I have a long history of making crummy rolls–more tough than tender and more heavy than heavenly. Â Thankfully, with a little help from a couple friends who are expert roll makers, I’ve improved (but not yet perfected) my skills over the last few months. It also doesn’t hurt that we are blessed to have a French-trained chef that goes to our church, and he has generously shared his wheat bread recipe with us. My friend, Megan, has adapted the bread recipe into a roll recipe, and it has risen to the top of my all-time favorite foods list.
A word of warning: I’m a fairly disciplined person–I can have a candy dish full of chocolate and not gorge myself. But, I kid you not, these rolls are to-die-for straight out of the oven and I have been known to eat 3 or more (I won’t divulge how many more) in rapid succession. I even forgot the shortening in the batch I made this morning, and they are still delectable.
Proceed with caution.
| C’est Bon European Cafe Wheat Bread — Adapted for rolls |
- 3 pkgs. dry yeast (2 1/4 T. or so)
- 2 1/2 c. warm water
- 1/2 c. honey
- 3 T. sugar
- 4 c. white flour
- 1/2 T. salt
- 1/2 c. honey
- 3 T. shortening (not oil)
- 3/4 c. warm water
- approx. 5 cups wheat flour
- Mix the first four ingredients–yeast, warm water, honey, sugar– in a bowl.
- Add the white flour.
- Mix approx. 1 minute–will result in a pancake-like batter.
- Cover the bowl and let rise until double in volume, about 1/2 – 1 hour
- Add salt,honey, shortening and warm water
- Mix well
- Add wheat flour–enough so that dough pulls away from the bowl and can be handled without sticking. Error on the side of sticky dough to avoid heavy rolls.
- Mix with dough hook for 10 minutes.
- Lightly spray 3 cookie sheets w/ cooking spray.
- Divide dough into 3 equal portions using a dough cutter. Apparently, you’re not supposed to tear bread/roll dough; you’re supposed to “cut” it w/ a blunt dough cutter. Keep the dough lumps that you’re not using yet covered w/ a cloth so that it doesn’t dry out.
- Using a dough cutter, cut off a small hunk of dough and form it into a dough ball, pulling the top of ball down from the top and pinching it underneath so that you have a smooth top. You can dust a little flour on the hunk of dough if it is a little sticky, but don’t over do it because it will make your rolls dry and tough.
- Place on cookie sheet. I get 20 small rolls from each 1/3 portion (60 rolls total). I fit 20 on each cookie sheet, 4 wide, 5 long. When one cookie sheet is full, cover with a dish towel and set in a warm place to rise.
- Repeat until all the dough has been formed into rolls.
- Bake at 350 degrees (convection oven) for 6 1/2 minutes.
- Remove from oven, brush w/ butter.
- Indulge.
