Half Batch of Buns

I decided that I needed to have a post about making a Half Batch of Buns. My mom was famous for making Buns as we were growing up, and it made such a big batch that she would get tired halfway through and make the rest of the dough into Caramel Rolls. With me and my husband being empty nesters now, I usually only make a half batch anyway, with half STILL being rolls and the other half made into buns. I have showed how to make several types of sweet rolls with this half batch of dough – Lingonberry Rolls, Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Icing, Christmas Tree Rolls, and Mincemeat Sweet Rolls with Brandy Icing, so why not just make the half batch recipe easier to find and use. If you want to make a whole batch of Buns, go right ahead. If you can’t use that many or don’t have the freezer room to store them, you might want to make just a Half Batch of Buns.

I just had to share this photo of my mom when she was about 5 or 6 years old! Who knew this little girl would grow up to be a great baker. She followed in the footsteps of her mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and aunts, to be sure! She doesn’t look too sure of herself on those skis at that age, but years later, when our family started to downhill ski regularly, she sometimes even got off the “bunny hill”! 🙂

I must say, these Buns were always nice to come home to and go great with a crock pot of Chili ready to go after an afternoon of skiing those frosty slopes!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Half Batch of Buns

Mix together:

2 cups warm water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 Tablespoon of salt

1 package of yeast

Let sit 5-10 minutes, or until foamy on top.

Mix in:

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

Add:

1 teaspoons baking powder

5-6 cups flour

Knead until smooth and elastic (I used my stand mixer to knead for about 10 minutes, then took the dough out and kneaded for a minute or two until it was smooth).

Cover and let rise for about 1 hour.

Punch down and let sit for 10 minutes.

Make into buns or loaves (the original recipe says this would make loaves, but I don’t remember my mom ever making this into loaves) or rolls.

Let rise again covered for 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Remove from baking sheet and brush with softened butter.

Ok – here we go! Start by softening the yeast with sugar and salt, and then adding in the oil and egg.

Once you have the wet ingredients mixed together, we move on to adding the baking powder and flour.

First I just get the baking powder and flour mixed in. This is what the dough looks like as you’re starting to knead.

I went about 10 minutes with the dough hook and this is what it looked like at the end.

Then I just kneaded it a few minutes by hand to smooth it out.

That’s it – we’re ready to rise!

After rising I punched the dough down and let it rest about 10 minutes.

To form the buns, cut off dough about the size you want (you’ll get better at judging the size once you do this a few times), and it depends on what you want them for – bigger for hamburger buns (these are a bit fragile for using for burgers, but you can try), smaller for sandwiches, and even smaller if you want a dinner roll. I like to use a serrated knife for cutting the raw dough – it’s easier. Roll the dough into a smooth ball and onto the baking sheet it goes. One more rise and into the oven they go!

After they come out of the oven, brush them with softened butter while they’re warm. There is nothing better than these buns warm out of the oven. My childhood favorite – warm with peanut butter – but we also would have them with just butter butter and jam or butter and honey or butter with bologna!

This is what I got from this half batch – an 8″ pan of rolls and 18 buns (the number of buns depends on how big you make them).

Ahhh. The smell of these buns baking brings back memories of Saturdays in the kitchen with Mom. She made these for us a lot, and lots of people got the benefit of her expertise with this dough over the years. They are so good and so soft and so perfect for a sandwich with lunch. My family LOVES it when I make these now, and my kids are being forced to learn how to make them, too! 🙂 They take a bit of time and work, but they are so worth it! Make up a Half Batch of Buns soon – your family will love you for it!

