Orange Creamsicle Sweet Rolls

I don't make sweet rolls very often anymore... the problem being I eat too many of them, or the kids eat too many of them... 

Anyway, we were going to visit some friends and have dinner with them, but before the dinner we were going on a nature walk together so I thought it would be nice to bring a treat. 

I decided on creamy orange - and they were perfect for this cool summer afternoon.

The kids loved them. My little Ella asked: Mom, can you make these for dinner more often?

Hahaha... I said, this isn't dinner, this is a dessert or a treat only. She was bummed.

Here is how I made them:

1. Dough: using a bread maker put liquids in first, followed by dry ingredients. Put on dough cycle and press start. It's approximately 90 minutes, but let it rise longer if need be.

  - 1/2 cup vanilla or plain soy milk or plain cow's milk
  - 1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil
  - 1 egg white
  - 2 tablespoons white sugar
  - 1/2 teaspoon salt
  - 2 cups all purpose flour
  - 1 tablespoon orange zest
  - 4 tablespoons yellow cake mix
  - 1 teaspoon instant dry yeast

2. Filling: meanwhile, prepare filling as follows...

  - 1/2 cup white sugar                    - 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
  - 1 tablespoon corn starch            - 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
  - pinch salt                                    - juice of half large orange, or 
                                                          whole small orange
  - 1/2 cup cold water                     - 1/2 tablespoon butter + 1/2 
                                                          teaspoon vanilla extract

... combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in small saucepan. Gradually add water and whisk until blended. Whisk in egg yolk, orange zest and juice. Cook over medium heat whisking constantly until thick and bubbly. Boil one minute; remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Cool to room temperature without stirring. 

3. When dough has doubled, roll out on lightly flour dusted surface into 1-2 cm thick rectangle shape. Take half of the orange filling and spread on dough. Roll up dough and cut into 8, 9 or 10 slices. Place slices in pie dish lined with baking parchment paper. Take the rest of the orange filling and spread evenly over rolls. Let rise a second time in warm place, for example, the oven at it's lowest setting. When they are doubled again, bake at 175-C degrees for approximately 15 minutes - until just golden brown. Then removed immediately from the oven and let cool.

4. Topping: prepare topping to spread over cooled rolls. Cream together 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons cream cheese. Add in 1/2 teaspoon orange zest. Mix in powdered sugar (1/2 cup or more) depending on desired consistency. If it becomes too thick, then "water down" with 1/2 teaspoon orange juice at a time. Taste and adjust flavoring. I added in also 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Spread evenly over cooled rolls. 

Marshmallow Fun "Sugar High" Sweet Rolls

I did not intend on making these Sugar High - but they are. These are Trial 1 sort of sweet rolls... I thought that I had been baking sweet rolls long enough to get it right the first time, but I'm going to have to go for a Trial 2 on these ones - and cut half the sugar out of them.

One reason being that they are filled with globs of marshmallow fluff - and that adds an intense sweet flavor of it's own. 

The good news: looks! The kids took one look and said, I want some!!! 

But after a bite or two, they said, it's too sweet. I love my kids - so honest and mostly healthy. They like candy and marshmallows like most kids, but they recognize when something is too sweet.

That's great... I'll make them again - one thing is for sure, looks wise, these would make a great birthday treat in place of standard cake.

They are very colorful - psychadelic and tie-dye sort of hippy colors - kind of Dr. Suess colors - rainbow bright - loved making them. I used yellow, pink and light blue, but I think any combination would be fun.

I also served them with a small handful of colorful twisty marshmallows.

Dough:
2/3 cup warm (soy) milk
50 ml oil or melted butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 T sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cake mix
1 heaping teaspoon active dry yeast

I put it in bread machine by order suggested by the manufacturer - which is liquids first, followed by dry stuff. I also do yeast last. - put it on dough cycle - hit start.

Of course you can mix it and knead it by hand, but lately, I'm looking for short cuts. (I'm 6 months pregnant after all)

Remove from bread machine and punch down. Let sit a few minutes while preparing filling ingredients. Roll out into rectangle - about 1-2 centimeters thick.

Top with Fillings (see below), roll up and cut into 8 or 12 equal slices. If 8 slices, it fits nicely into a large pie tin. If 12 slices, it fits nicely into a 9x13-inch casserole dish.

Line casserole or pie tin with baking paper - for easier clean up - or grease with butter generously.

Put into the oven on the lowest temperature or in another warm place to rise a second time - 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Meanwhile, prepare Topping ingredients (see below).

