I don’t flip over scones.  I also don’t flip over biscuits.  Unless they’re super flaky, or light and fluffy, I usually take a pass.  They’re usually too dry, crumbly and pasty for me.  I’m not a tea drinker - nor am I a milk dipper, so when I eat a scone or biscuit, I feel like someone painted my tongue with kindergarten paste as I try to swallow it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate them..and I’ve had some really great biscuits in Texas and down south (east coast), especially biscuits smothered in amazing gravies, or slathered with my friend’s late step grandmother’s amazing pear preserves, in Texas (Oh, how I wish I had the recipe for HER pear preserves), but for the most part, I don’t crave them, and would rather have a warm slice or hunk of home-baked savory or sweet bread in its place.  As for scones (scones – biscuits, same thing really, though I always see scones as the biscuit dough you add stuff to and cut into triangles), unless they’re loaded with gooey cheese, or anything that detracts from the crumbly, pasty feel, I usually pass, unless I have a ‘bready‘ carb craving and a scone is pretty much my only choice.

All in all, it’s a texture thing, not a flavor thing.

A few years ago I actually found a biscuit recipe I loved.  They’re called Tall and Fluffy biscuits, and they were created by the crazy, obsessive testers at Cook’s Illustrated.  I mean ‘crazy and obsessive’ in a good way, because they will futz with a recipe dozens of times, or more, to get it perfect.  I think I can say these are probably the most perfect biscuits I’ve ever had, as far as texture goes.  Light and fluffy, no pasty palate feel, and the best part..super easy, no dough cutting involved, so no biscuit scraps that don’t rise as well as the first ones cut.  This recipe gives you a thick, wet dough that you scoop with a 1/4 cup measure for each biscuit (like a drop biscuit), then drop into flour and  roll lightly, so you can round them up a bit without a mess, before placing each one in a 9-inch round cake pan.  Brushed with butter and baked..I can’t even begin to tell you how great they are.  I could easily eat a pan of these all.by.myself. – and they don’t need loads of butter or amazing pear preserves.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

So, my friend Audax is hosting this month, and I really wanted to use the exact recipe he came up with/provided since 1) They look so high and fluffy, and 2) He linked a great video of his sister making them, which was fun to watch.  BUT, I couldn’t risk a batch of scones sitting around until they turned to rocks, then getting chucked in the trash after reaching the point of stale where they could be used as hockey pucks.  Fortunately, the Cook’s Illustrated recipe is similar to his recipe plus another where the scones are baked together touching, in a circle, called a ’touch of grace’,  The only difference is, the Cook’s Illustrated recipe uses much more liquid and baking powder.  He told me I could use the Cook’s Illustrated recipe because it was so similar.  Thank you, Aud!

As you can tell by the title, I put a twist on them.  I had many requests for a gooey cinnamon roll like biscuit. I’ve seen lots of recipes for cinnamon roll scones and biscuits, but they mostly incorporate just cinnamon and sugar, which is delicious, but I wanted GOO, just like the GOO in the giant cinnamon rolls you get at the malls – called CINNA plus rhymes with Tron.  I wanted these biscuits to have swirls or ribbons of inner goo like a fresh out of the oven baked CINNATRON bun.  I know they use dark brown sugar, butter and a special cinnamon hand ground just for them by the Zukicacalukichang tribes of the Vietnamese jungles, using rocks.  Umm, great..but I think Cassia or Ceylon will do, thank you.

First I tried folding the cinnamon goo lightly into the batter with the buttermilk, so I wouldn’t overwork it.  The goo didn’t swirl or ribbon, just blended in fully, which was surprising since it was so thick.  They tasted great, but I wanted strips of goo, like CINNATRON buns.