Mincemeat Sweet Rolls with Brandy Icing

Today’s recipe for Mincemeat Sweet Rolls with Brandy Icing is another adaptation I made with a half batch of my mom’s Buns. I’ve enjoyed trying some different versions of these rolls – Caramel Rolls #2, Lingonberry Rolls, Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Icing, and Christmas Tree Rolls. All of those rolls are perfect for this time of year, but I happened to have some mincemeat leftover after making another recipe, so I decided why not? I think my mom first started making her Buns and Caramel Rolls about the time this photo was taken. I think I was 3 years old here, and I look like I’m not too sure about this Christmas thing. I mean, look at all those presents under the tree! Are those for me??? That was scary (for some reason)!

There really was no reason for me to be scared, but that’s sure what it looks like! Ha! I still have a few of those ornaments on my tree this year! Seriously – what was the deal with the bangs? I guess that was the style back then. They look like that on almost every picture of me at that age!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Mincemeat Sweet Rolls with Brandy Icing

Make a half batch of Buns.

Roll out enough dough to make the amount of rolls you want (if you want a 9″ x 9″ pan, use half of the half batch. If you want a 9″ x 13″ pan, use the whole half batch of dough). I used half of a half batch for these rolls and made the other half of a half batch into buns.

For filling:

Mix together:

1 cup mincemeat

1 apple, shredded

Zest of 1 lemon

Spread filling over rolled out dough.

Roll up dough into a log and pinch the edge to hold in the filling.

Cut log into 9 slices (this is for the 9″ x 9″ pan).

Put slices into the well-greased pan, cut side up, fitting all slices into pan.

Cover and let rise another hour.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes (mine took about 40 minutes), until rolls are golden and not doughy.

Cool

Spread Brandy Icing over top of rolls and use holiday sprinkles, if desired (I desired).

For Brandy Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons brandy

1/2 tablespoon softened butter

2-4 Tablespoons milk, or enough to make it the consistency you like for spreading

Top with sprinkles.

Just 1 cup of mincemeat, 1 shredded apple, and the zest of a lemon. That’s all that I needed to make a delicious filling.

It doesn’t look like a lot of filling, but it covered all of the dough.

Roll out the dough – into a rectangle, if possible.

Spread the filling over the top leaving a couple of inches on each edge. If the filling’s too close to the edge, it can squeeze out and that gets pretty messy.

Roll it up, pinch the edge closed, and cut your rolls. I used a sharp knife to cut the rolls, but you can also use unflavored dental floss or even thread. You put it under the roll, bring the two ends up over the top, cross them, and pull it through, cutting the roll.

I got 11 rolls, but the two ends were small so I just tucked them into the corners. They rise again and then into the oven.

After baking you can hardly tell where the two smaller end rolls are! Just put the icing over top and it will seem like 9 large rolls.

This Brandy Icing is really, really tasty! Don’t forget to top with some festive sprinkles! 🙂

I know I always say this, but aren’t they pretty?!!

My husband said, and I quote, “This is a keeper!” He didn’t even know I made it up!

I love these recipes that you can make your own without much trouble. How fun is that? I’m sure this won’t be the last version of these rolls, but this one was particularly delicious. The whole family loved these. If you want to try a recipe for making a special Christmas morning breakfast, make these Mincemeat Sweet Rolls with Bandy Icing and prepare yourself for the “ooohs” and “aaahs”!

 

Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Icing

Today’s recipe for Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Icing is a re-make of the recipe for Caramel Rolls that my mom was so famous for. This is the latest in the mash-ups I’ve been trying lately, and this one is one of the best so far, if I do say so myself! Making your own cinnamon rolls does take a bit of time, but it’s not hard – you should set aside the most of a day to do it. It’s so worth it! Your friends and family will totally appreciate the time and effort you took to spoil them with this delicious treat. I promise they will. I know we sure always appreciated it when my mom would make these for us when we were growing up!

Since this recipe is one my mom used to make, I thought I’d share a photo of her. This one might be prom or something, because of the bouquet of flowers she’s holding. This is pretty creative photography on the part of whoever took it, I must say! 🙂 Love it!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Icing

2 cups warm water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 Tablespoon salt

1 package active dry yeast

Let sit for a few minutes to let the yeast get going.

