1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar or honey
3 eggs
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon SAF (instant) yeast
4 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
(or substitute part of this with freshly ground whole wheat flour)
Today I used one cup of whole wheat flour – Excellent results!
Heat water and butter until butter is nearly melted. Pour into mixing bowl and add sugar/honey, eggs, and salt. Mix well. In a separate small bowl combine the yeast with one cup of the flour. Add this to your mixing bowl along with the remaining flour. If you used honey add an extra 3/4 cup flour. Mix well for several minutes. I use my Bosch Universal Mixer with the dough hook for this recipe, although the dough is too wet to be kneaded. You can also do this by hand with a wooden spoon. Put the dough into a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight. On the day you want to serve them, shape the cold dough into rolls with oiled hands and place on a greased baking sheet. For 20 dinner rolls, shape the dough into balls a bit larger than “golf-ball size”. Let rise for 3 to 4 hours, until rolls look fat and puffy. A warm room will hasten the rising time and a cold room will slow it down. Bake in a 350* oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Is SAF yeast the same as active dry yeast?
SAF yeast is “instant” yeast that is more finely ground than active dry yeast, thus it absorbs water faster and works more quickly. I love SAF (instant) yeast because using it eliminates the step of dissolving the yeast in water and “proofing” before adding it to your dough. Instant yeast is just mixed with some of the flour called for in the recipe. All that to say, before I discovered instant yeast, I used active dry yeast in this recipe and it worked okay; just expect the rising time to be longer.
Could I successfully half this recipe? I’m only feeding 5 people.
You could… but I would make them all so you can have turkey sandwiches tomorrow! 🙂
Thank you for making our breakfast and soon our dinner table,filled with these wonderful rolls. I made them and they looked so good that we baked them ahead of their full rise time for our breakfast and the second batch are plumping up for our dinner. All we can say is yum! They seem like a recipe that could lend itself to cinnamon and pecans twrilled with the dough, and a limitless list of other ideas, yes I will be experimenting.
Thank you for being part of our Thanksgiving table.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Amy Fairchild
So glad you enjoyed the roll recipe! I got it many years ago from a friend and they have been a family favorite ever since! It’s a recipe that’s pretty hard to mess up – which is really nice! 🙂 Cinnamon and pecans would be wonderful additions!
And Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Hi, could hard white wheat and a little soft white wheat be used? Or does the main part of it need to be bread flour. I grind my own wheat, but if need to, I’ll go buy some bread flour. I am not sure what the difference of bread flour is vs. what I grind myself?
Thanks!
Commercial bread flour is made by removing the bran and germ(embryo or sprouting section) from the wheat kernel during the milling process, resulting in flour that makes a lighter, fluffier loaf of bread, as well as a less nutritious product! Using 100% whole wheat flour, freshly ground, in this roll recipe, will make delicious rolls, but they will not be light and fluffy like they are when using commercial bread flour. Keep in mind that hard wheat is best for yeast bread recipes and soft wheat is best for other baking that does not involve yeast, such as cakes, cookies, pancakes, pastries, etc. My family’s “mainstay” is 100% Whole Wheat Bread, but now and then for a special dinner I will make everyone smile with this awesome roll recipe! 🙂