Second try, once the dough balls were nestled in their comfy circle, I poked three to four holes with the floured end of a wooden spoon into each ball of dough, then piped the goo into the holes using a snipped ziplock bag.  It worked – BUT, it would have worked a lot better had I used a squeeze bottle or bag with a small, plain pastry tip.  I would have been able to get the goo in deeper, and I wouldn’t have ended up with cinnamon goo blotches all over the tops of the biscuits, as you see in the above collage.  This dough is way too soft for a snipped ziplock to excavate and fill.  I didn’t go for a third try – didn’t need to – I know for sure a squeeze bottle or pastry tip will work great.

I know I say this all the time – but these are fantastic.  A gooey cinnamon roll in an easy to make pull apart biscuit.  You can also use the same technique on any firm dough biscuit of your choice.  Poke holes, fill with cinnamon goo..brush with melted butter. sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, bake and drizzle or glob with cream cheese frosting glaze.  Mine may not be pretty, due to being in testing mode, but I’m sure yours will, and they’re SO (Yes, I’m going to use the word that’s been blackballed in the food blogosphere) DELICIOUS!

Since you have to subscribe to see the recipe for the biscuits at Cook’s Illustrated, an online search showed me that frankly, people don’t give a damn.  The recipe is all over the place!

Cinnamon Goo Biscuits with Cream Cheese Frosting Glaze
Makes 9 biscuits

One 9-inch pan Cook’s Illustrated  Tall and Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits, up to the part right before they’re brushed with melted butter and baked

Cinnamon Goo Filling
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting Glaze
slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction
4 ounces cream cheese (half a package), softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2-5 tablespoons of milk, depending on how thick or thin you want it.

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Make Cinnamon Goo.  Melt the butter over low heat in a medium saucepan,  Stir in the sugars and cook until dissolved.  It will separate and look ruined, but don’t worry, take off the heat and stir in the heavy cream until smooth.  Stir in cinnamon.  This will make more than you need for one pan IF you don’t use a snipped ziplock bag (Again, look at it all over the tops of the biscuits in the collage - if done properly, you could probably make another pan of biscuits with whatever is left over).  Pour into a squeeze bottle or disposable plastic pastry bag with a small, plain tip inserted.  You can also insert the pastry tip into a snipped ziplock bag. Set aside.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

2.  Dip the end of a wooden spoon in flour (about 1/8 to 1/4-inch diameter).  Poke three to four holes, as deep as you can without hitting the bottom, in each ball of dough.  Keep cleaning off and flouring the wooden spoon when it starts to stick in the balls of dough, until all dough balls are poked.

3.  Pipe or squeeze cinnamon goo into each hole, almost to the top.

4. Brush with biscuits with melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake at 500 degrees F for 5 minutes.  Turn down oven to 450 degrees F and bake for another 15 minutes, until well-risen and golden brown.

5.  While biscuits are baking, make cream cheese frosting glaze.  Beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth – add vanilla extract and salt.  Slowly add confectioner’s sugar until uniform, then drizzle in the milk until you reach your desired consistency.  I kept mine thick – only used a little over 2 tablespoons.

6.  Remove biscuits from oven, and let cool about 5 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.  Turn pan over so the connected biscuits fall onto the rack.  Pull apart and turn them over – let cool a bit.

7.  Drizzle or glob (I did both) cream cheese glaze frosting over the warm biscuits.  Sprinkle glaze with a bit of cinnamon sugar, if desired.  Enjoy them while they last!

If you have some time on your hands, please check out my fellow Daring Baker’s scones and/or biscuits by clicking on the links to their blogs, HERE.  To get Audax’s fantastic, fool-proof recipe for Aussie scones (aka US biscuits), plus a wealth of information about the ingredients, methods etc..click HERE.

Finally, I want to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Jamie from Life’s a Feast!  Hop on over to her beautiful and ‘delicious’ (Ooops, I used the D word again!) blog to wish her a Happy Birthday too!