Add:

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup canned pumpkin – or use some you’ve frozen using my post Fixing Pumpkins

Mix in:

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking powder

7-8 cups flour

Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10-20 minutes (I used my big mixer and it worked so hard it got hot – kneading by hand is best here).

Cover and let rise about 1 hour (I put the dough in a bowl sprayed with non-stick spray and cover with plastic wrap).

Punch the dough down and let it rest 10 minutes.

I made two 9″ x 9″ pans of rolls, so I cut the dough in half and rolled out each half.

Spread on each half:

1/4 cup softened butter

2-3 Tablespoons cinnamon

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

Roll up each half into a log and cut into even pieces.

Set each slice cut side up in the well greased pan (I used 9″ x 9″ pans, so I cut 9 rolls for each pan, with an extra 4 put into two smaller pans for sharing with my daughters).

Cover and let rise in pans another hour.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the rolls are done and not doughy.

Cool.

Frost with Maple Glaze (makes plenty for both pans):

4 cups powdered sugar

2-4 Tablespoons real maple syrup

1/4-1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring (optional)

1 Tablespoon softened butter

4-6 Tablespoons milk, or enough to make the glaze spreadable

For the most part, the ingredients for these rolls are very simple.

You can see how the yeast has started to “get going”.

After kneading with the mixer, the dough was ready for the first rise.

After the first rise, punch down, and rest, the dough is ready to be rolled out and spread with softened butter. I cut the dough into 2 halves to make the rolling up easier, because I knew I was making them into 2 pans.

Next, on goes the cinnamon and sugar.

Then the dough is rolled up, the edges pinched closed, and cut into pieces.

This dough went into two 9″ x 9″ pans. I originally cut the roll into an even 10 rolls. I rolled out the second half and cut it into enough to fill each pan with 9 rolls and each smaller pan with 2. That makes 22 rolls cut altogether.

Here they are cut and snuggled into the pans, all ready for the second rise. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let them rise a second time.

After the rise, they’re ready for the oven. They will rise even a bit more while baking. These really puffed up!

Let them cool and then it’s time to slather on the ridiculously delicious and tasty Maple Icing.

This recipe for Maple Icing makes enough for both larger pans of rolls, the two little pans, AND there’s enough left over to spread on graham crackers later for a snack.

The plan for these rolls – we ate one of the larger pans, but wrapped the second larger and two smaller pans well and put it into the freezer for our Thanksgiving breakfast. I already can’t wait!

Direct quote from the hubs – “these are a keeper”! Alright! Mission accomplished!

I have to say, of all my recent mash-ups, this one is pretty darn good. It has the right amount of spice – both in the dough and inside it, it uses our favorite seasonal pumpkin (frozen from Fixing Pumpkins), and has a delicious fall-flavored Maple Icing slathered all over the top! Perfect! I seriously already can’t wait for Thanksgiving breakfast so I can enjoy one these amazing Pumpkin Rolls with Maple Icing with a nice cup of coffee!

 

Caramel Rolls #2

Today I’m sharing how to make Caramel Rolls #2. Obviously I have made a recipe for Caramel Rolls before, so this is the second one. Thus the #2 listing. These rolls are something that my mom was famous for. She made them all the time when we were growing up, mostly because she was firstly famous for making Buns, and the recipe she used made such a big batch, she’d get tired of making them halfway through and make the rest of the dough into Caramel Rolls. Oh heck yeah, we knew we were spoiled. She made Buns and Caramel Rolls a lot. I tried making a half batch back in November, when I used 1/3 of a half batch to make Lingonberry Rolls and then used the other 2/3 of that half batch to make Christmas Tree Rolls for Christmas morning. I hadn’t made Caramel Rolls for years, so I thought it was high time I try again. In my opinion, this is the way to go. A half batch is easier to handle, for me anyway, and I’ll probably do that from now on. A half batch to make Buns, or a half batch to make rolls. They freeze perfectly, and that way it’s easy to make them ahead of whenever you need them and have them all ready to go!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Caramel Rolls #2

Combine:

2 cups warm water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 Tablespoon salt

1 package dry yeast (since we can’t get dry yeast right now, I used the block of yeast they sent me in one of my grocery orders)

Let it sit for a few minutes and let the yeast get going.

