These are light, airy and delicious and I couldn’t stop eating them and I am really looking forward to making with all whole wheat once I get my grain mill, rather than mixing with all-purpose!
Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, plus more for brushing on the top
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour or freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour + 1 tablespoon gluten flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 – 2 1/2cups whole wheat flour
Preparation Instructions
In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat, add the buttermilk and sugar and stir just until sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and let set until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Add the eggs and two cups of the all-purpose flour and stir in a circular motion for 2 minutes or until the dough is fairly smooth. Allow to rest until it just starts to rise a bit, here at high altitude it took about 20 minutes, if you are not at high altitude you may want to plan more like 30-40 minutes.
Beat in the salt and whole wheat flour as far as you can, then sprinkle more of the whole wheat flour on a clean surface and turn the dough out of the pan. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour to the counter when necessary, about 2 minutes or less should do it. Spray a clean bowl with cooking spray or coat with olive oil and place the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap, place in a warm, draft free spot to rise until doubled. Mine, again at high altitude took an hour but if you are lower down plan for longer – I used to plan for 2 hours when I was at sea level.
Punch the dough down to remove any air bubbles and set aside for about 10 minutes while you prepare your baking dish. Which shouldn’t take you 10 minutes, but it’s something to do while you wait. All you have to do is smear butter all over a 9×13” baking dish or get a baking sheet out.
I like to just pull hunks of dough off the main ball and shape and stick it into the baking pan but if you prefer to cut it into 12 pieces, first, be my guest. Either way you will need to shape the rolls, so, basically you don’t want seams. So just find any seams or corners and kind of tuck them down underneath sort of like wrapping a piece of fabric around a ball, make it all smooth and then place, seam side down in the baking dish or sheet.
Cover with that plastic wrap again and allow to rise until doubled again. I like to preheat the oven while they are rising and put the rolls right next to the oven so they rise a little faster – especially if it’s winter. Usually about 15-20 minutes is all you need.
Bake at 375º for about 10-15 minutes or until they are nice and deep golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and brush with soft butter.
Serve piping hot with extra butter!
From my favorite cook book: A Romance With Baking by Karol Redfern Hamper
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