I’m submitting these Cinnamon Goo Biscuits with Cream Cheese Frosting Glaze to Yeastspotting, a weekly bread baking showcase hosted by the talented Susan of Wild Yeast

When I was in High School, I had a thing for bad boys.  Not boys who did bad things, but boys who probably weren’t going to become doctors or lawyers, or even attend college for that matter.  Not dumb, just tough, hard working, strong boys – the kind that scared your parents just a little bit god forbid we marry one.  Bad boys like a young Matt Dillon, Jared Leto as Jordan Catalano on My So -Called Life etc – you get the gist.

I lived in a pretty affluent town, where most of the residents had loads of money, old and new, as did the other town that used our High School because they didn’t have a High School – probably because it was even more affluent than our town and didn’t want some old High School decreasing the palatial estate property values.

Most of the guys were clean-cut and super-duper spoiled.  Even the ones who ‘looked’ like bad boys, were wealthier than the clean-cut guys and the Phish/Deadhead stoners were even wealthier than the rich guys who looked like bad boys.  I’m not saying there weren’t some great guys in the bunch, I just wasn’t feeling ‘it’ on a romance scale.

I guess there were just too many of them, and after a while, any attraction I had, poofed as I grew up.  It was the same old same old – Stepford boys who received brand new porsches and corvettes the minute they got their learner’s permits – not driver’s licenses, learner permits!  Some celeb’s kids were dropped off in limo’s.  Really vulgar displays of wealth at times.

I was the opposite of a gold digger.  The blue-collar cuties who had to actually work for extra spending money, with a natural toughness/grittiness and sexy, deep voices, made me weak in the knees.  The type of guy who would always defend your honor and not hide under a table when a fight broke out at a party (Yes, one of the clean cuts I dated did just that).  Ladies, have we all not had at least one moment like THIS, in some form, sans the dyslexic talk?

 Turn this upside down……..

Well, I finally found my ultimate bad boy, or rather, he found me.  It was the summer of my 15th year (going on 16) of life, at the Jersey Shore, before the show of the same name completely bastardized it and turned it into something that it was the polar opposite of when I was a teen.  Back then, it was all about the beach, the boardwalk, beach parties and rock music- not the guidos/guidettes, tanning salons (they’ve got the beach as their front or back yard, for chrissake) and discos you see on TV. There were no Snooki’s in my Seaside.  In fact, the only time I saw guidos and guidettes, was on Sundays when they would crowd the boardwalk, lasers of sun reflecting off their gold chains, blinding you, as they sauntered down the boardwalk in their guinea tee’s, making all kinds of lewd remarks to us. Eating an ice cream cone was grounds for;

“Oh man, I wish I was dat ice cream cone…come mere, baby…tawk ta me!”

It was only one day a week, and everyone has a right to enjoy the shore, so no big deal.  I probably wouldn’t enjoy it now, if it’s like that 7 days a week.  Since the TV show started airing, Seaside Heights is a sticky fly trap for them.

So,  I finally met my ‘dream guy’.

 …….and you get this

It was an uncharachteristically chilly night for August, so I had an oversized jean jacket over my thin, lacy white mini skirt and top, my arms wrapping it around me like a straitjacket.  My friend and I were on the Casino Pier watching some hunky guy climb to the top of a pirate ship ride to fix it, with shock and awe.  She was scoping him out (blue-collar boys didn’t have the luxury of free summer vacations like we did…they had to work to play).  Suddenly, she nudged me hard in the ribs and whispered..

“That really hot guy that works on the bumper cars is trying to get your attention…OMG, Lisa..LOOK!”

I had seen this guy a few nights before and almost melted into a puddle of goo, but there were too many girls standing around trying to get his attention, and frankly, I was way too young and shy to even think of joining the fray of adoration.

I turned my head, and there he was, signing to me by rubbing his arms and mouthing ‘Are you cold?”.  I nodded ‘Yes’.  He gave me a huge smile, then shouted out,

“Come over here, it’s warmer”

I don’t even remember how I got there.  I couldn’t feel my feet, much less my legs, but soon I was standing before him.  Ironically, ‘Walking on the Moon’ by the Police was the song that was playing on the classic rock station he had blasting for the ride.  I was most certainly walking on the moon, not to mention over the moon.  I’d never felt this in my entire, albeit brief, life.  Sure, I’d dated, I’d had crushes, but no one had ever lifted my body and soul off the earth like this.  The colorful lights around me turned into a kaleidoscope of blur, and his beautiful face and blue blue eyes were the only thing in focus.  Then the voice – deep, tough and sexy.

