Homemade Hamburger Rolls? You're Welcome!

It took me long enough. But I finally baked hamburger rolls.

Summer cookouts, I'm ready for you.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy. I used my Dinner Roll recipe, which you can find here. But I'm going to rewrite it here, because my process has evolved a little over time.

Dinner Rolls

Based on Aunt Betty's Sweet Roll Dough

1½ C lukewarm water

1 T yeast

¼ C sugar

¼ C canola oil

¼ C instant potato flakes

½ C instant nonfat dry milk (9 T non-instant)

¾ tsp. salt

2 eggs

1½ C (6.4 oz.) soft white whole wheat flour + 3 C (12.8 oz.) hard white whole wheat flour

Note: This is my preferred flour combination. Other alternatives:

1½ C (6.4 oz.) soft white whole wheat flour + 3 C (12.8 oz.) hard red whole wheat flour

1½ C (6.4 oz.) soft white whole wheat flour + 3 C (12.8 oz.) all-purpose flour

4½ C (19.2 oz.) hard white whole wheat, hard red whole wheat, or all-purpose flour

Pour warm water in stand mixer (KitchenAid) bowl. Add sugar, yeast, and the soft white whole wheat flour. Using the paddle (not the dough hook), mix on lowest setting while adding the canola oil, potato flakes, dry milk, and salt. Stop the mixer and add a few spoonfuls of the hard white whole wheat flour, and then the eggs. Resume mixing on lowest setting; add the rest of the flour, and continue mixing for 5 minutes. Turn off mixer and cover the bowl with damp kitchen towel. Let dough sit for 30 minutes.

On a clean, dry counter, sprinkle about ½ C hard white whole wheat flour. Have some more on hand, just in case. Lower the mixing bowl and detach the paddle, disturbing the dough as little as possible. Use a wet spoon to scrape dough from the paddle into the bowl. Use the wet spoon to scrape the dough from the bowl onto the floured counter. It will come out fairly easily because of the rising.

Knead the dough 40-50 times, until it is smooth and elastic, but not dry.

Place the dough in a large bowl with a small amount of canola oil to coat the surface. Cover with wax paper or plastic wrap. Set in a cold place—probably the refrigerator—for 1½ hours.

Punch down the dough and fold it a few times. Divide it into 24 pieces. A dough scraper is great for cutting the dough. Form each piece into a ball by stretching the top and pinching the ends together at the bottom. Place the rolls about ½-1 inch apart on buttered (or parchment papered) baking sheets. 24 fit nicely on a baker's half sheet. Cover the rolls; let rise at warm room temperature for 45 minutes. If your baking sheet situation is such that you won't be able to fit all of the rolls in the oven at the same time, set the ones that will have to wait in the refrigerator, setting them out again when you put the first ones in the oven.

For Hamburger Rolls: After making the balls, flatten each ball into a 3-inch round. Place the rounds about ½ inch apart on buttered (or parchment papered) baking sheets. 12 fit nicely on a baker's half sheet.

A few minutes before the rolls are finished rising, preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake the rolls at 400°F for 5 minutes; reduce temperature to 350°F and continue baking another 10-12 minutes, or until the rolls are browned on top. Remove the pan from the oven and set to cool on a rack.

After the rolls are completely cool, put them in clean plastic bags. Freeze any that you will not use within a couple of days.

Maple Goodness in Rolls!

There are people who love the Maple Oatmeal Bread--one version or the other--so much that they buy an extra loaf to eat on their way home.

And now I make it with local maple syrup. My friend in Jamesville has maple trees. She and her family work together to make the maple syrup, and it is delicious!

Today I baked Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Rolls. My first attempt last week didn't work out so well. I just made rolls out of the bread dough. But they were doughy and heavy.

Today I made adjustments based on my tried and true dinner roll recipes. I increased the amount of oil and added instant potato flakes and instant dry milk. The aroma of maple syrup filled the kitchen as they finished baking. They came out of the oven a beautiful golden color.

They were light and tender, with full-flavored maple goodness.

I love living in maple syrup country!

Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Rolls

2 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup maple syrup

¼ C canola oil

1 T instant dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

¼ C instant potato flakes

1 C instant nonfat dry milk

1¼ C (5.3 oz.) soft white-wheat flour

3¾ C (7.5 oz. + 8.5 oz.) hard white-wheat flour

Put the oats into a bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oats and set aside for an hour.

Mix the syrup and oil into the oats. Combine the yeast, salt, potato flakes, dry milk, soft white-wheat flour, and 1¾ C (7.5 oz.) hard white-wheat flour in a bowl and add to the oat mixture, mixing well. Cover the bowl and let rise for an hour.

Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough is the correct consistency. Knead for 5 minutes; let sit covered for 5 minutes; knead for another 2-3 minutes. Let rise in an oiled bowl. Shape the dough into 24 rolls and place on greased baking pan. Cover and let rise another 45 minutes.

Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes.

Why Not Chocolate Rolls?

The Chocolate Bread was so good, I was encouraged to try Chocolate Rolls--like Cinnamon Rolls but with, well, chocolate.

Success!

Like Cinnamon Rolls, I used my Aunt Betty's roll recipe. (This is half the recipe.) After patting out the dough, I spread melted chocolate on it: 2 C of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted. I rolled up the dough, cut it, and panned the rolls. The melted chocolate makes this a messy process!

After baking the rolls, I made some Chocolate Ganache:

Heat in the microwave, just to simmering (Watch carefully! It doesn't take long!), 3/8 C (6 Tbsp.) heavy cream. Add 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips and stir until completely melted.

I piped ganache onto the rolls. I need a little practice!

Delicious!

By the way, I used 100% white whole-wheat flour in these rolls.

Whole Grain Happiness!

Cracked Wheat Rolls

I almost forgot to take a picture of these rolls before I ate them!

Cracked Wheat Rolls take me back to my Aunt Betty's kitchen, where these were a regular part of dinner.

This is my Aunt Betty's recipe. It is based on her regular dinner roll recipe, which you can find here.

If you can, plan to serve dinner about 15 minutes after these rolls come out of the oven. That is when they are at their best. Thankfully, they remain awesome even after they cool.

Here is the recipe:

Cracked Wheat Rolls

2 C boiling water
2 C cracked wheat
1 C cold water
½ C canola oil
1/3 C molasses
3 C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 T yeast
1 C sugar
½ C instant potato flakes
1 C instant nonfat dry milk
1 T salt
3 eggs
5-6 C unbleached all-purpose flour

In the mixing bowl, pour the 2 C boiling water over the cracked wheat and stir them together. Let stand a few minutes and then add the 1 C cold water. Add the oil and molasses. Mix together the 3 C flour with the yeast, sugar, potato flakes, dry milk, and salt. Add them and the eggs to the cracked wheat mixture. Beat with mixer until smooth. Kneading by hand or with dough hook, add enough flour to make soft dough (5-6 C). In oiled bowl, let rise once or twice. Shape into rolls and place in greased pans; let rise. Bake at 350°F until brown, about 20 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls (Updated 8/18/13)

I can't think of anything that tastes better than freshly-baked cinnamon rolls, still slightly warm from the oven.

My recipe is from my Aunt Betty. It starts with her basic roll recipe. So I'll share that with you and add what you need to know and do to make cinnamon rolls.

But first, a few words about flour. Cinnamon rolls should be light and tender. I grew up using white all-purpose flour, described by King Arthur Flour as "the perfect go-to flour for all your baking needs." It works great! The only problem is, it doesn't have much nutritional value. (Here's a chart comparing nutrients in whole-wheat flour and white flour. Scroll down to see a chart that shows nutrients lost in the refinement process.) I used to just consider cinnamon rolls a lost cause nutritionally--they have a lot of sugar and a fair amount of fat, though not as much as you might think. But, with soft white wheat available now, we can replace at least part of the white all-purpose flour with whole-grain flour, still maintain the light color, mild flavor, and tenderness we desire, but boost the nutritional value.

And now, the recipes:

Dinner Rolls

3 C lukewarm water

2 T yeast

1 C sugar

½ C canola oil

½ C instant potato flakes

1 C instant nonfat dry milk

1 ½ tsp. salt

3 eggs

8-9 C unbleached all-purpose flour, or use soft white whole-wheat flour for 1/3-1/2 of the total flour amount

Dissolve yeast in water in large bowl. Let sit for a few minutes. Add sugar, oil, potato flakes, dry milk, salt, and eggs. Add 3 C of the flour. Beat with mixer until smooth. Kneading by hand or with dough hook, add enough flour to make soft dough (5-6 C). In oiled bowl, let rise once or twice. Shape into rolls and place in greased pans; let rise. Bake at 350°F until brown, about 20 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls

After rising in the bowl, punch down dough. On a floured surface, use your hands to pat the dough (half of it at a time) into a rectangle, and brush with melted butter (about 6 T in all). Top with a mixture of ¾ C sugar and 6 tsp. cinnamon. Roll up the dough; cut into ¾-1 inch widths; place onto greased pans leaving space to rise; let rise. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes. While hot, top with glaze.

Glaze: Combine 1 lb. (3¾ C) powdered sugar, ⅜-½ C hot water, and 2¼ tsp. vanilla.

Update, 8/18/13: This makes a lot of rolls. You can easily halve the recipe. When you do, I suggest using 2 eggs, but it's fine to just use 1.