Add:

1 egg

1/2 cup oil (I used canola)

Mix in:

1 teaspoon baking powder

5-6 cups flour, enough to make the dough not sticky (I used about 7 for this batch)

Knead until smooth and elastic – about 10-20 minutes.

Cover and let it rise for an hour.

Punch it down and let it rest for 10 minutes.

At this point, I grease the pan well with butter and put in about 1/2 cup brown sugar and about 1/2 cup of white syrup into the pan – this helps make more caramel for the tops of the rolls.

Form rolls:

Roll out the dough to a rectangle about 14″ x 18″.

Spread on about 1/4 cup softened butter and then sprinkle on about 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white syrup (that’s approximately the amounts I used – the more you use, the more caramel), and enough cinnamon to cover the dough.

Roll up the dough into a tube and cut into slices (I cut this into 16 pieces).

Put the rolls into pan (I used a 9″ x 13″ pan for this half batch).

Cover and let rise 30-60 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown and the middle rolls seem done (not doughy).

Turn out onto a serving platter (I don’t have a platter big enough, so I used a baking sheet with sides).

I had to use my block of yeast instead of the usual packet of dry yeast. It didn’t seem as “active” as the dry yeast, but it worked out fine.

Here are the wet ingredients, all ready to go.

Mix in the dry ingredients and you’re on your way!

I start with a couple of cups of flour, and then put on the dough hook and add the rest.

I “kneaded” it for about 5 minutes with the dough hook on, and here we are all done with the “kneading”. Yes – I did it with my mixer instead of by hand. Don’t judge me.

After the rising and the punch down, we’re ready to form the rolls. While the dough is rising, I put the goodies into the pan.

Roll the dough out to about 14″ x 18″, then spread on the softened butter.

The next layer is the cinnamon – I just cover the dough with cinnamon – I really don’t know how much I used – maybe a couple of teaspoons.

Next layer – brown sugar and white syrup. It’s better to get closer to the edge – that makes better distribution in the rolls – but the closer to the edge you get, the messier it is to cut them and get them into the pan. Oh well – go ahead and get messy – it’s worth it!

Roll it up as evenly as you can – I got the ends a bit smaller and thinner. That’s a no-no. Try to get even brown sugar and syrup distribution over the whole top of the dough to get the rolls more even.

I do the old “cut in half and half again” system until I have 16 slices.

Put the rolls evenly into the pan. You can see that I put 4 in the last row since those were the smaller pieces on the ends. They all fit.

Cover and let rise for another 30-60 minutes.

After baking – yum! Now it’s time to turn them out and let the caramel drip down over everything. I don’t have a big enough platter, so I just used a baking sheet.

Um – yeah. You can see the puddles of caramel here. There are those in my family who thought the rolls weren’t very caramel-y. Seriously – look at that puddle! They might have thought that because they weren’t there that first day to have them warm, when they’re best, but had them the day after. The rolls just aren’t ever as good the second day. Don’t get me wrong – they are still good – they’re just best when warm.

These rolls are perfect with a nice cup of coffee!

I just don’t know what to say. These rolls are so soft and so easy to make and so full of caramel. They just melt in your mouth. It’s one of those things. Caramel Rolls are just something you need to make. I hope this isn’t a lost art – I want my kids to be able to make these for their families. And so on and so on. They take some time to make, but it isn’t hard to do. Give it a try. Make up some of these Caramel Rolls #2 this weekend and spoil your family – they deserve it!

