It wasn't the best Christmas ever this year. Among other reasons, it was our first without Pop Pop, and I didn't have my Cody to help cheer me up. On the bright side, the Chocolate-Orange Sweet Rolls I made at my Granny's house turned out great.
I got the recipe from Bon Appétit's 50th anniversary issue in October. For some reason, it's not yet available on epicurious, which archives all of Bon Appétit's and Gourmet's recipes.
As with other bun recipes I've tried, the dough rises twice: once when you first make it and once when you've put the buns together and laid them in their pan. The dough has 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of orange zest in it. When you roll it out, you spread more butter on it and then sprinkle it with sugar and chocolate chips. Here are pictures of Mike sprinkling the sugar on and Matt sprinkling the chocolate chips on one-third of the rolled-out dough.
The boys alternated sugar and chocolate chip duties. I made a batch and a half, or 36 rolls.
After you roll up the dough into a log, cut it into twelve pieces, and put the pieces in a greased pan, you pour a cream and orange juice (or Grand Marnier) mixture over them. After you bake them, you smear them with a glaze consisting of powdered sugar and orange juice.
Here's a picture of the finished product.
I started making the dough after everybody else left for church Sunday evening and I covered up the cooled buns at about 11. By the time I left to head home to Brooklyn on Tuesday morning, all but three were gone. My Dad, in particular, ate them like they were going out of style. Matt told me that I'm better than Rachael Ray. :)
I will definitely make these sweet rolls again. The boys agreed with me that there was just enough orange taste, and almost everything is made better by the addition of chocolate chips. Yummy yummy.
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