Homestyle Molasses and Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

My mom has always made every bit of bread that our household consumes from scratch.  Honestly sometimes I think she may take it to a bit of an extreme, but what can I say?  I grew up knowing the basics of bread making and thinking it was something every kid knew.  To this day bread making is still one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen.  There's something about the process involved that makes me feel connected to all of those women throughout the years who have slaved away in hot kitchens, feeding hungry mouths, making the world go round.  Even though we have high tech machines now that can plop out loaves of 'wonder' bread ever 3 seconds, there's still something so much more satisfying about pulling a hot, fragrant loaf out of the oven.

However, I don't eat bread much, neither does my man.  So in order to get my baking kick in, and not waste food, I typically turn to quick breads, or on the rare occasion, dinner rolls.  My mom had these amazing dinner rolls that she used to make all the time with oats and whole wheat flour that were so savory and fantastic in soups and stews and with butter, and by themselves hot out of the oven.  The problem was is that she never actually wrote down a recipe that I know of...so I set out to recreate them on my own.

First off, as much as I love and appreciate whole wheat flour and the texture and health benefits that it brings, I can't justify using it 100% in my bread.  Too much whole wheat flour and I start to lose that light, fall apart-in-your-mouth texture that I crave in my breads and rolls.  So I compromised on these, enough whole wheat flour to give them that hearty flavor I crave, but not to much to turn them into crumbly disasters.

The dough will be smooth when the gluten is developed

The second element that I knew I was going to have to modify was the sugar.  I'll be honest, I'm not even sure where my mom got some of the strange sweeteners that she used, but I'll be damned if I ever saw her put white sugar in a single thing she made us!  Unfortunately the average household these days (or grocery store) does not have unrefined sucanat or palm sugar on hand, and I'm not about making recipes that you have to travel halfway around the globe to gather ingredients for!  So I experimented with swapping in some basics:  molasses and honey.  I had to experiment with the proportions a bit, but in the end, the yeast proofed perfectly and they turned out with a hint of deep molasses flavor, and no highly processed white sugar.

I would recommend a heavy dark 9x13 pan for these or a glass pan.  Also adding the butter on towards the end of baking is optional but it will give them a nice brown sheen and a little extra butter flavor.

These rolls are definitely best when hot, just like pretty much any other loaf of bread, but they are also fantastic cut in half, with a little bit of butter and some cheddar and thrown under the broiler for a minute.  I'm weird and I like pickles on my cheddar cheese, but if you're normal just cheddar and butter and a quick hit with the broiler will make a fantastic light lunch!!

Hope they turn out as amazing for you as they did for me!

I'm no professional photographer, but even with my shaky iPhone pics they still look delicious!

Honey Molasses and Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

                2 Cups Unbleached Flour (Plus extra for kneading)

                1 package active dry yeast

                ¼ Cup (½ stick) of butter

    1 Cup Whole Milk

                ½ Dark Molasses

                1 TBSP Honey

                ½ tsp salt

                2 Large Eggs

   ¾ Cup Whole Wheat Flour

   ¾ Cup rolled oats (I recommend Quaker's quick oats.  They're inexpensive and worked perfect)

Butter shaving to add on during cooking (optional)

1.  In a large bowl mix together the unbleached flour and yeast packet.

2.  In a heavy bottom saucepan over low heat melt the butter, add the milk and then the molasses and honey.  Dissolve the salt in the mixture.  DO NOT BOIL.  If the mixture boils the milk will get funky and you’ll have to start all over.  As soon as everything is combined and melted together turn off the heat.  Cool the milk mixture to 115, or in less technical jargon: until you can stick your pinky finger into the milk and it doesn’t burn at all.  It should feel a little warm, but that’s it.  This is very important because the yeast is a living organism and if the milk burns you it will burn the yeast and it will die.  And your bread will fail.

3.  Once the milk mixture is at the right temperature slowly pour it into the flour and yeast and stir together.  Let it set for 5 minutes.

4.  Add the eggs and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.  Pour in the whole wheat flour and the oats and mix that up too.

5.  At this point you should have a fairly wet dough that smells amazing.  Sprinkle in about ½ cup more unbleached flour or until the dough is workable.  It’s still going to be pretty wet, but it needs to be thick enough to hold together.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes.  Try not to add more flour than is necessary.  Too much flour will make the dough tough and tasteless.  You will be able to tell when the gluten has started to develop when the dough gets a smooth top on it, and if you poke it gently, it will spring back into place.

6.  Spray the bowl it came out of and the top of the dough with some cooking spray and drop the dough in the bowl.  Cover it with a towel and put it in a warm place to rise for about 1.5 hours, or until doubled in volume.

7.  After the dough has risen turn it out of the bowl and punch it down.  At this point I would recommend grabbing a sharp knife to help you cut the dough into roll sized chunks.  Cut the dough into two equal pieces and then cut each of those pieces into 8 more equal pieces.  I find that it’s easier to roll the two chunks of dough into cylinders and then cut them in half and then cut those pieces in half and so on.

8.  Once you have the pieces cut out form them into rolls but pulling the dough down around the sides of the roll and pinching it into place at the bottom of the roll.  I do this process several times to make sure the top of my roll is perfectly smooth.  Place the rolls in a greased 9x13 pan, cover them up again, and let rise for another 30 minutes or so, once again until doubled in size.

9.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Once the rolls have finished rising put them in the oven for ten minutes.  Pull them out and drop some shavings of butter all over them.  Put them back in the oven for another 2 or 3 minutes.

As soon as the rolls come out of the oven they are good to go!  Just be careful, they will be hot!

I’ve had these with pasta, soup, stew, as a sandwich, you name it, they are fantastic!  If you need to store them they can be kept in a plastic bag for about a week.  I wouldn’t recommend freezing them as it will alter the texture.  If you want to serve them later you can pop them back in the oven for about 5 minutes at 300 and they will come out just as good as they were the first time!

I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!