Dinner Rolls
After a winter of general wellness for all of us, I am hanging on to a nasty cold we were hit with about six weeks ago. I just can’t kick the sniffles! In a moment of general malaise today, I decided what I really “needed” was the comfort of a piece of really crusty bread. The puppy was sleeping for a moment, and the girls were outside playing “carnival,” which consisted of dragging out every single yard toy we own and climbing, dancing, and bouncing on them in various ways. I mixed flour while I listened to them through the open window. A rare and precious moment of peace.
Since I basically had no idea what I was doing, I looked at the ingredients for Pamela’s bread mix and used it as a very loose guide, hoping these would be edible. They turned out really beautifully, and a blank canvas for butter and other yummy things like homemade jams or savory spreads. Twig asked me what brand they were, and the girls begged for more, so I know they must be good. Unfortunately, my stuffy nose prevents me from tasting very well, but the texture was close to perfect. Split, they make great sandwich or hamburger buns too, though a tad thin.
Chewy, nice crust on outside, not too dense, and full of holes.
If you follow my blog, you know that these contain things that we don’t typically eat, such as guar gum and yeast. I have those ingredients on hand for rare treats like this, but I don’t consider them staples in our diet. I’m not really fond of tapioca either, as it sometimes seems to upset my stomach. I found that these were a bit gummy when they were first removed from the oven, and the unbaked dough had lots of stretch (much like glutinous dough, to my surprise.) I made notes in the recipe itself, but I think that this could easily be tweaked to omit the tapioca or the guar gum. The additions of psyllium husk powder and sweet rice gum also provide cohesiveness, and I don’t think a little tweaking among any of these four items would make this bread fall apart. While I don’t think my recipe is 100% perfect, I won’t procrastinate in sharing it with you. It’s yours to play with and make your own:
Dinner Rolls:
1 cup Sweet Sorghum flour
1/2 cup Millet flour
1/2 cup Almond flour
1/2 cup Tapioca flour/starch (I will decrease next time, they are just a bit gummy… maybe go with 1/3 cup)
1/2 cup Sweet Rice flour
1/4 cup Psyllium Husk powder
1 Tbs Maple Sugar
1 Tbs Rice Bran
2 tsp Guar gum (probably not necessary, but I really wanted these to work, so it was my “insurance”)
2 tsp Yeast
1 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs warm water
3 lg Eggs
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp Olive oil
Whisk together the dry ingredients and add everything to the bowl of stand mixer that is fitted with paddle. Whip together on high (increasing as you go, so flour doesn’t billow out!) for about a minute until smooth. Divide the dough in half until you have 8 pieces. With wet hands, round out those 8 pieces and put on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with a little more sea salt (or seeds, or herbs….) Cut a slash in them if you want, with a sharp knife. Let rise for an hour in a warm location, then bake for about 20 minutes at 375* or until slightly golden-brown on top and they sound hollow when tapped.
**If making these WAPF-friendly, whisk together the flours (minus the tapioca) and rice bran and soak in the water + 1 tbs whey, overnight, then proceed with recipe.
Dip them in soup or spread them with something delicious and comforting. Eat.
unbaked rolls
baked rolls
