Sunny Orange Buns

I really should call this post round two of operation finish orange juice. That would be an appropriate title but I figure Sunny Orange Buns is a far more fitting title here because that's exactly what these are. Yeast dough bursting with bright, orange flavor baked like a cinnamon bun. I tried in vain to find a recipe for orange buns, leafing through all my books and searching the internet. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and I came up with this recipe. Using my favorite yeast dough recipe as a base, I swapped the milk for orange juice and added the zest of an orange. For the filling, I rubbed together and some more orange zest. I rolled up the dough jelly style, cut into buns and let chill out in the fridge until this morning. They baked up all golden and bubbly and delightful smelling. I mixed up a light glaze of some powdered sugar and fresh squeezed orange juice and drizzled it over. The results? Divine. The buns were not too sweet and suprisingly not too orange-y. These were perfect and a wildly successful experiment. I didnt measure my filling ingredients or glaze ingredients so just wing it. I'm sending these over to Yeastspotting!

Sunny Orange Buns

1 cup orange juice

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

zest of one orange

1/2 cup sugar

4 3/4 cup flour or as needed

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp instant yeast

Filling:

sugar

orange zest

Glaze:

powdered sugar

freshly squeezed orange juice

To make the dough, place all of the wet ingredients in a bowl,
and whisk until combined.
In a separate bowl, place all of the dry ingredients.
Whisk thoroughly.
Add the flour mixture to the liquid ingredients.
Stir to make a shaggy dough.
Turn out onto a well floured surface,
and knead until a smooth but slightly tacky dough is formed.
Set the dough aside and allow to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half. The dough wont look like it has done much at all.
Meanwhile, rub the sugar and zest together.
Turn the dough out again. It should be smooth and easily handled.
Roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Brush with oil or melted margarine/butter. Sprinkle on the sugar/zest mixture. Press it into the dough.
Roll the dough up jelly roll style.
Cut into buns.
Place in the pan. I put these in the fridge overnight and baked the next morning. If that's not an option, allow to rise until puffy. Preheat the oven to 350.
Bake until golden brown and delicious.
Mix the zest and orange juice.
Drizzle over the buns. Mmmmm. I taste summer....