Orange Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

      If you are a native Louisianan this time of year brings thoughts of Plaquemines Parish navel oranges and Louisiana pecans. I remember going to the Orange Festival as a teenager, and my mother buying a bottle of orange wine from one of the many vendors along the road to Buras.  You can buy all things orange at the festival as well as along the road - wonderful marmalades, baked goods, cook books, shirts, posters and so much more. The main thing though is the Louisiana citrus.  Many people are satsuma fans; they're very good.  My brother is a big fan of the Louisiana sweets; he says they make the best fresh squeezed orange juice in the world.  Me, I'm a lover of Louisiana navel oranges.  You'll never find anything better.  If you've never been to the festival her's a link http://www.orangefestival.com 
     The other crop this time of year is pecans. pronounced peh-kahn not pee-can.  I know I've already written about the pecan trees in the back yard of my childhood home, but I've always loved that there is a pecan grove on the neutral ground by the University of New Orleans (UNO).  Once the pecans begin to fall you will see people walking along the neutral ground with their bags picking them up.  Who can resist free Louisiana pecans.  There are sooooo many things you can make with pecans.  You can make orange pecan cinnamon rolls; you make pecan pie (or chocolate bourbon pecan pie, or pumpkin pecan pie, or sweet potato pecan pie - is this beginning to sound like a bad remake of Forrest Gump); you can make pecan pralines; you can make pecan fudge; or you can check out the recipes at  http://lapga.com/  which is the Louisiana Pecan Growers web site.
     The rolls are started at the Cinnamon Roll recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice book, but I modified it to meet my idea.  I used orange extract in place on the lemon extract - and here I digress.  Many years ago when I was teaching 8th grade all boy English class at St. Bernard High.  It was the end of the school year, and I had a final vocabulary/spelling test for the year.  The students had 100 words to spell, and then they had to use 50 of those words of their choice in sentences.  My favorite sentence was, "My mother uses vanilla abstract when she bakes."  Back to the recipe, when it came time to roll out the dough I generously sprinkled the dough with chopped Louisiana pecans and the zest from a Louisiana navel orange.  I used the juice from the orange in the glaze in place of some of the milk, and I used orange extract in place of the lemon extract.
    This recipe made a dozen large rolls.  While the rolls were still warm, we shared them with some of our across the street neighbors.  When Wayne came home from delivering rolls, there was a pot of coffee waiting for him to go with our rolls. We buy our coffee from a small coffee roaster in Louisiana.  Their blends are wonderful.  You can order on line at  http://www.orleanscoffee.com/   I guess by now you've figured out that I am big on buying Louisiana products, but why shouldn't I, after all Louisiana products are the best.  Oh - the rolls are wonderful.  Slight hint of orange, tender moist rolls, filled with cinnamon sugar, and lots of pecans.  YUM!
    By the way - if you don't know what a neutral ground is check out this link, it's a New Orleans Lexicon (or How Ta Tawk Rite)  http://www.gumbopages.com/yatspeak.html