If you took a poll in Louisiana to name its favorite citrus, Satsuma would win in a landslide. Our love affair with what’s also called ‘honey citrus’ started back in the eighteenth century when Jesuits began cultivation on their property in Plaquemines Parish. The fruits ripen just in time to be dropped into your kid’s Christmas stocking and as the season ends you should try to scoop up the last ones and use them in this piquant and less sugary version of the traditional breakfast sweet roll.

First you start with some satsumas like the ones you see below. They should be soft but not too soft. There should be some give in the body but avoid the specimens that are brown & shriveled around the stem end.

Next mix up the dough and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. While you’re waiting for that, mix up the glaze that you’ll be using for the tops & bottoms of the rolls.

Once the dough has risen roll it out into a fairly thin rectangle, about 12 to 14 inches in length. Brush it with the melted butter then sprinkle the cinnamon/brown sugar/citrus rind evenly over the whole area. Drain any liquid from the raisins you’ve soaked and distribute them along with the nuts over the sugar mixture.

Now carefully start to roll it up lengthwise as tightly as possible and pinch the edge to seal. The individual rolls should be about 2 inches in width and they can be cut with an extremely sharp serrated knife or you can do what we always did growing up. Tear off about a foot of dental floss, lift up the roll, slide it under and then bring the two ends together over the roll and cut through that way. Just keep sliding and slicing till you reach the end. Waxed dental floss is great for this and I’ll bet the mint flavored kind might even add a little bite. If it’s all you’ve got why not?

Once cut up place them in the pan into which you’ve spread a bit of the glaze. Leave space in between and put them in a warm place to rise. When they’ve expanded put them in the oven and bake until done. You may optionally brush some melted butter on top if you like.

You’ll notice from the pictures that I put half the batch in a 9″ cast iron skillet and the rest in a cake pan. Either is fine. If you have a proper jelly roll pan you can line them up and do the whole recipe in one pan. However, two round pans are nice since you can easily freeze one for later or gift it to a fellow fruit lover. And one final word about the glaze. Should you be one of those people whose sweet rolls must be topped with a quarter inch of white sticky stuff go ahead and add a lot of powdered sugar to the glaze. Keep adding until it’s a nice spreadable consistency. But seriously, it’s after the holidays and you’ve probably wolfed down enough sugar to deplete the supply of an entire parish so maybe you should think about just going lite this time.

Below you see the finished product with some extra glaze for swishing the broken up pieces of roll in, and don’t forget to lick the plate. Saves on dish washing!