Orange Bowknots

Orange Bowknots

Ingredients:
5 1/4 to 5 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons finely shredded orange peel
1/4 cup orange juice
1 recipe orange icing (see below)

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour and yeast; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir the milk, butter, sugar, and salt just until warm and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixture on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the orange peel, orange juice, and as much of the remaining flour as you can.
2. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease 2 baking sheets; set aside.
4. Roll each portion of the dough into a 12x7 inch rectangle. Cut each rectangle into 12 7 inch long strips. Tie each strip loosely into a knot and tuck ends under the roll. Arrange knots 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Cover and let rise in a warm place till nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).
5. Bake in a 400* oven about 12 minutes or until golden. Immediately remove rolls from baking sheets. Cool on wire racks. Drizzle with orange icing. Makes 24 rolls.

Orange Icing:
In a small mixing bowl, combine 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel. Stir in enough orange juice (1 to 2 tablespoons) to make icing easy to drizzle.
(I added 3/4 of a package of cream cheese and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and the icing was much tastier.)

*I made these yummy rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning. I have made these a few times before, but this time instead of using finely shredded orange peel, I pureed an entire orange in the food processor, and the rolls had much more orange flavor. I used 3/4 of the pureed orange in the dough, and the other 1/4 for the icing. I still added the orange juice to both the dough and the icing. You may need to add more flour to the dough if it is too sticky. The next time I make these, I am going to add some cinnamon and nutmeg to the dough. I think that would be really tasty.