Sweetroll Food

BASIC SWEET-ROLL DOUGH

Steps:

• Warm 1/2 cup water and the milk in a saucepan over low heat until a thermometer registers 100 degrees F to 110 degrees F. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the yeast on top, then sprinkle with a pinch of the sugar; set aside, undisturbed, until foamy, about 5 minutes.
• Whisk the melted butter, egg yolk and vanilla into the yeast mixture until combined. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, the remaining sugar, the salt and nutmeg. Make a well in the center, then add the yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon to make a thick and slightly sticky dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until soft and elastic, about 6 minutes. Shape into a ball.
• Brush a large bowl with butter. Add the dough, turning to coat lightly with the butter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough is doubled in size, about 1 hour, 15 minutes.
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and knead briefly to release excess air; re-form into a ball and return to the bowl. Lightly butter a large piece of plastic wrap and lay it directly on the surface of the dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

SWEET ROLLS

Steps:

• Let milk come to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, and salt. Cool. Soften yeast in warm water. Stir into milk mixture. Pour into large mixing bowl. Add flour, a little at a time, to liquid mixture. Beat well. Turn out onto floured board. Allow to sit 15 minutes. Knead until smooth and satiny.
• Place dough into a greased bowl. Turn over once. Cover with a cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Roll out dough on floured board to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into three 8-inch squares (they don't have to be perfect squares). Work with 1 square at a time. Brush each square with melted butter.
• Mix 1 cup sugar with cinnamon (if necessary,you may have to make more sugar/cinnamon mixture.) Sprinkle most of this mixture generously over entire surface of each square. Starting at one side of each square, roll into a tube. Continue rolling back and forth, until 12 to 18 inches long. Repeat with other 2 squares. Cut each tube into wheels about 1/2-inch wide. Place wheels onto a baking sheet that has been brushed with melted butter and sprinkled well with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place them so that they touch. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with more cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let stand, covered, at room temperature for 1 hour to rise again.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 18 to 20 minutes. (You can refrigerate rolls, covered, and then bring back to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.).

ORANGE SWEET ROLLS

Steps:

• For the dough: In a large saucepan over a low heat, heat the milk, oil and granulated sugar until warm but not hot (if you have a candy thermometer, it should be 125 degrees F). Add the yeast and 4 cups of the flour and stir together. Cover the pan and leave to rise for at least an hour. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• For the filling: Roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 30 inches wide by 10 inches deep. You'll want it to be as thin as you can get it so you can add plenty of goo. Drizzle the melted butter all over the surface of the dough. Use your fingers to smear it all around so that it coats evenly.
• Spread the orange marmalade all over the buttered dough, distributing as evenly as you can. Sprinkle plenty of brown sugar all over the marmalade. Finish with a light sprinkling of salt to offset the sweetness.
• Using both hands in a back-and-forth motion, gradually roll the dough towards you into one long log. Pinch the seam to seal it. Then slice the log-o'-dough into 1/2-inch pieces.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the rolls in a buttered baking dish and allow them to rise for 20 minutes.
• Bake for 15 to 17 minutes.
• While the rolls are baking, make the icing: Add the orange zest and juice to a bowl. Add the powdered sugar and salt. Splash in the milk. And some more melted butter because the recipe doesn't already have enough. Just kidding on that last part. Whisk it together until it's nice and smooth and lovely. Your kitchen smells like oranges!
• Pull the rolls out of the oven when they're golden brown, and drizzle on the icing right off the bat. The piping hot rolls will suck that gorgeous icing right down into their crevices and the whole thing pretty much becomes a miracle. Serve them warm.

SWEET ROLL DOUGH

Steps:

• Mix water and yeast in large mixing bowl.
• Stir until dissolved.
• Add milk, sugar salt, eggs, shortening and 1/2 of the flour.
• Mix until smooth and pour out onto floured surface. Knead while adding the additional flour. Knead until smooth and elastic( about 5 minutes).
• Round up in greased bowl with greased side up. Cover with damp cloth.
• Let rise in warm place until double (about 1&1/2 hours).
• Punch down; let rise again until almost double.
• Dough is ready to to make into cinnamon rolls or dinner rolls now.