Christmas Tree Rolls

There’s nothing better for Christmas morning than having a beautiful batch of Christmas Tree Rolls in the freezer, ready to go for a festive and ridiculously delicious Christmas breakfast. In the fall, I made a half batch of the recipe for Buns that my mom has made since the 1960’s, and I used 1/3 of that half batch to make the small pan of Lingonberry Rolls that we enjoyed for our Thanksgiving morning breakfast. With the other 2/3 of that half-batch, I made these rolls for us to enjoy for our Christmas morning breakfast. My mom made these rolls for the family for Christmas morning sometimes during my childhood. She would make the Buns, then once she was tired of making the buns, she would use the last of the dough to make caramel rolls. Earlier on she would make Swedish Tea Ring to give away as gifts, or for us to have on Christmas morning. In later years, she would sometimes change it up and make Christmas Tree Rolls (occasionally also giving those away as gifts) and pop them into the freezer for Christmas morning. Now, I have to say, these Buns and caramel rolls have been a totally necessary item for everyone in the family for all holidays and anytime in-between. There’s nothing better slathered in melty butter, warm out of the oven. If you make the full batch of these Buns, it’s a big chore. My sister and I would help mom out (when we HAD to), but it’s a lot of work to do the whole batch. You mix up the big bowl of dough, knead it, let it rise, form the buns one by one, let them rise, and then bake them. I’m not complaining – besides learning how to make them, those warm buns were totally worth the work, and they freeze perfectly so there was usually a container of buns in the freezer (if my sister didn’t get to them – she had a thing for frozen baked goods – ha). Slowly, over time, mom hasn’t been able to continue her bun making. That means it’s time for the rest of us in the family to pick up the slack and start making them again – even if it’s for special occasions like a holiday, because they’re perfect for leftover turkey or ham sandwiches! But it’s still a lot of work to make those Buns, and when we get tired, we’ll just make caramel rolls like mom did. For now, I’m glad I only tackled a half-batch and made these melt-in-your-mouth delicious Christmas Tree Rolls for Christmas morning!

Yes – this a very well-used and well-loved recipe and recipe card!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Christmas Tree Rolls

Follow the recipe for Buns or Lingonberry Rolls.

I used about 2/3 of a half batch for these rolls.

If you want to make buns, too, use half of the batch of the original recipe to make these rolls and the rest of the dough can be made into buns.

For the frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

2-4 Tablespoons milk, or enough to make it spreadable

food coloring, if desired (I used green)

For ornaments:

maraschino cherries (I let them sit on a paper towel for awhile to dry off a bit)

sprinkles

Roll out dough into a long rectangle – or close to the shape of a rectangle.

Spread with about 1/2 cup softened butter, and sprinkle generously with about 2-3 Tablespoons cinnamon and about 1/4-1/2 cup sugar. You could mix the cinnamon and sugar together, if you want to, but I didn’t here. I didn’t do it here, but if you really want to make these special, you could also add chopped raisins, nuts, and cherries at this point.

Roll it up as tightly as you can, and cut it into slices to make the rolls.

I cut the tube of dough, with a serrated knife, into 12 rolls to make this tree – arranging them right on the baking sheet. They don’t look exactly the same size, but after rising and baking, they’ll be fine. You can see the cinnamon and sugar peeking through! Can’t wait!

After baking – oh yum. See – the rolls all ended up about the same size. Ha! They almost ended up right off the sides of the pan! To keep these for Christmas morning I wrapped a piece of foam core with foil (making a “platter” to set them on), taped it on the backside, and put the rolls on that so I can wrap them well with plastic wrap and a piece of foil and put them in the freezer. Just make sure that the “platter” you make will fit in your freezer before you go to all the work and have to do it all over again!

