Walking Sticks and Orange Rolls

Now if you happen to be picturing a posh gentleman wearing a tophat and carrying a fancy walking stick; sorry, wrong walking stick.  The walking stick I'm referring to is from the Phasmatodea species and it is an insect.  The most common colors are green and brown, so they are very adept at being unseen in their environment.  They don't bite, humans that is, and they can easily be kept as a pet and will thrive on organic lettuce.

Roy had often spoken about these little creatures that he remembers from childhood.  On Sunday, just after I had put a batch of orange rolls into the oven, Roy came up to me and said, "Hunny, remember when I told you about walking sticks?  Well lookie what I found outside."  From behind his back he brought his hand out and inside was a brown walking stick...I was mesmerized.  It looked like a 1/4 inch thick, 4 inch long twig with finer twigs branching out from the main body.   It was perfectly still and I immediately got the camera out; I was not missing an opportunity of photographing this wonderful creature.  After awhile, Roy transferred it to my hand and the little guy(gal?) got animated and started to walk about...it was fascinating.  After a few minutes though, it wanted to keep wandering off, so I had Roy transfer it outside and into my herbal garden.

Then I remembered the rolls and ran for the oven; a little browner than I'm used to, but not hard as a stone or burnt.  I let the rolls cool a bit before slathering on the orange cream cheese frosting.  A perfect treat after such an experience with nature.

Orange Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1(.25 oz) packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup cold butter
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 cups all-purpose flour
8 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup each white sugar and brown sugar
2 Tbsp fresh grated orange zest

Preparation:

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter and dissolve salt in milk.

In a large bowl, mix the yeast, egg and flour with the milk mixture to form a sticky dough. Lightly butter a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with the butter. Cover with a clean, dry linen cloth; let rise in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

Remove dough from the refrigerator 2 hours before baking. Divide the dough into halves; roll each half out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick rectangular shape.

Mix the softened butter, sugars and orange peel in a small bowl. Spread half of the butter mixture over each rectangle. Roll up the dough short edge to short edge and cut one inch slices. Place in greased muffin tins, or 6 into a nine inch greased cake pan; let rise until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400F; place tins and/or pans on center rack; bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before putting on frosting.

Makes 2 dozen rolls.


Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1(8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
8 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp orange zest
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Orange juice

Cream the cream cheese, butter, and orange zest until smooth and well combined. Turn off mixer; add the confectioner’s sugar plus one tablespoon of orange juice. With mixer on low, combine till smooth; it may be necessary to add an additional tablespoon of orange juice till desired consistency is achieved.

Makes enough to frost 2 dozen rolls.

Mary Cokenour