SWEETROLL

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix dry cake ingredients together.
• Separately, mix wet cake ingredients together.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
• Spray your oven-safe glass measuring cup with non-stick cooking spray.
• Add your batter to the measuring cup to the 1 cup or the 1 1/2 cup line, depending on how tall you want it.
• Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until your can stick in a knife and it comes out clean.
• Remove measuring cup from the oven and let the cake cool
• Once cake is cool, remove it from the measuring cup carefully so it does not break.
• The cake is going to be upside down (so the wider part is at the bottom) and may be awkwardly rounded on the bottom side. To fix this, simply cut off the rounded bottom with a knife to make it level.
• Use a spoon or fork to carve a hole at the top of the cake, this is where you will put the filling.
• To make the filling mix together the butter, pecans, cinnamon and brown sugar.
• Stuff the mixture into the hole you created.
• For the icing, whisk together the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk until smooth and thick.
• Gently pour the icing on top of the cake.

GRAMMA'S OLD-FASHIONED CINNAMON SWEET ROLLS

Steps:

• In a liquid measuring cup, heat milk/water to "wrist-warm" (do NOT boil; just warm).
• Add yeast and 2 tablespoons of the sugar (you'll use the rest in the next step). Stir the yeast and sugar; let this "work" for about 5 or 10 minutes. You should have some bubbly, frothy stuff in the cup when you return. (If not--your yeast is no good, dump it out and get better yeast.).
• Pour yeast-milk into mixing bowl, and add remaining sugar, butter, eggs, salt and 1 cup of the flour. Using beater, mix this mess for about a minute.
• Switch to the paddle (flat beater) or a dough hook, and add remaining flour one cup-at-a-time. The dough will form a ball, and feel slightly sticky. You may not need the entire 5 1/2 cups (depends on humidity, too).
• Fill medium glass bowl with hottest tap water. If your oven can be adjusted to 100 degrees, set it to 100 degrees. Also, if your oven has a light, turn it on; place the hot water on the bottom of the oven. Close the door.
• Grease a large, glass bowl. Remove dough from mixing bowl to a floured table/counter-top; knead for 1 minute; form into a ball and place in greased bowl, turning to get grease on all sides. Cover bowl loosely with a sheet of plastic wrap.
• Turn off 100 degree oven, place bowl of dough into oven; close the door. Set the timer for 1 hour.
• Clean up the mess BUT leave floured counter-top AS IS.
• At the end of one hour the dough should've risen to about double the size. If not, let it go for another 15 minutes (set the timer--it's easy to forget---out of sight, out of mind!).
• Gather filling ingredients: 1/4 cup of melted butter; cinnamon; brown sugar; raisins and/or chopped nuts (optional).
• Punch down the down; remove from bowl; with a large butcher knife, cut dough into two equal parts. Set one aside (cover with plastic wrap).
• Grease two 13x9-inch pans with BUTTER (no substitutes are allowed -- this is GRAMMA's recipe). :-) humor me, okay?.
• On floured counter-top, lay dough and with a rolling pin, shape & roll into large rectangle, oh about 8 x 16 inches or a bit larger, keep thickness consistent throughout.
• Pour HALF of the melted butter over this, and spread with a pastry brush, right out to the edges. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon (like 1-2 tablespoons), then a handful of brown sugar, spreading it evenly with fingers; right to the edges!
• Sprinkle some raisins and chopped nuts -- if using. Keep these closer to the long side closest to you.
• HERE's THE HARD PART: Starting at the side closest to you, LOOSELY roll away from you. Loosely is the KEY word. Tuck in any runaway raisins or nuts.
• Use that big knife to divide the roll in half in the middle. Then cut each half into SIX equal portions, for a total of 12 rolls.
• Starting in the middle of the roll (nicest shaped rolls) and working to the sloppy outside roll piecs, set them along the outside edges of the buttered pan, spacing evenly in the pan. Put the two end rolls in the very center of the pan. Set the cut side DOWN (so the top looks flat-ish). Set this pan on the stove for now.
• Repeat with remaining dough; vary the ingredients -- if you skipped raisins or nuts, maybe add some to this pan of rolls.
• Check if the water in the oven is still warm, if not dump out and start with fresh hot water. Put plastic wrap on both pans (re-use the other piece), and pop in the warm oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes. Go do something productive---clean the counter-top before all that stuff gets hard! :-D.
• When the rolls have risen to the top of the pan (or a smidgen over), remove them from the oven, preheat oven to 350. When it's warm bake them for 20 minutes; tops will be golden brown.
• Cool on a rack; then frost with a cream cheese/butter cream frosting (slather it on thick like Gramma does for the grandkids!).
• You have JUST entered the Pearly Gates!