“Feeling warmer?  What’s your name?”

I’m pretty sure I said “Lisa”. but my friend repeated it, so it probably wasn’t very audible.

After the usual “Where are you froms…where are you staying…how long are you here for”..questions…he asked how old I was.  I gained some sense of clarity (aka landed on earth) for a moment, and asked him the same before I gave him my answer.

“18…so, how about you?”

When you’re a teenager. a 3 year age difference is akin to a 50-year-old man dating a 25-year-old woman.  A 15-year-old would be a ‘kid’ to him.

“I’m..I’m…17″

I hated myself, but I never wanted someone so much in my life at that moment.

He asked me if I wanted to do something when he got off work.  YES YESS YESSS I screamed inwardly, but I kept it as cool as I could outwardly.

“Sure”

Oh, and as luck would have it..the hunky guy my friend was checking out, who bravely climbed the ‘what seemed to be’ thousand foot tall ride, as fast as a monkey up a tree,..was also 18, and his good friend.  So, he would be there too.  It was all too perfect.

Problem was…we were 15, we had a curfew,  and that curfew was midnight, but since it was a weekday, only my mother was at the house we rented, since my father only came down on weekends due to work.  She was easy to sneak out on, we’d been doing it since we got there a few days before.

He asked me to meet him by the carousel around midnight.  My friend and I decided to go home early, so my mother would fall asleep early, giving us plenty of time to sneak out and be there at midnight.

I was still floating, walking on the moon, not feeling my feet as we hurried down the boardwalk to meet them.  I’d never felt so alive, the salt air blowing my hair every which way, the sound of crashing waves in the dark night, the faint smell of popcorn and cotton candy getting closer with each step, the ‘perfect’ guy waiting for me.  As the lights got brighter and the music louder, I looked up, and there he was..his face breaking out in a huge smile.

“Hi, I’m so glad you showed”,  he said in that tough, sexy Matt Dillonesque voice that somehow didn’t completely jibe with his amazing face (sorta like Matt Dillon, I guess), but that’s exactly how I liked my fantasy  ’bad boys’.  I was again melting into a puddle of goo.  Where are my legs?  I can’t feel them!  Oh, there they are – they just turned into JELL-O sticks.

We couldn’t stop staring at each other as my friend and hunky monkey man chatted away, shy, fleeting glances from my end - more direct, confident ones from his.

This is where I stop because speaking of ‘bad boys’, I’ve got some sticky buns that need a little attention here.  Part two coming on the 27th. – I promise..and it gets better..with a twist!

So what happens if you take a brioche recipe by Nancy Silverton, and sticky bun inspiration from Joanne Chang of the Flour Bakery and add orange and chocolate?  You get these sticky buns!

I call them my ‘If Nancy Silverton and Joanne Chang’s sticky buns had a baby with orange and chocolate, STICKY BUNS’.

I love Nancy Silverton’s brioche recipe..I love Joanne Chang’s sticky buns.  The goo is amazing in Joanne’s recipe – but a little too sweet for me, so I took the amount of sugar down a bit, added orange zest, orange supremes and substituted freshly squeezed orange juice for the water.  The filling is mine.  Why not add chocolate to a sticky bun filling?  This is what makes them bad boys, in relation to this ‘bad boy’ theme I’ve got going here.  One thing I did, via Nancy Silverton’s sticky bun recipe, was also add chopped pecans to the filling.

Big mistake.

Since I use 1 cup of chopped and whole pecans in each pan of the goo, the pecans in the filling were nutty overkill.  I omitted them from the filling in my second roll of sticky buns, and as you can see in the cross-section photo above, pure brown sugar, chocolatey, orange goodness.