After putting the rolls onto the serving “platter”, I frosted them with the above recipe of frosting, put cherries in the middle of each roll as an ornament, and used holiday sprinkles (plus a little brown sugar for the “pot” on the bottom) all over it for added festiveness! I mean, really! Just look how festive! Perfect for Christmas morning. Or gift giving. Or a hostess gift. Or a teacher gift. It’s just perfect. Make some Christmas Tree Rolls for your Christmas morning breakfast, make a big pot of coffee to go with them (since you had a late night putting together toys, wrapping, etc.), and let the festivities begin!

 

Lingonberry Rolls

I made Lingonberry Rolls, and I’m so excited! The recipe is the same recipe used for Buns that my mom has been making for years – my whole life, really. I just added a twist on it – a Scandinavian twist! Grandma would LOVE these rolls, with their tart lingonberry filling and sweet almond icing. She was all for anything Scandinavian (since she was Swedish and Grandpa was Norwegian and Danish), and I just KNOW she would love these! Anybody and everybody will love these! Seriously – they take some time to make, but they’re pretty easy to do. I used my mom’s traditional recipe for Buns and just altered it a bit. We’re going to be having these for our Thanksgiving breakfast, but they would be amazing with your afternoon coffee or anytime! Speaking of Scandinavian, I had to share this photo of Grandma’s aunt. She was on a trip to Sweden with her mother (my great, great grandmother), and they visited the home where her mother lived and where they reconnected with relatives still living there. This is where the love of lingonberries comes from, and this is where the love of sweets for afternoon coffee comes from! It’s tradition – it’s necessary – it’s family!

She’s so cute in her traditional dress! I wonder if she ever did learn to spin wool into yarn! She could have spun some yarn for me to make Norwegian Mittens (still Scandinavian)!

You can see how well-used this recipe is – I can hardly read it!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Note: This is a full recipe that my mom used to make buns AND rolls from one batch – I’m showing you the full recipe here. She would make buns until she got tired of making them, then she’d use the rest of the dough to make caramel rolls. I used half of this recipe to make two kinds of rolls. One kind of rolls is Christmas Tree Rolls that I’ll tell you about next month, but the other kind is this smaller pan of rolls that we’re going to enjoy for our Thanksgiving breakfast. So technically, I used 1/3 of a half batch for these Lingonberry Rolls and 2/3 of a half batch for the Christmas Tree Rolls (info to come in a later post next month). I hope that makes sense. You could use a half recipe to make a 9″ x 13″ pan of all Lingonberry Rolls – cutting the dough into 12-16 rolls.

Lingonberry Rolls

Mix in a large bowl:

4 cups water (warm)

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

2 packages of yeast

Let sit a few minutes.

Add:

2 eggs

1 cup oil (I used canola)

Mix in:

2 teaspoons baking powder

10-12 cups flour

(Next time I might try 1 teaspoon cardamom in at this point!)

Knead until smooth and elastic – about 10-20 minutes.

Let rise 1 hour.

Punch down.

Let rest 10 minutes.

Form the rolls:

Roll out the dough into a rectangle – maybe about 10″ x 14″ for these 9 rolls – longer if you’re making a bigger batch with more rolls.

Spread over the top of the rectangle of dough:

1/2-3/4 cup lingonberry jam

Roll dough up on long edge to make a tube (this does get a little messy), pinching the seam.

Cut into 9 rolls and put into a greased pan (I used a 9″ x 9″ pan for this small batch).

Let rise 30-60 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Cool.

Frost with Almond Icing (double this if making a larger pan of rolls):

Mix together until spreadable:

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 Tablespoon butter, softened

2-3 Tablespoons milk, or just enough to make the icing spreadable

Sprinkle with toasted, sliced almonds.

Let the yeast do it’s thing for a few minutes.

I added just a couple of cups of flour first, got it all mixed up, and then added the rest of the flour. I think it’s easier to mix it all together that way.

Next – the kneading – and your arm and ab workout for the day. Work it!

Into the bowl with a lid or just cover it with plastic wrap. Let it rise for an hour.

Here it is, on to the next step. Punch it down and form the rolls.