Bake at 175-C degrees for about 15 minutes (a bit longer for glass casserole - a bit less for pie tin - take a look at and bake according to how toasty the top of the rolls look, you can also tap them to see if they spring back lightly).

Remove from oven and drizzle with frostings and sprinkle with cake sprinkles or pearls (which we call parels in the Netherlands - like balls).

Filling: spread on rectangle 2 tablespoons melted butter, spread on top of that - 1/2 cup light brown sugar and up to 1 tablespoon cinnamon powder. Then put globs of marshmallow fluff on top - evenly spaced out over the rectangle (up to about 1/2 cup in total).

Topping: mix together 2 tablespoons each softened butter and cream cheese. Mix in 1/4 cup at a time, sifted powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon yellow cake mix and thin out with up to 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Then divide into two or three parts and color each - pink, blue, yellow. Add a little (soy) milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time to reach desired drizzling consistency.

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Strut your stuff Saturday Link up Party #99 @ Six Sisters Stuff

Strawberry Lime-ade Sweet Rolls

Part of my new years resolutions repertoire is to make interesting flavor combination of sweet rolls. I have only managed to do one recipe this month.

I'm pregnant... and lately, I don't feel like baking much. It's difficult to get those creative juices flowing and I just want comfort food. You would think that sweet rolls would be at the top of my list for comfort food.... but it's not.

I've been craving a lot of sub sandwiches, hummus, Mexican food and stuff like that... and ice cream, and milk shakes. I had bought a can of strawberry pie filling for my strawberry milkshakes - and I had a bit left over - I used it in these sweet rolls.

I will say that they were good, but they didn't hit the spot like I had hoped. I should try them again in the future when I'm not preggers. I may add zest to the glaze next time.

Dough: basic mix with zest from one lime
Filling: strawberry pie filling and a mix of strawberry  jam
Glaze: simple made with juice from 1/2 lime and powdered sugar

In a large bowl or in a bread maker combine ingredients as follows:
1/2 cup luke warm water
1 medium egg
40ml vegetable oil
zest from one lime
2 cups BASIC/HOT ROLL MIX
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
Stir well to make a soft and not too sticky dough. Knead. Let rise till doubled. Punch down. Rest. Roll out into rectangle. Spread with 1/3 - 1/2 cup strawberry pie/jam filling. Roll up and cut into 8 equal slices. Place into prepared pie tin. Rise again in warm place. Bake 15-20 minutes at 175C degrees. Prepare sweet glaze. and brush or drizzle on while rolls are still warm. Makes 8 rolls.

Glaze: In a small bowl, combine juice from 1/2 lime with enough powdered sugar to make a not too thick frosting. At least 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar.

Mango Lassi-inspired Sweet Roll

I have a favorite drink I like to serve whenever I make Indian Butter Chicken which is one of our family favorites and that is Mango Lassi. I love it. In fact, I remember that in college I use to order a tall Mango Lassi and Naan bread and nothing else. That is what I would get when everyone else was ordering pizza.


I have a favorite recipe for Mango Lassi that I found at food.com - from celebrity chef Emeril and I love the combinations of orange juice and mango.... so smoothie like. Try out the recipe linked I think you'll love it - add a pinch of cardamom - that's good, too. 


Anyway, my little girl asked me the other day "when are you going to make sweet rolls again?" so I decided to make a Mango Lassi sweet roll and it turned out alright. In fact, it was just plain good.  These are yummy - dare I say, it's in my top 5 favorite sweet rolls from this blog.


So, here goes:

• In another small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons warm orange juice, 1 heaping teaspoon active dry yeast or instant yeast and about 1 teaspoon white sugar. Let rest about 5 minutes.
• In a large glass bowl, mix 1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt with scant 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 heaping tablespoon fresh grated orange zest (from one small orange). Add in yeast mixture, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1 3/4 to 2 cups all purpose flour. Mix until the dough doesn't stick to the spoon anymore. Knead a few minutes then let rise in a oiled bowl in warm place for at least 1 hour. 
• Punch down dough and let rest 10 minutes. Then prepare filling: in small bowl mix together 1tablespoon yogurt + 1 tablespoon honey + 1 tablespoon rose flavored syrup and 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface into about 12 inch by 12 inch square. Spread filling over dough. Roll up, cut into 8 equal slices and place into buttered/oiled pie plate or glass casserole. Let rise again about 30 minutes. Make indentation into each roll and spoon in tablespoonfuls of mango jelly or mango syrup into each indentation.
• Bake in preheated oven 175-C degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and springs back when poked. Remove from oven and cool. Then mix in a small bowl 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar, 2 tablespoon yogurt, 1/8 teaspoon each orange extract and vanilla extract. Drizzle over rolls. Makes 8 sweet rolls that rock. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

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The funny thing is that the finished product - the mango syrup centered rolls look a lot like runny egg yolks. No matter the looks, they taste great!

