My story in recipes: Bunny Rolls

Can you tell what this roll is supposed to resemble? I'm pretty sure that it was SUPPOSED to be a bunny but I think I need a little work on my dough shaping techniques. My bunny rolls didn't exactly turn out like I had seen them on budgetgourmetmom.com but I certainly had fun trying to recreate her whimsical Easter rolls.

I was intrigued not only by the shape of these fun little rolls but also by the ingredients. I had never put allspice and orange peel into a roll dough before and I wondered how that would translate into bread. Turns out - budgetgourmetmom knows exactly what she's talking about because these little rolls were really delicious. The aroma that was lofting out of my oven as these little bunnies were baking was almost too much to handle. I even toyed with not brushing on the orange glaze when they came out of the oven because they looked plenty decadent hot out of the oven. My sweet tooth got the best of me though and I had Ben brush on a simple orange glaze to finish them off which took these rolls from good to fabulous. (Let's just say that there were at least 2 bunny rolls that never even made it to the Easter table because I had to "sample" them first.)

Orange Bunny Rolls

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
3/4 tsp ground allspice
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tblsp finely shredded orange peel
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups sifted powder sugar

In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, and cardamom. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, the butter, the 1/3 cup sugar, and salt just until warm (120 degree F to 130 degree F) and butter almost melts.

Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in orange or lime peel, orange or lime juice, and as much of remaining flour as you can.

Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl; turn once.

Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour).

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half.

Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
Lightly grease two cookie sheets. Divide each portion of this dough to 6 pieces and roll each piece into a rope about 12 inches long.

On one of the lightly greased cookie sheets, overlap one end of strip over the other to form a loop; bring the end that's underneath up over the top end, letting one end extend on each side to make ears. Pat tips of ears to shape in point. Make 5 bunnies out of each half. Divide remaining dough into 5 pieces and shape into a ball for tails.

After shaping, cover and let rise until nearly double (30 to 45 minutes).

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degree F. Bake bunnies for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

In a small bowl combine 1-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel. For Orange Icing, stir in enough orange juice (2 to 3 tablespoons) to make of drizzling consistency.

Frost while warm with Orange glaze.