After rolling out the dough into a rectangle, I spread on the lingonberry jam. It gets a little messy, but it will be worth it!

Cut the rolls into 1″-2″ slices and put into a greased pan.

I covered the pan with plastic wrap and let them rise again.

The frosting is easy to make and really makes the rolls special. This is the part Grandma would have liked most – the almond frosting!

I put these rolls into the freezer so we can enjoy them for our Thanksgiving breakfast. Not only are they a Scandinavian twist on a cinnamon or caramel roll, they have the tartness of the lingonberries, which remind me of cranberries, and they’re so good with that sweet almond frosting on top.

These rolls are just about perfect in every way. They have the tart lingonberries, the sweet frosting, and they’re made from mom’s recipe for Buns. I. Can’t. Wait. For. Thanksgiving. Breakfast. Period. Your family is going to love it when you bake something special for them. I know that our family sure appreciated it when my mom baked for us, and my own family appreciates when I bake for them. These Lingonberry Rolls are the way I’m doing it this Thanksgiving!

 

Orange Rolls (No Knead)

The recipe for today is for Orange Rolls (No Knead), and it comes from one of Grandma’s old church cookbooks. They sounded pretty easy to do, so why not? It is citrus season, after all – the perfect time of year for anything made with oranges. Who knew back then that someday “no knead” bread and rolls would be such a big “thing”?!

Because it’s winter time, I had to share this photo of my mom and her brother with their grandparents (Grandma’s parents), and it looks like they might have a cousin (the little guy) with them. We don’t have a lot of casual photos like this, especially in the winter and OUTSIDE! I wonder if this was a special occasion, or maybe it was a photo of a new car or something. Maybe it was just a shot of them before church, who knows. I love it, though – they all have interesting headgear on their heads!

It must have been a cold day. So cute!

Ok – back to the rolls. I used the grated rind from the whole orange (as long as I was grating it – you shouldn’t waste it, right?) and also the juice from the orange (added to the warm water to make 1 cup). Pay attention to some changes as we go along – this recipe was a bit weird once I got into it.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Orange Rolls (No Knead)

Mix:

2 cakes (packages) yeast

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup warm water

Beat:

3 eggs

Add to the water mixture.

Then add:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon orange rind (I used the rind from the whole orange, and put the juice from the orange into the measuring cup for the warm water, then added enough warm water to make the 1 cup)

4 cups flour

Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray or grease with butter (I forgot to do this – yikes!).

Put 1/2 teaspoon butter and 1 cup brown sugar in muffin tins (this sounded weird to me, and I wonder if it’s a typo – I put 1/2 teaspoon butter in each of 12 muffin tins and then added 1 Tablespoon brown sugar in each muffin tin).

Drop by Tablespoon (this also sounded weird to me, so I just made the 12 rolls – 18 rolls would have been a better size, or maybe they would have been ok in a mini muffin tin).

Let rise 2 hours.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

I didn’t think 1 cup of brown sugar for all the rolls sounded like enough, so I used 1 Tablespoon per muffin cup and 1/2 teaspoon of butter per cup. Oh yeah – and don’t forget to spray the tins – I did!!!

1 Tablespoon of dough didn’t seem like it would make a very big roll, either, so I made them bigger. Big mistake.

You can see that the muffin cups were way too full. They almost overflowed.

A smaller amount of dough would make a nice, small roll. Oops. I struggled a bit with this recipe.

The caramel in the bottom of the muffin cup wasn’t sticky like I thought it would be. It was more of a chewy caramel. Even though I forgot to spray the muffin tins, they came out of the pan pretty easily when I used a large serving spoon to scoop them out.