No egg yolks here, just mango syrup!

Some of my favorite products - both good - I've used the mango dessert sauce mainly with ice cream and yogurt parfaits - it went great with the sweet rolls. I've got lots of future plans for using up the rose syrup... the combination of rose syrup, honey and cardamom is pure awesomeness - definitely going to do more with that in future sweet rolls that rock :)

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Banana-Date-Mango Sweet Rolls - Trial 1

I've had this combination in mind for several weeks. I have thought about it a lot. How to make them - where to use the mango, banana and dates and how to bring it all together. Thinking a lot about something really helps - I was able to write down the recipe before I even started the project and then as I started baking today I only had to make adjustments as I went. One ingredient I used to bring it together was lemon. I put lemon peel in the dough and used honey with a lemon flavoring. There is also a bit of lemon in the icing. It's not overpowering but it blends all the ingredients together.

The thing I like about sweet rolls is the waiting. It takes a few hours but when you finally sink your teeth into that sweet roll - warm and fresh from the oven - it's just an awesome experience especially when you go "Ahhhh" these rolls have turned out the best so far. Seriously, these are my most favorite rolls so far. I loved them. I ate two and really had to stop myself from going further because I'm attending a church picnic tomorrow and I want to take something with me. Also, it's best for my waistline not to consume so much. Kailea was lucky enough to be with me when it was taste time. She likes them, too. She's kind of a picky eater - but she always likes my sweet rolls... she's got a sweet tooth just like Mommy :)

BANANA-DATE-MANGO

SWEET ROLLS

Makes about 12-14 rolls

Banana Dough:
1- ½ teaspoons Active dry Yeast
3/4 cup Luke warm water
1- 2 (about 150ml) Small ripe banana(s), pureed
3 tablespoons Oil or melted margarine, divided
2 heaping tablespoons Lemon zest
4 to 4 ½ cups BASIC ROLL MIX
2-3 tablespoons flour if needed

ingredients

Date Filling:
3 tablespoons Honey (Lemon variety)
½ teaspoon Ground cardamom
15 Dates, pitted and finely chopped*

dates

Mango-Butter Icing:
1/3 cup Pureed mango
1/2 teaspoon Lemon juice
1/3 cup Butter or Margarine, melted
2 cups (260g) Powdered sugar
1- 4 teaspoons Mango nectar or lemon juice to thin, if desired

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine yeast, warm water and banana puree. Let sit a few minutes for yeast to bubble. Then blend in 2 tablespoons oil or margarine and lemon zest. Add in BASIC ROLL MIX ½ cup at a time until dough ball reaches elastic and smooth stage. Knead 5 to 10 minutes adding additional flour if necessary. Oil another bowl with remaining 1 tablespoon oil and put the dough into that bowl, turn to oil top and cover with plastic wrap or hot damp towel and let rise in warm place for 1 – 2 hours.

Meanwhile, prepare Date Filling:

*Tip: After pitting dates, finely chop dates in food processor fitted with metal blade. This makes it much easier because dates are sticky and hard to work with otherwise.

In a small bowl, combine honey, cardamom and finely chopped dates. Set aside.

Date Filling

When dough is ready, punch down and roll out into large rectangle – (approximately 1-2 centimeters thick). Spread Date Filling evenly over dough. Do this with your fingers – it's a sticky mess but well worth it. Roll up dough – jelly roll style and cut into about 12 - 14 equal slices. Place sweet rolls right-side up on prepared baking pans and let rise about 30-40 minutes in warm place. Bake in pre-heated oven, 190-C degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Roll out dough

Spread with Date Filling

Roll up - jelly roll style

Cut into 12-14 slices - about 1 inch thick

While rolls bake, cream together mango, lemon and butter, then slowly beat in powdered sugar. Taste and adjust texture or flavor according to desire. Use a bit of mango nectar or lemon juice to thin it if you like. May also add a few drops of lemon or banana extract if desired.