The best part about these outside of the chocolate?  The orange supremes caramelize so perfectly, they’re like soft orange candy.

Orange Chocolate Toasted Pecan Sticky Buns
Makes two 9-inch round pans – 14 sticky buns, if using whole batch of brioche

The directions for rolling, filling, and cutting the buns are from Nancy Silverton’s recipe, with my additions and subtractions.

One batch Nancy Silverton’s Brioche Dough

Filling – this is the amount for one pan of 7 sticky buns using half the dough – make another batch for the other half of the brioche dough if making two pans.  If not, make something else with the other half of the brioche dough or freeze it for later use.
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup grated milk or dark chocolate

Gooey Topping
Adapted from Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery, with my revisions
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks), unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 to 2 teaspoons orange zest
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Supremes from 4 navel oranges, divided – How to supreme an orange
2 cups toasted whole pecans, half of them chopped, divided (1 cup for each pan)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Divide dough in half; keep one half covered and chilled while working with the other. On a floured work surface, roll dough into a 11 inch wide, 13 inch long, and 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Dot surface evenly with half the softened butter and fold dough in thirds. Turn it so the closed fold is on the left and roll out again, without rolling over the edges. Fold dough in thirds again, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 30 minutes. Repeat rolling, folding, and chilling with second piece of dough and remaining butter. (This is what I love about Nancy’s brioche for sticky buns, the additional butter with turns)

2. Rub orange zest into sugars until fragrant, then stir in cinnamon; set aside. Make another batch of the sugar, cinnamon and zest mixture  in a separate bowl and also set aside. Have two separate bowls, each containing 2/3 cup grated chocolate, ready.

3. Remove first piece of dough from refrigerator and roll into an 11 inch wide, 13 inch long, and 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Paint surface with beaten egg. Leaving top quarter of dough bare, sprinkle one bowl of the cinnamon, orange sugars over the dough, spreading it lightly with your fingers. Top with the 2/3 cup of grated chocolate; spread with fingers to distribute evenly. Use a rolling-pin to lightly press the filling into the dough. Starting from the short side, roll into a log and pinch the seam to seal.

4. Make the gooey topping.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, to combine until uniform.  If it separates, that’s ok, keep stirring until it comes together somewhat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the honey, cream, orange juice, orange zest and salt. Strain to remove any undissolved lumps of brown sugar. Let cool to room temperature.

5. Wrap log in plastic and freeze until firm. Repeat with second piece of dough. While logs are chilling, lightly butter two 9-inch cake pans and divide the gooey topping evenly between them. Top each pan of gooey topping with half the orange supremes, and 1 cup toasted whole and chopped pecans.

6. Remove a log from freezer and trim ends if ragged. Slice log into seven 1 1/2-inch slices with a serrated knife. Lay each slice flat, flatten slightly, and round the sides. Place rounded buns in a circle with the last one in the center; seams of buns should face outside of pan.

7. Repeat with second log. Let rest, uncovered, for 2 hours, until slices touch. Arrange oven racks so one rack is in the middle and the other just below, and preheat to 350°F. Put pans on middle rack and put a foil-lined jelly-roll pan underneath to catch drips. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Invert immediately on serving dish – one that’s big enough to catch any extra gooey topping that drips down the sides.

8. Use any extra goo on the bottom of pan or plate you turned buns over on, to drizzle over individual buns.

Finally, did you know that sticky buns originated in Germany and and are known as ‘Schnecken’?  They were brought to Pennsylvania via German Settlers in the 18th century.  Germany is one of many countries I’d love to visit in Europe, so I’m submitting these to Bread Baking Day #46, in which the theme is baking a bread from a place we’d love to visit, hosted by Noor of Ya Salam Cooking.

I’m also submitting these sticky buns to Yeastspotting, a weekly bread baking showcase hosted by the uber talented Susan of Wild Yeast.

Don’t forget to tune in to Part Two of Bad Boy First Love, on the 27th!

