My mom finally got tired of me stealing borrowing her Cooking Light magazines every time I came over to her house, so she bought me my own subscription a few months back. (Thanks, Mom!) I’m not sure that was the right lesson to teach me, but I’m enjoying the magazine. I’m not so convinced of the “Light” part of many of their recipes, though that’s partly my own fault since I tend to ignore the “reduced-fat” or “fat-free” components to many of their ingredients. But I enjoy the magazine because it gives me new ideas each month and helps keep me out of a rut.

This time, I adapted their recipe for Cardamon-Lime Sweet Rolls into these Lemon Ginger Sweet Rolls. If you believe, as I do, that sweet rolls can only appropriately be eaten fresh for breakfast (unless, of course, there are leftovers), then they do require a bit of advanced planning, since the yeast dough has to rise for a couple hours. But they last just fine ovenight in the fridge after the second rise, and can be popped in the oven the next morning. Makes for a nice twist from the cinnamon rolls from a can we have every now and then (though I’ll admit that, in my opinion, Pillsbury makes a pretty mean sweet roll, too!).

Lemon Ginger Sweet Rolls
Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients:
Dough:
1 package dry yeast
1/4 c warm water
1/2 c (reduced fat) sour cream
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/4 c butter, melted
1 t vanilla extract
3/4 t salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 c flour, plus some extra
Cooking spray

Filling:
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1 T lemon zest
1/2 t ground ginger
2 T melted butter

Glaze:
1 c powdered sugar
3 T fresh lemon juice

Instructions:
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand 5 minutes to proof. Combine sour cream and next 5 dough ingredients (through egg); stir to combine. Add yeast mixture to sour cream mixture. Stir in 2 c flour. Knead dough about 8 minutes. Add extra flour as necessary so dough is tacky but doesn’t stick to hands so much it can’t be kneaded. I think I added about 1/2 c more. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise in a warm place about an hour, until doubled in size. (In the oven with the light on is a great place to let dough rise. I also usually put a cup full of hot water in there too. I think the moisture is also supposed to help it rise faster.)

Combine all filling ingredients except the butter. Once dough has risen, divide it in half. Roll one half into a 12″x10″ rectangle. Brush with 1 T of butter. Sprinkle with half the filling. Roll up the filling in the dough and seal the long seam. Cut the roll into 1″ slices and place in a 13″x9″ baking pan coated with cooking spray. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Let rise another 30 minutes, until doubled in size again. The dough can now be covered and refrigerated overnight if you don’t get up early enough to let dough rise 2 hours before breakfast. (And really, who does?!)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake, uncovered, for about 25 minutes, until lightly browned. While they bake, prepare glaze: stir together powdered sugar and juice. After they come out of the oven, let the rolls cool about 5 minutes before drizzling the glaze over them.

Best enjoyed warm!

Tags: Breakfast, brunch, ginger, lemon

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.