Do not let rolls cool before frosting, take out of oven and quickly spread generous amount of thick Mango-Butter Icing over top of each roll. We want the mango flavor to melt into the sweet roll and flavors to blend accordingly. Let cool before eating... about 5-10 minutes is sufficient – if you still want to enjoy it warm and fresh from the oven :) yum yum.

Seriously Sublime Sweet Rolls - Trial 1

So the tart and tangy Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls turned out so well that I decided to make a lime version. I call them "Seriously Sublime." In trial 1 of these delicious rolls, I've even added a variation - that is to add frozen blueberries into the roll. But alas, as with other tests - we sometimes discover that "less is more." My husband and I both agree that although we like the blueberries - we love the Seriously Sublime roll with nothing but lime the best. I'm thinking it could even have been more lime-ish. So next time in trial 2, I will attempt to make the filling even more tart - with more lime juice than ever before.

The Dough:

8 Tablespoons oil (sunflower), divided
1/4 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon active-dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar, divided
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg white
2 heapen Tablespoons freshly grated lime zest
1 cup milk (sour, butter, plain, soy, rice - your choice)
4 1/4 cups flour (plus a bit extra, if needed)

Oil large glass bowl with 1 Tablespoon oil. In a small bowl activitate yeast with warm water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar, set aside to bubble a few minutes. In a mixing bowl, combine remaining oil, sugar, salt, egg, lime zest and milk. Blend together. Add in yeast mixture and flour 1/2 cup at a time - continue to mix until all flour is in bowl. Knead a few times and add a bit extra flour, if needed, to make a soft, elastic, not too sticky ball of dough. Put in oiled bowl, and turn to oil top. Cover with plastic wrap and put in warm place until doubled in size - about 1 to 2 hours. Meanwhile, make lime filling and glaze. Take risen dough out of bowl and punch down. Roll out into a large rectangle - about 1-2 centimeters thick. Take 1/3 of the Lime Filling and spread over the rectangle. [If using blueberries or other berry - add them now]. Starting at one end, roll up into a jelly-roll. Cut into 14-18 slices. Place on prepared baking sheets. (I usually prepare my sheets with baking paper - easier for clean up). Then drizzle another 1/3 of the Lime Filling among the rolls. Allow to rise again in warm place for 30-60 minutes. Then bake in oven 20-25 minutes until golden at 175-C degrees. Remove from oven and drizzle Lime Glaze over top. Cool before eating... if you can wait that long. Lick your fingers or serve with napkins - sticky - gooey - so yummy!!!

Lime Filling:

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 tsp lime peel, grated

Juice of two small limes

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in small saucepan. Gradually add water and whisk until well blended. Whisk in egg yolks, lime zest and lime juice. Cook over medium heat whisking constantly until thick and bubbly. Boil one minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter. Cool to room temperature without stirring.

Lime Glaze:

1/3 of the Lime filling, 2 heaping teaspoons lime zest, plus about 125g powdered sugar - mix together to a smooth glaze.

[Now in my trial 2 experiment, I shall use more lime juice and less water... I have to in order to call it Serious!]

Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls - Trial 2

Little Ella waiting to test some sweet rolls!

Yummy. I made Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls again, with a few changes - which were mentioned last time. The rolls in Trial 1 turned out just fine, I just wanted to try it again with some preparation changes. Which I did. And then from the suggestion of a friend (Vanessa) I added some fruit to the batch as well. I divided the dough up into three parts. I used raspberries, blueberries and strawberries... not all together - separately. And by concensus we liked the Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls with Raspberries the best. Yummy - yummy. The others are good, but the raspberries paired the nicest. So to use the raspberry variations - I rolled out the dough - spread it with one third of the Lemon filling and then I scattered frozen raspberries over the top. Rolled it up and cut them into slices. Drizzled another 1/3 of the filling over top and then let those slices rise again and then baked them. See recipe in Trial 1. I took them to the birthday party I attended saturday night and they didn't last long... although everyone loves cinnamon rolls - on a warm Saturday evening in Summer - these rolls were quite the hit!

Just before they baked in the oven - colorful Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries

White Chocolate *Raspberry* Cream Cheese Rolls - Trial 1

Believe it or not, but once upon a time, I did not like cheesecake - or so I thought. I thought that cheesecake sounded very strange. I always liked cheese and cake but the thought of cheesecake - well, it sounded pretty gross to me. I even tried it to give it a chance and I didn't like it. That's because I've since discovered that there are different ways to make cheesecake. I think the version I tried had a lot of eggs and some kind of ricotta or cottage cheese mixture to it. And it had cherries and at some point in my past - in my childhood I didn't care for cherries either.

