March 29, 2018
April Recipe of the Month: Easter Orange Roll Nest
By MPrice
Orange Roll Dough
2 C water- lukewarm
1 TBSP active dry yeast
1/2 c Orange Juice
2 oranges zested
1/2 c sugar
1/4 lbs butter- melted
1/4 lbs sour cream
2 large eggs
2.5 lbs flour
1/2 TBSP salt
Decoration
1 c coconut
food coloring
1/4 c milk
2 c powder sugar
Equipment:
Mixer with Dough Hook
10" round pan- preferably a spring form pan
cooling rack
Dough: In your mixer bowl, attach your dough hook, then add lukewarm water- 99-102 degrees- add yeast, sugar and orange zest. Let rest until bubbles appear. Meanwhile melt butter, add sour cream and Orange Juice. stir till mixed completely. Add eggs to butter mixture, then slowly pour butter mixture to your yeast mixture. Add flour and salt to mixing bowl and beat until mixture comes together and begins to pull away from the walls of your bowl.
Shaping and Baking: Remove from bowl and divide into 5 equal pieces. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for an hour or till doubled in size.
Lightly flour your surface, Using a rolling pin and keeping the dough as round as possible, roll the first piece of dough to be about 12" in diameter. Spray your 10" round cake pan and place the the 12" piece of dough in the bottom of your pan. Should come ups the sides a bit.
Take the next piece of dough and using your hands roll into a snake like strand that is about 36" long. This will be very skinny. Repeat with 2 more pieces of dough.
Once you have your 3 pieces of dough all to 36" in length you are going to braid them together. Just like braiding hair. Pinch the ends together, then lay the braid into your 10" round pan around the edge of the pan. This will be your nest. Cover your 10" pan with plastic wrap and let rest for an hour or until doubled in size. Place in oven at 325 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on the top.
Meanwhile, What about that last piece of dough?? take the last piece of dough and cut it into 8-10 pieces. These will be your eggs for the center of the nest. Each piece should be about 2oz. Roll them on the counter to smooth out the top and place them on a sheet pan and back at 325 for 12-16 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let cool.
Assembly and decoration: take your 1 cups of coconut and add green food coloring to it- 3-10 drops depending on how dark you want it. Mix until evenly coated.
In 3 small bowls mix 1/2c of powdered sugar and 1TBSP of milk. This should be very runny, like a glaze. Add more milk or powdered sugar to achieve this. Dye each bowl a different color- your favorite easter colors! I usually do pink, yellow and blue, using 3-5 drops of dye for each bowl.
Once your eggs have cooled, place on cooling rack and drip the colored glaze over the top and let it evenly coat the eggs. Let dry while you finish your nest.
Once your nest is out of the oven, let cool for about 10 minutes and the pop it out of its pan. Place on cake stand or serving platter. then use about 1/2c of green coconut in the bottom of the ring, then take your eggs and nestle them in to your ring. You will be able to fit about 3 in the nest at a time. Take your remaining coconut and sprinkle over the top of the whole nest to make it look really festive!