Family Favorites...Pear Custard Sweet Rolls

While deciding on a recipe from the Pillsbury Home Baking I saw this recipe for Pear Custard Sweet Rolls. It all sounded very good, except I really don’t like the prepared vanilla pudding you purchase in the store, so I made my own vanilla pudding. Pudding is quite easy to make, and you control what is in it and it certainly tastes better and costs less than the prepared pudding from the grocery store. The pears added a real nice touch. We all like golden raisins so I usually have them on hand. Nice recipe for that "what do I fix" for a coffee group. This made 12 nice sized rolls. I think they would freeze well, wrapped one each and then put in a freezer bag.

Pear Custard Sweet Rolls

DOUGH

2 ½  to 3 ½ cups all purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 pkg. Active dry yeast

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

FILLING

2 tablespoons butter, softened

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

½ cup golden raisins

4 ¼ ounce container prepared vanilla pudding

8 ounce can pear halves, drained, chopped

GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar 

4 to 6 teaspoons milk

  Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast; blend well.

  In small pan; heat 1 cup milk and ¼ cup butter until warm (120 to 130°F). Add warm liquid and egg to flour mixture; blend at medium speed. By hand, stir in an additional ½ to 1 cup flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.

  On floured surface; knead in ½ to 1 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel.

Let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size about 45 minutes.

  Grease 13 x 9 pan. Punch down dough to remove all air bubbles. On lightly floured surface roll into a 15 x 12 inch rectangle. In small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons butter and nutmeg.
Spread evenly over dough; sprinkle with raisins. Starting with short side roll up tightly pressing seam firmly to seal. Cut into 12 1 inch slices’ place cut side down in greased pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place until again light and doubled in size.

  Heat oven to 375°F. Uncover dough. In small bowl combine pudding and pears. Make indentation in center of each roll; fill with about 1 tablespoon of pudding pear mixture. Bake at 375° for 20 to 39 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan, let cool 10 minutes. Mix glaze ingredients and drizzle over rolls. (Be sure they are cooled at least the ten minutes or the glaze will disappear into the roll).