zest from 1 medium sized orange
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 - 3.5 cups all-purpose flour

For the frosting:
1/2 package of cream cheese (softened)
¼ c butter (softened)
1 ½ c confectioners’ sugar
½ t vanilla
1/8 t salt

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water for about 1 minute. No need to use a thermometer for the water's temperature, but to be precise: about 105-115F degrees. Stir the yeast/water around. Then add orange zest, orange juice, sugar, salt, egg, butter, and 1.5 cups of flour. Beat everything together on low with a handheld mixer, scraping down the sides as needed. (A mixer is definitely needed to break up all the butter and beat everything to the proper consistency.) With a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough easy to handle - about 1.5 - 2 more cups. Beat in the mixer for another 5 minutes.

Then, grease a bowl and put dough in. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight. And now is a good time to get your cream cheese and butter out. That way its softened and ready to go for the morning.

In the morning, pull dough out. I usually put it in a warmed oven (I preheat to 170 and then turn it off.) Let the dough warm up. (or you can just let it come to room temp on its own. But... I like to sleep in and this is the quick way!) Then roll the dough out. I put a butter, sugar, orange filling inside this time... and it was just waaaay to sweet for me. But you can add it if you'd like.

Then I placed it back into the warmed oven (see above) and let the rolls rise for 30 minutes. Then, I baked at 350 for about 15 minutes or so.

For the frosting, just combined the ingredients and frost the rolls once they've cooled a bit.

Enjoy!