Fluffiest Wheat Rolls Ever

Making New Year’s Eve dinner and looking for a super simple homemade dinner roll? Look no further! Tuesday was the most perfect day, spent in the kitchen drinking tea, cooking and baking, then blogging about a 2011 goal. I knew I wanted to make some sort of homemade bread to go with BBQ pulled chicken, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to make.

After poring through cookbooks, including my King Arthur Flour Whole Grains book, and lots of websites, I finally settled on Easy Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls from the Whole Foods Market website. The recipe is at the end of the post.

I can’t believe how many different bread and rolls recipes there are out there! This one included a cup of room temperature milk and melted butter, which I haven’t used in rolls past, but I think it definitely added a little something special.

The milk was obviously cold when I started, and to speed things up, I almost put the metal measuring cup in the microwave. Luckily, I spilled some, put the cup down, and realized what I was about to do. Yikes!

The best part about these rolls is that there is no kneading involved. The kneading part is still tricky for me; I end up with lots of sticky dough no matter what I do. This dough was just made by stirring everything together in the bowl, and it turned out perfectly. Once placed in an oiled muffin tin, the dough had to rise for just 40 minutes. Because my house is freezing, the dough didn’t rise as well as it could have, so I actually put the pan into the cold oven and let the dough rise while it was pre-heating. By the time the oven was at 400, the dough was risen slightly over the rim of the cups.

I started timing once the oven reached 400 degrees and kept an eye on these. They smelled SO good baking and ended up crusty on the outside with a lovely golden brown hue.

I let them cool for a few minutes and then dug into two rolls with Kerrygold butter. That and melted chocolate from the Sachertorte may have been my lunch.  

I would highly recommend this recipe for its simplicity and the light, fluffy yet chewy bread that results. I may make another batch for New Year’s Eve once I figure out my menu! I seriously mangled my knee yesterday on a run through the un-shoveled streets of Boston, so I am taking it easy today, maybe some strength training and dinner out with the mister. It is going to be so warm out, I feel like I need to spend some time outside!
What are you doing for New Year’s Eve? If you are cooking at home, what’s on your menu that I should make?  

Makes 12 rolls

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm (105 to 115°F) milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour

Method

To get started, make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature. Put whole wheat flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a large bowl and stir well. Add milk, butter and egg and beat with a spoon until smooth. Add all-purpose flour and mix until fully incorporated and batter is smooth. Cover bowl and set aside in a warm spot to let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, lightly grease a 12-muffin tin with olive oil and set aside.
Stir the batter gently to deflate it. Spoon even amounts of the dough into each cup of the prepared muffin tin and set aside in a warm spot until the dough has risen just over the top of the muffin tins, about 1 hour more.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake rolls until golden brown and cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.