I couldn’t find my big platter, so I stuffed everything onto this medium dish.  It really wasn’t served this way…lots more carrots and potatoes behind where this photo was taken.

The first thought that came to mind, was a chicken dish by Rick Bayless, basted with his red mole and agave syrup, that looks similar after being roasted.  He calls it Lacquered Chicken because it looks well, lacquered – not unlike a door, floor. or piece of furniture you all probably have at least one of in your homes.

Great, I’m comparing chicken to lacquered wood.  I bet that’s really juicing up your appetite!

Thing is, there are people who actually do use not food safe lacquer, stains and all kinds of liquid substances that will probably poison you.  These people are professional food stylists.  Ever see those pictures of perfectly, deep, golden brown turkey’s on a beautiful platter with lots of fixings, smack in the middle of a Thanksgiving table, not a burnt spot or flaw to be found?  Ever wonder why that look is almost impossible to achieve ?  Because, although it’s real fowl, you cannot eat it.

I usually truss before buttering or oiling, but I wanted to show the butter in every nook and cranny.  So, the wings got cut off in the buttering photo – and this was the only collage I liked.  Oh, well.  Just truss and reach in and underneath where the wings are folded and tied down, to distribute the butter.

I always found that to be a waste, especially with all the starving people in the world.  Take a perfectly edible turkey, roast it until it’s nice and brown, then slather it with wood stain and Minwax super gloss clear finishing lacquer to give it that lovely, burnished, flawless appearance.  YUM, pass the compound and sandpaper, please!

I guess they throw these turkeys and chickens in the garbage once they get the photo they need.  Change that ‘I guess’ to ‘I hope’.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, my chicken contains none of the above, and look at the lovely deep, glossy skin I got.  No, it’s not perfect, and you won’t see it on one of Norman Rockwell’s holiday tables, but it’s completely edible and delicious!

For this month’s love bloghop, the theme is citrus.  I had sweets on the brain, orange sticky buns, individual lemon charlottes, orange chocolate chunk cookies of some sort, etc.  After picking up an organic chicken a few nights ago my plans changed.  I was craving roast chicken, so why not an orange roast chicken?  I still had sweets on the brain, so the cookies were made, and the finished brioche dough for sticky buns is resting in the fridge as I type this.  I will be posting both, but once this chicken came out of the oven, it got the job – I knew this was going to be my #citruslove.

To start, I made an orange compound butter to massage into the chicken, on top and underneath the skin…mostly the breast because thighs and legs don’t take kindly to their skin being pulled away and stuffed.  They tear in protest if you go to deep..no matter how gently, so I usually do the best I can, which means the fat part of each drumstick ends up with a glob of butter, herbs or whatever, smack in the middle, which has to be massaged on the outside of the skin, to disseminate it throughout the rest of the fat, bulbous part.

SCREEEECH! Hold on!…Time to segue.  As I type this, feeling no flow whatsoever, completely disjointed, discombobulated - I’m realizing how boring all of the above is.  Last week I received an email from a reader…

“Why aren’t you as funny anymore?  You used to crack me up.  Are you ok?”

There’s too many answers to that question, and that was part of my response to her.  The rest “I promise it’ll return, just not in a great place, or flowing at the moment”, with a huge smiley emoticon at the end –> :)

Maybe I should just post my food photos with poetry, or songs?  I’ve heard some of the best of both have come during ‘down times’.  How about a Haiku?

Oh lacquered chicken
How beautiful thy skin is
I want your drumstick

OK, maybe not.

It’s really tough to get a good photo when everyone is begging to eat.

Back to the boring writing chicken.  I wanted to infuse a good amount of orange flavor into it since I’ve had plenty of orange roast chicken where you could barely taste the orange, so I layered – I layered like I do to my skin when I get out of the shower – body oil of scent I plan to wear, powder of scent I plan to wear, then the scent.  Orange compound butter inside out, oranges stuffed in the cavity, orange lacquer (I really love calling it that) – a few herbs, seasonings, and other stuff to contrast and enhance, and the orange flavor popped, but not in an overpowering way.  Not to mention, this chicken was juicier than Violet Beauregarde, pre – dejuicing room.

