I have had a lot of different orange rolls in my life. Most of them have been handed down, traditional, family recipes. To tell you the truth, I’ve never had one I didn’t like. I LOVE orange rolls! For whatever reason, I’ve never actually made them myself until recently. The reason I even attempted is because I’ve been experimenting lately with some of my favorite bread dough (Mama’s Best Pizza Dough). I’ve been experimenting to see what kinds of things I could create out it. I’ve discovered shortcuts for a lot of classic recipes, by cutting out rise time, and in some cases have considerably lowered the calories. This particular recipe, I am dubbing “Mama’s Best Orange Rolls” because I used Mama’s Best Pizza Dough as the base. If you add orange and sugar to anything that is already entitiled “Mama’s Best”, it won’t matter what the end result is, it’s going to be good! Mama’s Best Pizza Dough has been one of the most popular recipes on our site. The dough rises as it bakes, has killer texture, and is so easy to make, that I have it memorized! This recipe ended up so delicious, it definitely lived up to the title “Mama’s Best Orange Rolls”.
Mama’s Best Orange Rolls
Roll Dough: 1 Recipe Mama’s Best Pizza Dough + 2 Tbs. Sugar
Orange Filling:
1/2 unsalted butter, softened
1 c. sugar
3 Tbs. orange juice
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1 – 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/4 c. orange juice
2 tsp. orange extract
Make 1 batch Mama’s Best Pizza dough, and be sure to add an extra 2 Tbs. of sugar in the beginning. This sweetens the dough slightly from the original recipe. Place the dough on a well floured surface, and the preheat oven to 400.
Roll out the dough into a large rectangle (about 12 inches by 24 inches). It should be about 1/2 inch thick.
Make the Orange filling. Spread evenly over the whole surface of the dough, including the edges.
Start to roll up the dough the long way. This will seem more awkward, but you need the length of the roll about 24 inches. Roll a little at a time until you have something that looks like this.
Next, you need to slice the dough. You may use a sharp knife, but my preferred method of cutting sweet rolls is with dental floss. Yes, dental floss. You slide the floss under the roll, wrap around, cross at the top and pull through. This will slice the dough from the outside, in, in one clean, even motion. It is so fun. My kids get a kick out of it.
This recipe makes about 24 rolls. Cut your roll in half first. Then cut each half in half. Then cut each of the pieces into 3. You should come out with 12 rolls per half. Make sure each roll is no thinner than 1 in. Make adjustments as needed.
Place each roll on it’s side in a greased 9 x 12, or 10 x 10 pan. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes.
Let cool completely on a baking rack.
When rolls are cooling, make orange cream cheese frosting.
Frost rolls when they are completely cool. (Add optional orange zest over the top for extra flavor and color.)
