There's a Debate Behind the History of This Orange Roll Recipe
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One of the South’s most delicious sweet roll recipes hails from Alabama, but where in the state is debated.
The buttery coiled rolls with intense orange flavor may have been first created by Ewing Steele, the chef of Vestavia Gardens in Birmingham, who sprinkled her orange roll fairy dust throughout the private clubs and restaurants where she worked all over the Magic City.
The restaurant itself had a colorful history. It was once the home of former Birmingham mayor and Renaissance man George Ward, who built it at the top of Shades Mountain to resemble a Roman temple in the 1920s and named it after Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth. It became the social gathering spot of the rich and famous.
Following Ward’s death, his family sold it to developer Charles Byrd, who created the first Birmingham subdivision in the hills surrounding it. Byrd refurbished the “temple” as a tourist attraction in 1949, with a fancy restaurant called Vestavia Gardens.
But many credit All Steak restaurant in Cullman, about 45 minutes north of the city, with the roll’s origin. All Steak opened in the late 1930s, but the orange roll didn’t appear on the menu until the 1960s.
Regardless of debates about origin, if you want the best orange rolls to serve at breakfast or brunch or anytime, you need to make them from Ewing Steele’s recipe.
Ewing Steele was “the final word in food and hospitality for over twenty-five years in Birmingham,” according to the 2013 book Lenten Lunches: recipes from the Cathedral Church of the Advent. Ewing Frances Hulsey was born in Birmingham in 1895. When she was twenty, she married Sears Childers Steele. After her son was born and her husband was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the young family moved to the drier climate of the West. Ewing and her fourteen-year-old son came back home after her husband died.
Following in the footsteps of her mother, a well-respected caterer and cook in the city, Steele became the catering manager at Birmingham Country Club and then at Fort McClellan Army base in Anniston during World War II, where she worked with German POWs in the kitchen.
After the war, she made three trips to Germany to reconnect with them. She opened Vestavia Gardens restaurant and later worked at the Mountain Brook Club, the Noel Hotel in Nashville, and The Club, a Birmingham restaurant that still bakes her roll recipe to this day.
In 1973 she published a cookbook, Secrets of Cooking, as a fundraiser for the Cathedral Church of the Advent, where she was a longtime parishioner, trimming down her much- loved “serves 100” recipes for home use. That book lives on in a 2013 edition.
Yields: 2 dozen
Prep Time: 35 mins
Total Time: 3 hours 5 mins
Ingredients
For dough:
2 c.
whole milk
1/2 c.
vegetable shortening
1/2 c.
granulated sugar
1 3/4 tsp.
dry yeast
4 c.
all-purpose flour, plus 4 to 5 tablespoons to pull the dough together and shape the dough
1 tsp.
baking soda
1 tsp.
baking powder
1 tsp.
salt
1
large egg
1/2 c.
(1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, for brushing the pan and dough
For filling:
1/3 c.
granulated sugar
1 tbsp.
grated orange zest (from 2 small oranges or tangerines)
For icing
1 c.
confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt
3 tbsp.
fresh orange juice
Directions
Make the dough: Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat over medium until bubbles form around the edges of the pan and the milk scalds, 3 to 4 minutes.
Place the shortening and sugar in the large bowl of a stand mixer and cut into coarse pieces with two dinner knives. Pour the hot milk over and stir until the shortening melts. When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm (115ºF to 120ºF on an instant-read thermometer), whisk in the yeast.
Whisk together the 4 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the egg to the yeast mixture and beat until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer to medium and beat until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl but is still sticky, 4 to 5 minutes. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons more flour if necessary to pull the dough together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator overnight. Or cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot to double, about 1½ hours.
When you’re ready to bake, punch down the dough. Scatter the remaining 2 tablespoons flour on a surface and turn the dough out onto the flour. With floured hands, press it out into a long rectangle. Flip the dough so it doesn’t stick to the counter. With a floured rolling pin, roll it into a rectangle that is about 24 inches long and 10 to 12 inches wide.
Brush two 12-cup muffin pans with a little of the melted butter. Brush the dough with the remaining melted butter.
Make the filling: Toss the sugar and orange zest together in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over the top. Beginning with the long side, roll the dough into a jellyroll and, with a floured serrated knife, cut into 1-inch slices. Carefully place each slice cut side up into a muffin cup. Drape the pans with a kitchen towel and let the rolls rise until doubled, 40 to 45 minutes. (If the dough is cold, it might take 1 hour.)
Heat the oven to 350ºF, with a rack in the middle.
Bake the rolls until they are lightly golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool slightly while you make the icing.
Make the icing: Place the confectioners’ sugar and salt in a small bowl. Whisk in the orange juice until smooth. Drizzle the icing over the top of the warm rolls still in the pans. Let cool for 20 minutes, then serve. Or let cool completely, wrap in foil, and freeze.
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