Skip to content

Robert St. John

Restaurateur, author, enthusiastic traveler, & world-class eater.

Mary Virginia’s Orange Sweet Rolls

Ingredients

1 cup Boiling water

1 cup Shortening (or 2 sticks of butter)

1 cup Sugar

1 1 /2 tsp Salt

2 Eggs (large)

2 Tbl Yeast (2 packages)

1 cup Warm water

Dash Sugar

6 cups Flour

1 stick Butter

1 1 /4 cup Granulated sugar

1 1 /2 Tbl Cinnamon

1 lb Confectioner’s sugar

Grated rind of two navel oranges

Enough orange juice to make a glaze

Instructions

Pour water over shortening, sugar and salt. Blend and let cool. Add eggs and beat well. Let yeast stand in water with a dash of sugar until bubbly.

Add yeast mixture to shortening mixture when it is absolutely cool. Then beat in the flour. Cover and refrigerate three to four hours.

Preheat oven to 350

Using melted butter, grease six aluminum-foil lined nine-inch cake pans.

Roll out dough into a large rectangle (1 foot by 3 feet). Sprinkle with granulated sugar and cinnamon.

Roll up dough, jellyroll style, from the long side. Cut 3 /4-inch thick and place into prepared cake pans. Let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).

Bake for 15 minutes.

Make a glaze using confectioner’s sugar, orange rind and orange juice. Ice rolls while they are hot. These rolls freeze well in zip-loc bags, but if you are like me, they won’t last long enough to make it to the freezer. Yield: Not enough

Recent Recipes

Stewed Squid

In a 2 quart sauce pan, heat the oil over medium and sweat the garlic and the crushed red pepper…

Read more

Cinnamon Cream Syrup

This pairs perfectly with Sweet Potato Pancakes. It may be better than the pancakes themselves (and they’re great). But try this recipe on regular pancakes, waffles, and French toast.

Read more

Sweet Potato Pancakes

I ate my first sweet potato pancake during my only visit to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. My family, along with another couple and their young children rented a cabin in the mountains during spring break. I woke every morning and headed into town for breakfast. I would imagine Gatlinburg has more pancake houses per capita than any place on the planet. My problem is that I never found a good-tasting pancake until I happened across sweet potato pancakes at one of the pancake houses. We serve a version of this recipe at The Midtowner. The Cinnamon Cream Syrup is a must.

Read more