Almost Birmingham's THE Club Orange Luncheon Rolls

If you have ever been to The Club (pronounced THE Club, not The CLUB) in Birmingham, Alabama at lunch, you've probably encountered an absolutely phenomenal little orange roll in the bread basket. My Daddy took us there for years, and those rolls made me crazy. When I was little I remember trying to hide them in my lap so I could sneak extra home.

I screwed up more variations of these rolls than I could remember before I ran across a recipe for a sour cream based yeast roll. Redemption! The other two elements eluded me a while longer, then I broke the coconut code. Muhahahaha! I'm an evil culinary genius!!!!

I wanted to blog these rolls, and I thought I'd include a picture of The Club in the blog. Well danged if the recipe for the real thing isn't all over the daggone place. It's even been in the Birmingham News. For some reason that made me furious - although I will say I started trying to copycat these well before I could search online for everything under the sun. And I never found a picture of The Club I liked.

These are not actually a perfect imitation. Mine are just a bit sweeter, and more orange intense. Although I never thought I'd say it - I like mine better. I've also discovered several variations in the flavor base along the way that take the same basic dough, and go all over with flavor combination. I'll get those up next - 'cause 24 of these last about 13.267 seconds.

2 1/2 Tbl yeast - approximately 1 envelope
1/3 cup warm water
1 stick butter, melted and divided
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar, divided
2 eggs
1 pinch salt
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup flaked coconut
2 Tbl grated orange rind, divided
Glaze
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 Tbs grated orange rind
2 Tbs orange juice

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, put the yeast and warm water. Stir to combine and allow yeast to proof (sit) for a couple of minutes. Add 5 Tbl of the melted butter, sour cream, 1/2 cup of the sugar, eggs and salt. Add flour and mix well - you'll have a very soft dough - it'll be a little sticky.
2. Oil the inside of a large mixing bowl. Turn the dough out into this bowl, turning to oil all of it. Set it in a warm place, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise. Give it about an 1.5 to 2 hours - it will not quite double in size.
3. When dough has doubled, mix together remaining butter, sugar and orange zest. Pulse coconut in the bowl of a food processor until fine. You don't have to, but I think the texture is much nicer. Add coconut to the sugar and butter and mix well.
4. Preheat oven to 275F. Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 8-10 times until very smooth. Divide into four equal portions. Roll out each section until very thin, trying to keep as much to a rectangle as possible. Dough should be a lovely soft stretchy texture. When about 1/4 of an inch thick, spread a thin layer of the sugar/coconut mixture evenly over the surface.
5. Starting at one shorter end, roll the dough up jelly-roll style. Cut each roll into 1 inch pieces. Place on a greased cookie sheet, or on a Silpat. Allow to rest for about 15 minutes. I actually got distracted (imagine that!) and mine sat there about 40 minutes this last time. Didn't matter.
   
6.  Bake rolls for about 20 minutes. You only want the faintest hint of golden - this is not a time when golden brown means yummy. These are very light and delicate.
7. Let rolls cool for just a couple of minutes, then drizzle with the glaze. They're great cold, but warm they are heavenly.