Fast forward several years and the summer before my first year of college I was visiting Baltimore, Maryland and my Mom really wanted to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, the restaurant. The wait was very long so we ended up going to Pizzeria Uno. I was okay with that - I was more than okay with that. It was a few years later until I actually did eat at The Cheesecake Factory. I think I had a burrito. It was good. And I opted for a strawberry smoothie because I believed at the time that I did not like cheesecake. Everyone else ordered their dessert - cheesecakes - different kinds and they oohed and ahhed, but I didn't care and I was happy with my smoothie. Even at one point my best friend worked at The Cheesecake Factory. She worked in the dessert section. It was her job to put whip cream on slices of cheesecake. So I had plenty of opportunities to try the cake - but I never did.

Then one time, about two years after college, I was at an art opening of sorts, and they had chocolate and caramel cheesecake and it looked really good to me. It didn't look at all like cheesecake - it just looked like a silky chocolate pie. I had slice. It was delicious. Someone said to me, do you like the cheesecake? But I was confused. Cheesecake? I didn't see any. Only that chocolate pie. And they said, that's chocolate cheesecake! And I said, oh - well, it's good.

Then another two years later, I was at a family camp out, it was my brother's birthday and he bought an assortment of cheesecake from Costco but the cheesecakes where packaged from The Cheesecake Factory. And again, I said, cheesecake - I'll pass. But then someone said - oh, just try a slice - we have White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Again with the chocolate - I halted - I thought about it - white chocolate and raspberries... okay - I'll give it try. And the rest is history... I have loved cheesecake ever since.

Now see, that's because there are two kinds of cheesecake - maybe even more than that. Some cheesecakes are made with cream cheese - and I like that. Others are made with some other kind of cheese and I don't think I care for that variety - but I could be wrong - I've been wrong before. My taste buds have changed over the years.

After that experience at the camp out, I set out in search for a similar recipe online. I found one at Allrecipes.com and I've made it several times. It is yum yum... very rich, decadent and let's just say, I'm in love with it. It has been that cake that has inspired me to make these rolls. I hope you like them as much as I do. Of course, I love sweet rolls and I love that cake - so the two combined sounds perfect to me - it's true though - it's not the same as cake - but let's just say you are cutting back on your cream intake - then perhaps these rolls are for you!

The recipe uses my BASIC ROLL MIX - adapted from Make-A-Mix Cookery. Very good book. If you happen upon one - or order on amazon - do try their other recipes that use the basic HOT ROLL MIX. All are very good. You can make donuts, bread, pretzels, etc. with that basic mix.

I thought these rolls turned out very yummy. My 4-year-old especially liked them. I found another treat she likes to eat :) My husband thought that the dough was too dry. I don't know what that means though, other than that the previous rolls we made - the Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls had lots of gooeyness - so I think he was expecting that again... Might have to try out one of the variations and see if he likes them better... next time. But for me, it was a real special treat and they did not last long at our house.

To make the dough, you will need:

1 -1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup oil (sunflower, salad, vegetable, canola) or melted margarine
2 1/2 to 3 cups BASIC ROLL MIX

To make dough, in a mixing bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Blend in egg and oil. Add 2 1/2 cups BASIC ROLL MIX and stir well. Add additional BASIC ROLL MIX up to 1/2 cup more to make a soft dough - not too sticky. Knead a few minutes until smooth. Lightly butter or oil a glass bowl. Put dough in bowl and turn to butter/oil top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place till doubled in size - about 1 to 2 hours. Meanwhile - prepare raspberry filling and cream cheese filling.

To make Raspberry Filling you will need:

125 grams frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 cup cold water

In a saucepan, combine raspberries, sugar, cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil, stirring, continue to boil 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds. Makes about 2/3 cup. Set aside.

To make Cream Cheese Filling you will need:

100 grams plain cream cheese
50 grams plain white chocolate, of a good quality
1 egg yolk
1 package (8 grams) vanilla sugar

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate. It takes 30-45 seconds in 15 second intervals, stirring after each interval until completely melted. Add cream cheese and blend thoroughly with a spoon till smooth. Blend in egg yolk and vanilla sugar. Set aside.

To make White Chocolate Glaze you will need:

25 grams white chocolate, melted
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoon milk to thin

In a bowl, combine melted white chocolate and powdered sugar. Mix until crumbly. Add in vanilla and milk mixing constantly to thin. Set aside until needed.

