For the orange butter sauce:
- Boil orange juice for 5 minutes or until reduced in half.
- Add butter and stir until melted. Remove from heat.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Use your fingers to rub sugar and zest together until the sugar is moistened and looks like wet sand.
- Whisk together orange sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Cut in shortening using two forks or a pastry blender until it is the size of small peas.
- Combine milk and orange juice then stir in to flour mixture. It will make a sticky dough.
- Turn out dough onto a well-floured work surface. Sprinkle the top with flour and knead about six times with folding dough over in half and using more flour as needed.
- Pat dough out to 3/4-inch thickness. Cut out biscuits with a round cutter, by dipping the cutter in flour then pressing the cutter into the dough. Do not turn cutter while pressing.
- Place cut out biscuits close together but not touching on a baking sheet.
- Gather dough scraps and fold 2 or 3 times, pat out again, and cut biscuits. Repeat until dough is used up.
- Brush tops with orange butter sauce.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with remaining sauce.