Recipe: Whole Wheat Rolls

I've been wanting a good - a really good, whole wheat roll recipe that my whole family (and anyone else whom I made this recipe for) would love ...

I believe I found just that!

I derived this recipe from the An Oregon Cottage blog which has some fabulous step-by-step photos. The only thing I did differently was warm my milk and eggs to room temperature.

(*For this recipe, a fourth of the ground flour I used was from sprouted wheat and the rest was "un-prepared" wheat. I've had a difficult time making good bread with the sprouted wheat - which is one of my many things on my list of things I need to experiment with.)

Here's the recipe:

Whole Wheat Rolls

2 Tbsp dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup raw or organic butter, softened

1/4 cup raw honey

3 eggs (hormone and cage free), room temp.

1 cup buttermilk or milk

4 1/2 to 5 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water. Set aside

Cream the butter and honey in a mixer with the appropriate attachment for creaming ingredients. Add the eggs and mix, scraping the sides. Add the milk and yeast mixture.

Add 4 1/2 cups of flour and the salt, mixing until combined. Change the attachment to "dough hook" and knead for 2-3 minutes only (just until the dough doesn't stick to your finger that much when you touch it) Add more flour if needed. (I ended up using a little over 5 cups of flour.)

Cover the mixing bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for one hour.

Turn onto an oiled surface and knead a few times, cover with towel and let rest for 3 minutes.

(Directions usually say to knead dough on a floured surface but I like to knead bread on an oiled surface - usually using grapeseed oil. It helps keep the dough moist and is easier to clean up.)

Stretch dough into rectangular shape and cut into 24 equal pieces with a knife. Add or remove dough from the pieces to create equal sizes.

Shape each piece into a ball. (The blog gives a good description of an easy {and fun} way to do this.)

Generously butter a 9x13 baking dish and place each ball into the dish - with the pieces touching.

Let rise covered for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the rolls are golden brown.

Butter the tops of the rolls once cooked.

Their fluffy-pull-a-partness is something I look forward to making time and time again!

(*Leftover rolls can be frozen for weeks at a time.)

Photo credit: http://www.anoregoncottage.com/2009/11/soft-100-whole-wheat-dinner-rolls.html