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Wake the family up for breakfast with these awesome orange rolls and the main ingredient just may surprise you!
Would you guess that these orange sweet rolls are made with humble frozen white bread dough? Well, they are and that’s what makes them so easy to make! They are perfect for breakfast too.
Using frozen bread dough eliminates any failures you may have had with making your own dough. All you do is defrost, make whatever you want, shape however you want, rise and bake.
These rolls are a hack of an old Pillsbury Bake-Off winner. I use to make them years ago because they are totally delicious and I love anything orange flavored. But making them with the old recipe involved making my own sweet roll dough, rolling the dough in a circle to make crescents and so forth–it was a real PAIN–but worth it because they were so good.
This time, I made the shaping much simpler by rolling into a rectangle, spreading the filling over and rolling up like a jellyroll then cutting slices much like cinnamon rolls are made. And rolling up jellyroll fashion also keeps most of the filling where it belongs–in the roll, not on your counter.
I recently was experimenting with frozen white bread dough and wanted to see what else I could do with it–besides just defrosting the pre-shaped loaf, rising and baking it. Oh yeah, I know you can cut it up to make rolls. That’s the way rolls other than Kaiser rolls are made in a commercial bakery. And I “made” plenty of “rolls” in my stint as a commercial baker.
Another thing I changed from the original glaze was adding orange zest, which I was surprised wasn’t included in the original recipe, and boiling the glaze for a couple of minutes so it was more like candy. Since you pour the hot glaze over the hot rolls, some glaze will settle at the bottom. When it cools, the glaze is like a nice pliable but slightly chewy candy. YUMMY!
I use a combo of toasted and untoasted coconut for the topping, but you can use all untoasted straight from the bag if you want to eliminate that extra step.
Frozen bread dough needs little prep work. I find it best to defrost it overnight in the fridge. I wrap it in plastic wrap that I spray with non-stick spray so the dough won’t stick to the plastic. The way the frozen dough is shaped makes it stupidly easy to roll into a rectangle too! This stuff is so versatile that I’m recommending it as a freezer staple!
Orange Breakfast Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 loaf frozen white bread dough defrosted
FILLING
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp grated orange zest
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut sweetened or unsweetened, either is fine
- 1 tbsp melted unsalted butter
GLAZE
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp grated orange zest
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
TOPPING
- 1/2 cup coconut I use 1/4 cup toasted and 1/4 cup untoasted
Instructions
- Spray a 9-inch square pan with non-stick spra
- Roll defrosted bread dough into a 12x8-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface.
- Brush melted butter over the top of the dough.
- Mix the 1/2 cup sugar and the 2 tbs orange zest in a small bowl, mixing well and making sure the zest is coated with sugar and there are no clumps.
- Spread the sugar/zest mixture on top of the dough. Sprinkle the 1/2 cup of coconut over the sugar mixture
- Roll up from the 12-inch side so you have a log that is 12-inches long. Seal seam.
- Cut into 1-inch slices and place in the greased 9-inch square pan (4 across, 3 down).
- Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place to rise until double in bulk; about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove greased plastic wrap and bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are nicely browned and the center of the dough is 190 degrees F (use an insta-read thermometer).
- Place all glaze ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture comes to a boil; boil for 3 minutes.
- Pour hot glaze over rolls and top with shredded coconut.
Nutrition