These rolls turned out to be kind of a cross between muffins and Buns, with the flavor of my famous Hopping Bunny Rolls. They are delicious, and are perfect with a morning (or afternoon) cup of coffee. Go ahead and give these a try. Just follow the recipe and don’t try to “fix” it like I tried to do. I should know better by now – just do what the recipe says. The farm wives who made these recipes and put them into the old church cookbooks knew what they were doing (as long as it’s not a typo). These Orange Rolls (No Knead) are delicious – you and your family will love them!

 

Swedish Tea Ring

Today’s recipe is for a Swedish Tea Ring – a continuation of her Buns recipe. This is another type of treat made with the same bun dough on that post. My mom would sometimes give this treat to lucky people at Christmastime. There is really no recipe for the actual tea ring, just the yummy stuff you add to it after you’ve made the dough. We went to my mom’s place and she, being the master, made a small Swedish Tea Ring for us after we made Buns. You can make this tea ring with about one third to one half of the bun dough or whatever you have left when you’re tired and have had enough of the bun making.

Here is the recipe as we made it:

Swedish Tea Ring

First, roll out a portion of the dough into a rectangle, 12″ x 18″ or so (this was a smaller version).

Spread softened butter on top – she used about 1/4 cup here.

Then, sprinkle on brown sugar – about 1 cup depending on how gooey you want it.

Sprinkle cinnamon over top, making sure you cover the whole thing with cinnamon.

This makes more of a cinnamon roll type of situation but if you like more of a caramel roll type of situation, you can also drizzle on some white corn syrup.

At Christmastime, she has been known to also put in chopped nuts, maraschino cherries, and raisins.

Roll up dough on long side and connect the ends overlapping dough and having seam on the under side.

Using a knife or scissors (we think a scissors works better), cut 3/4 of the way through the roll, turning slices to side to lay flat.

Let rise another 30-45 minutes.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.

Move to serving platter and drizzle powdered sugar frosting on top (to give this as a gift, she would use a piece of cardboard covered in foil and the whole thing wrapped in plastic wrap).

You can find a recipe for the frosting here.

Sprinkle decorating sugar on top of that depending on what time of year it is (she used orange sugar on this one for fall).

For Christmas she would use nonpareils (the colorful little ball-y things) with maraschino cherries cut in half decorating the top.

It really is a beautiful presentation.

Another tasty treat great for breakfast or afternoon tea made by the master.

Thanks for the beautiful Swedish Tea Ring, Mom!

Buns

Today’s recipe is one that my mom is famous for.

She is the master of making these Buns and has made these for as long as I can remember.

Two of my children and I went to her place last weekend so we could record her making these and then also shoot the process for Plenty Sweet Life. We needed to record it so we could have it for future generations to be able to see exactly how it’s done. Nobody can shape those buns like she can! Ha!

She also makes caramel rolls with this dough and a Swedish Tea Ring which we’ll explore at a later date.

This recipe card is obviously not the original. I’m sure we had to make another copy because the first one wore out.

This is my handwriting and it looks like I was in grade school when I wrote out this one.

You can see that it’s another very well used recipe!

Here is the recipe as she made them:

Buns

Mix 4 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1 Tablespoon of salt, and 2 packages of yeast.

Let sit a few minutes.

Mix in 2 eggs and 1 cup vegetable oil.

Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 10-12 cups of flour.

Knead until smooth and elastic.

Let rise for about 1 hour.

Make into buns or loaves and let rise for 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour more (it says on the card that it makes 4 loaves but I seriously don’t remember Mom ever making loaves – just buns).

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet, put on cooling rack and brush with softened butter.

Mom has always used the same old Tupperware container to mix this dough.

It takes awhile to knead until smooth and elastic. Keep adding flour when you need to so it doesn’t stick.

This is what the dough looks like before and after the first rise.

Buns are shaped like this.

After baking they really do need the softened butter on top.

It melts into the top crust.

Yes it does.

This a most necessary step.

No preservatives in these.

They really should be eaten warm.

With butter inside.

Or with the staple of my childhood – butter AND bologna.

Or peanut butter.

You heard me.

Yes.

Perfection.