One of the best fragrances a home has comes when homemade bread is baking to fill it with a delicious aroma. Yet you can intensify that joyful smell by making a raised sweet dough sprinkled with grated orange peel and sugar with My Sweet Orange Buns. These are as light as feathers and the perfect way to brighten a winter day!
This recipe is wonderful to enjoy especially when you have oranges in the house. Since we have the chemical free USDA certified organic oranges in the refrigerator from South Tex Organics, then I thought this is the perfect time to grate those peels and get a dual purpose from their healthier citrus.
Their organic oranges are extra sweet and contain more of their vitamin content than the commercial counterparts. So I encourage you to seriously think about the benefits of organics and the amazing citrus that South Tex Organics sells and order some because you will be doing a good thing for your health and your tummy.
If you haven't entered the South Tex Organics Large Combo Box of Citrus Giveaway (the 13 grapefruits and 24 oranges) yet, then you can still do so until December 28, 2011. Do enter and then you can hurry and make this recipe for your family as well!
My Sweet Orange Buns
1-3/4 cups of sugar
1/4 cup grated orange peel
5-1/2 to 6-1/2 cups of unsifted flour
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons or packages of active dry yeast
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup of hot tap water (about 125 degrees)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of melted margarine
First you make the Orange Sugar Topping. Mix 1 cup of the sugar with the 1/4 cup of the grated orange peel. Set aside.
To make the dough the quick way, you put 1-1/4 cups of the flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, salt, vanilla, and undissolved yeast in a large mixing bowl. Now add your oil and gradually the hot tap water. Beat with the electric mixer, adding eggs one at a time and 1/4 cup more flour. Continue beating and then keep adding the rest of the flour until you get a soft dough. Turn out on a floured surface and knead until smooth and workable.
If you prefer to make the dough the old-fashioned way, you need to test the temperature of the water on your wrist to make it sure it is not too hot to scald first. It has to be hotter than just warm. Add that water with a teaspoon of sugar to the yeast and set aside for five minutes to help it grow. Then add the 1-1/4 cup of flour gradually with the oil, eggs, salt, and vanilla beating in with your electric mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour until you form a soft dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead smooth.
From this stage with either way you start, you divide the dough into three equal portions. Divide one portion into eight equal pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball and dip into the melted margarine and then dipping into the Orange Sugar Topping Mixture to coat. Do this procedure for each piece until it's gone.
Turn your coated buns into a greased 8" round cake pan. Cluster them together and cover them tightly with a plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Do this the same way for an additional second pan. You can either store in the freezer and unthaw at another time, one or both pans for three hours with the plastic wrap at room temperature. Let rise in a warm spot until the buns double in size (about 2-1/2 hours).
For same day use, you do the same thing of letting the buns that you covered with a dish towel grow in a warm place until they double in size (about 2-1/2 hours).
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly golden at the bottom.
