Yummy Dinner Rolls and Orange Rolls

I'm not good at taking food pictures, but trust me, they were delicious

I've have been wanting to try the roll recipe from our best bites for a while.  I finally did and they were really yummy.  They were really easy, you just have to plan ahead for the time it takes to let them rise.  

2 c. whole milk (if you're in a pinch, you can use 2%, but whole is best. Don't use 1% or skim)
½ c. + 1 Tbsp. sugar, divided
1/3 c. (5 1/3 Tbsp.) butter
2 tsp. Kosher salt
2 pkgs. active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp.), preferably bread machine yeast
2/3 c. warm (105-115-degree) water
8-9 c. all-purpose flour
3 beaten eggs

First, you need to combine the milk, 1/2 c. sugar, butter, and salt in a sauce pan.  Heat until butter melts, then remove from heat and allow to cool until lukewarm.  (She suggests setting the pan in a sink full of ice to speed it up, but it didn't seem to take that long for me.)

While you are waiting, dissolve the yeast and 1Tbsp sugar in warm water.  Let it sit for 10 min or so until it bubbles.

Combine 3 cups flour and milk mixture in large mixing bowl.  Beat on low for 30 sec.  Add yeast mixture and beat on high for about 3 minutes.  Add beaten eggs.  Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to form a soft dough.  The dough will pull away from the bowl, but will still stick to your finger.  (I only added a total of about 7 cups of flour, and I may even try a little less next time.  It just depends on what you want, but the less flour, the more light and fluffy.)
Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean towel.  Let it rise for 1 hour.

Punch down dough and lay it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide the dough in half.  Use pizza cutter to cut into 12 pieces, then roll each piece into a ball.  Place into 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.   Here is what mine looked like before cooking:

I imagine if you spent more time making your dough balls prettier, your rolls would turn out a little prettier than mine, but they were still good.  I actually thought they were a little bigger than I wanted them, so next time I will probably use a bigger pan, and make more rolls that are a little smaller.  You would have to cook them a little less time though. 
Cove with towel and let them rise another 30 minutes
 Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.  When you pull them out of the oven, immediately rub a stick of butter over them.  YUM! 

I decided to make my second half of dough into orange rolls.  They were also really yummy.  I just rolled out the dough into a rectangle, then spread this filling into it:

4 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
zest from one orange
Spread it out onto dough then roll your dough up.  Use dental floss (slide under dough and wrap around) to cut into 12 pieces.  (Again, I think I will do bigger pan, smaller rolls next time).  Mine looked like this:

 Place into greased cake pan, cover with towel and let rise 30 minutes(ish).  Bake at 375 for 15-18 min.  Let cool for a few minutes then spread glaze over it:

2/3 C. powdered sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp orange juice

They ended up looking like this:

oops...half the pan was gone before I remembered to take a picture

This would of course work with regular cinnamon rolls too, I just love orange!

They are best when they are fresh, so make them when you have someone to share them with.