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After dough has risen, turn out onto lightly floured surface and punch down. Roll out into a good size rectangle - about 1/4-inch thick (2 cm). Spread with 1/2 the raspberry filling. Roll up dough - jelly roll style and cut into 12 equal slices. Put on prepared baking sheets. (Prepared with baking paper - for easier clean up!) And place each slice on baking sheet a few inches apart. Let rise again another 30-60 minutes in warm place. Preheat oven to 190-C degrees (375-F). With a tablespoon, press a deep indentation in the center of each roll. Fill the indentation with one heaping soup spoon of Cream Cheese Filling until all the filling is used - divide the remainder evenly among the rolls. Bake in oven 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Prepare White Chocolate Glaze and drizzle warm on rolls. Then drizzle rolls with remaining Raspberry Filling.  Makes about 12 rolls.

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Variations:
 
1)  Use raspberry preserves in place of raspberry filling - it's a shortcut - might contain seeds but that's okay. When you want to drizzle it on top of rolls - add a little water to thin and microwave a few seconds, stirring until desired consistency.
 
2) Reverse the order of fillings. Use all of the Cream Cheese Filling in the middle jelly roll stage. And then use Raspberry Filling or raspberry preserves in the indentation-filling stage. Proceed with White Chocolate Glaze and use same dough recipe.

Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls- Trial 1

These have past two tests. The first being that after 2 days - they still taste fresh and tastey (just a few seconds in the microwave and whalaa!). The second being the taste testers like them...

A few days before I attempted these, I made some 4th of July Inspired - red, white and blue rolls - that turned out not good. A failure for me. But a good failure because I learned from it. What I learned - same as with applying makeup - less is more!  So, I decided to make more sweet rolls but this time I made myself limit what I put in it. I decided I was going to make lemon sweet rolls - and even though I was tempted to add this and that - I limited myself to only one other ingredient and that was a bit of lime zest. So, I'm calling them Lemony-Lime Sweet Rolls.

These turned out fabulous - tart and sweet and very lemony. The taste was great - and already in trial 2 - the only thing that will change is the preparation method because the lemon filling was a bit much and it was difficult to roll up the dough and cut them into slices. So, in trial 2, I will use about 1/3 of the lemon filling for the inside, and then still plop 1/3 filling on top of rolled up rolls and then use the remaining 1/3 filling for the glaze.

Luckily, I'm going to a surprise birthday party in 2 weeks so I have another excuse to bake :) yippee!
Here is the recipe with (trial 2) suggestions for preparations.

The Dough:

8 Tablespoons oil (sunflower), divided
1/4 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon active-dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar, divided
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten
2 heapen Tablespoons freshly grated lime zest
1 cup milk (sour, butter, plain, soy, rice - your choice)
4 1/4 cups flour (plus a bit extra, if needed)

Oil large glass bowl with 1 Tablespoon oil. In a small bowl activitate yeast with warm water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar, set aside to bubble a few minutes. In a mixing bowl, combine remaining oil, sugar, salt, egg, lime zest and milk. Blend together. Add in yeast mixture and flour 1/2 cup at a time - continue to mix until all flour is in bowl. Knead a few times and add a bit extra flour, if needed, to make a soft, elastic, not too sticky ball of dough. Put in oiled bowl, and turn to oil top. Cover with plastic wrap and put in warm place until doubled in size - about 1 to 2 hours. Meanwhile, make lemon filling and glaze. Take risen dough out of bowl and punch down. Roll out into a large rectangle - about 1-2 centimeters thick. Take 1/3 of the Lemon filling and spread over the rectangle. Starting at one end, roll up into a jelly-roll. Cut into 14-18 slices. Place on prepared baking sheets. (I usually prepare my sheets with baking paper - easier for clean up). Then place another 1/3 of the lemon filling divided among the rolls - just smooth over with a spoon or brush on top. Allow to rise again in warm place for 30-60 minutes. Then bake in oven 20-25 minutes until golden at 175-C degrees. Remove from oven and drizzle glaze over top. Cool before eating... if you can wait that long. Lick your fingers or serve with napkins - sticky - gooey - so yummy!!!

Lemon filling (from Wilton.com):

3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 tsp lemon peel, grated
Juice of medium lemon
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in small saucepan. Gradually add water and whisk until well blended. Whisk in egg yolks, lemon peel and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat whisking constantly until thick and bubbly. Boil one minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter. Cool to room temperature without stirring.

Glaze:

1/3 of the Lemon filling, 2 heaping teaspoons lime zest, plus about 125g powdered sugar - mix together to a smooth glaze.