Thursday, March 19, 2015

Sweet Orange Bunny Bread!

"Count your blessings, name them one by one...
Count your many blessings see what God has done!" 

I love this old hymn. Its simple thought and verses help keep me on the bright side when I start to get a little "Eeyore-ish" about life. I really thought life was supposed to get less complicated as I got older, but I'm finding that I was quite mistaken about that! What I'm NOT mistaken about is the importance of FOCUS and FAITH at this stage of the game. When I start playing the "I don't; I can't; It'll never...." video in my mind, I know it's time to have my mind's eye focus somewhere else.....on the things that are right with my world. And then I realize those "things" are numerous. Faith then partners with Focus. Not only do I move my focus to what's right in my world, but Faith stretches my focus beyond today, and shows me a future to look forward to! Wow.....silly me for being such an Eeyore at times! It's been one of those weeks that I've had to remind myself of these things more often than I care to admit, but once I've re-focused, I sure enjoy the view!

This year's bunnies
Here's a pic of a couple of the "blessings" I count, holding some of the Easter Bunny Bread they made last year. I tweaked it a bit this year, making a sweeter dough and adding a tangy orange glaze, along with a white bunny tail! I took some over to them today for their seal of approval on the new recipe. When I dropped back later, the plate was empty .....that's enough approval for me! I think you'll give these Easter rolls the seal of approval too!

Sweet Orange-Glazed Bunny Buns!

Dough: 
1 Tbsp/packet Red Star Platinum yeast
1 Cup warm water
¼ Cup sugar
2 ¾ Cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Buttermilk powder (not necessary, but adds some nice texture to the dough)
2 Tbsp. softened butter
1-2 tsp. freshly grated orange rind

Glaze:
½ Cup powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsp. orange juice

Place warm water and yeast in EZ DOH bucket and stir to dissolve yeast. Let rest 1 minute. Add one cup of flour, then additional dough ingredients. EZ DOH-it for 2-3 minutes, or until dough is smooth and soft and all ingredients are incorporated. Remove dough from bucket, spray bucket with cooking spray, “smooth” dough and replace in bucket. Cover and let rise until doubled.
Preheat oven to 375. Punch dough down and divide into 12 equal portions (If you want larger bunnies, you can divide it into 8 portions) . Roll out each piece into a 12” rope. Pinch a small piece of the rope off.  Form a “U” with the remainder of it . Twist the two “legs” of the U at the top (one twist), leaving a small open space at the bottom. Roll the tiny piece into a ball and insert it here. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat with each portion. Let rise briefly, 10-15 minutes. Bake rolls for 10-15 minutes, until golden. While baking, mix together the glaze ingredients. The glaze should be a rather thin consistency. After removing the rolls from the oven, immediately brush on the glaze. Thicken any remaining glaze with a small additional amount of powdered sugar. Place a dot of this thickened glaze on the bunnies’ tails, then carefully distribute the white sprinkles onto the dot, forming the bunny tail.
Just a thought: I forgot I had some “orange emulsion”, a type of flavoring/extract. That might have tasted REALLY good in the dough or the glaze….. 



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