As I mentioned above…January is #citruslove month!  Please join in on the #citruslove fun by linking up any citrus recipe from the month of January 2012. Don’t forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to stop by the #citruslove (the hashtag) event on Twitter!

A shout out and thank you to my co-hosts for #citruslove;

A Little Bit of Everything, Astig Vegan, Baker Street, BigFatBaker, CafeTerraBlog, Cake Duchess, Cakeballs Cookies and More, Easily Good Eats, Elephant Eats, Food Wanderings, Georgiecakes, Hobby and More, Mike’s Baking, Mis Pensamientos, No One Likes Crumbley Cookies, Oh Cake,, Peaches and Donuts, Savoring Every Bite, Simply Reem, Smart Food and Fit, Soni’s Food for Thought, Teaspoon of Spice, That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!, The Art of Cooking Real Food, The More Than Occasional Baker, The Spicy RD, The Wimpy Vegetarian, Vegan Yack Attack, Vegetarian Mamma, You Made That?

Please visit their blogs to see all the delicious #citruslove they created!  OH, and of course - the linky!  I’ve been rather involved with the linky’s lately, huh?  Well, it’s just one click below to citrus porn!

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Orange Lacquered Roast Chicken

1 5 lb organic chicken
Orange Butter (recipe follows)
2 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs thyme
Cut up oranges (use the ones you squeezed for the juice, plenty of orange flavor left in them)
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
Orange Lacquer (recipe follows)

Orange Butter
1 stick (4oz) unsalted, room temperature butter
1 tablespoon grated orange zest

Orange Lacquer
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (about 6 to 8 navel or navel sized oranges.  Save the squeezed orange halves to stuff into cavity of chicken)
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 scant tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (regular sesame oil is fine)
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. Grate all the zest you will need in this recipe from your oranges, then split them in half and keep squeezing until you get 1 cup of juice.  Set aside zest and juice.

2. In a medium bowl..stir together the butter and one tablespoon of orange zest until creamy and uniform. Set aside.

3. Remove giblets and neck from chicken, then rinse under cold water inside out.  Dry thoroughly.

4. Rub some of the orange butter all around the inside of the cavity, then salt and pepper it liberally. Stuff with all the herbs and as many orange halves as you can fit into the cavity.  Truss the chicken.  THIS is the method I use..quick and easy. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

5. Rub the rest of the orange compound butter all over the chicken, inside and out, lifting the skin where you can without tearing, and sliding some in – placing the skin back down and pushing it around on top of the skin until it covers most of the meat.  Throw any leftover compound butter into the cavity (the hole is still big enough to get it in even though it’s trussed). Salt and pepper the outside of the chicken, liberally.

6. Place the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan.  Pour a little chicken stock or water on the bottom of the pan, if you like.  Easier clean up, and gravy, if desired, although this chicken doesn’t need it.

7.  Place roasting pan with chicken in the preheated oven.  Roast for 1 hour.  Check every 20 minutes to make sure it isn’t burning in spots.

8. While chicken is roasting, make orange lacquer.  Place all the ingredients in a medium saucepan, except the sesame oil.  Cook over medium heat until the brown sugar is disssolved, then bring to a boil, stirring.  Let it reduce to almost half of what it was.  It won’t be super thick when done, more syrupy.  Stir in sesame oil.

9. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and remove chicken.  Paint the lacquer all over the chicken, getting into every nook and cranny with the brush.  Place back in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.  Remove it again, and paint.  Do this every 10-15 minutes for a total of 35-40 minutes or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh register 165 degrees F.

9.  Remove from oven and let rest for 15-20 minutes (this is when you should take photos if you’re a food blogger ).  Carve and enjoy!  I served mine with glazed carrots and smoked paprika roasted potatoes.