A Cinnamon Roll With Zest

 Nothing beats a home made cinnamon bun.There's something soothing about sinking your teeth into yeast y roll, cinnamon and a big dollop of cream cheese icing. Yet it can be made more delicious with the  addtion of orange. This takes  those chewy pillows to a whole new level.

Baker extraordinaire and regular contributor Gebevieve Ko gave a recipe for a new kind of cinnamon bun in Wednesday's New York TImes Food section.Hers is different in many ways.it doesn't require the usual yeast to make the dough rise.There is baking powder to give them an instant puffy  lift along with cream cheese.The cream cheese is not just for the icing.It,  along with butter and milk, gives the dough  a moist tenderness. Milk also helps the dough from drying out.This in itself is not  new recipe.On the website The Food Historian, Sarah Wassberg Johnson wrtes that the recipe has been  around since 1916.  The one big change which will be game changer is the addition of orange zest in the brown sugar and fresh orange juice in the icing. The last cuts that super sweetness along with giving the icing that lovely apricot sunset hue.The zest infused brown sugar cna also be used in the dough to enrich the citrussy flavor.Ms Ko's inspiration was from the now defunct Bogues Restaurant in Birmingham ,Alabama where  their main baker Ella Irby made them for a good chunk of the eatery's eighty-four yeears.

What kind of orange should be used? Ms. Ko dosesn't specify but many baking sites definitely recommend the navel ones. One can get you through this recipe. Making the orange sugar is easy.It's just zesting it over brown sugar.Gently rub the zest into the  sugar because the oil from the zest also soaks into it. Two tablespoons of it will be used for the dough while the rest goes for the filling. The dough is a mix of the dry ingredients first, flour baking powder and salt. The butter and the cream are smashed and rubbed into the flour with your fingers until fully incorporated. They should resemble crumbs. Add the milk at once and gently stir in with a fork. The dough should be frozen as you either butter a nine inch cake pan or iron skillet. The filling is easy Mix the cinnamon and cardamon into the orange sugar and heavily sprinkled onto the rolled out doughThe dough should be sticky when rolled out. It's then  cut into buns with a serrated knife. Bake ar 375 degrees Farenheit for twenty five to thirty minutes. You can make this glaze while the rolls bake.It's a mix of confectioner's sugar , cream cheese , orange zest and fresh orange juice. Let the buns cools off for five minutes then pour  the glaze over them.

A cold winter's day requires a cinnamon bun. Add some sunshine and a whiff of sunnier climes by  adding in some orange zest and juice into the recipe. It makes for a tasty spin on a delicious classic.