as kids, we would go over to my aunt’s place around christmas,
and she would make pies and cakes from scratch,
and at christmas, she scoured cookbooks to make the most difficult and amazing recipes she could find.

i remember wearing an apron up to her counter…
and everything she made was incredible.
she’s done turducken, a roasted pig {complete with apple in it’s mouth} and a million other things i was probably too young to appreciate. and with my equally ambitious mom, christmas dinner and tables are always pin-worthy.

one thing she’s made for years,
that i always look for at christmas dinner are these fabulous rolls.
it’s like the fight to get to the line first so you don’t miss out.

they aren’t like cinnamon rolls, they are more like warm,
gooey, light and soft sweet bread that happens to have a naughty glaze on top.
k, who are we kidding. without the glaze, these are just hint-of-orange dinner rolls.
{also not a bad idea…}

when i made these the other day,  my house smelled like freshly baked bread and zested oranges…. i was in heaven.
and then i seriously missed my own mom and her house at christmas…
proof that i need to bake more often.
{hence perhaps why my ratio of food posts to non-food posts has altered a bit lately.} 

orange bow knot rolls
{adapted from Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book}

– 5 1/4 to 5 3/4 C Flour
– 1 pkg dry yeast
– 1 1/4 C milk
– 1/2 C butter
– 1/3 C sugar
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 2 eggs
– 2 T finely shredded orange peel
– 1/4 C orange juice

1. In your electric mixing bowl combine 2 C flour and yeast. In a medium saucepan, heat and stir the milk, butter, sugar and salt just till warm (120-130 degrees) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Beat on low to medium speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Stir in the orange peel, orange juice and as much of remaining flour as you can.

2. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 mins total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a greased bowl and cover.  let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour)

3. Punch the dough down {my favorite part}. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.Barely enough time to grease up your 2 baking sheets and crack open a swig product.

4. Roll each portion of the dough into a 12X7ish inch rectangle. Cut each rectangle into 12 7-inch-long strips. Tie each strip loosely in a knot. place on sprayed cookie sheets with space to rise between. Cover and let rise in a warm place till nearly double in size (about 30 minutes on the top of your preheating stove should do).

5. Bake in a 400 degree oven about 10 minutes or till lightly golden. Immediately remove rolls from the baking sheets. Cool on wire racks. Paint/cover/smother with Orange Icing while still hot so it kinda melts on there… repeat. {it makes them more like gooey rolls.}

ORANGE ICING:

In a small mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 C powdered sugar and 1 1/2tsp. finely shredded orange peel. Stir in enough orange juice (2-3 Tbs) to make icing easy to “paint”.