SRS - Quick & Easy Wheat Rolls with Garlic Herb Butter

Finding new blogs to follow is one of my favorite parts of blogging so when I saw some blog friends participating in the Surprise Recipe Swap, I decided to join in. What I forgot to consider is that I'm not called "persnickety" for nothing - I'm still not eating meat, we've cut back on pasta dishes & the Mr. is lactose intolerant. So...picking a recipe was a little tricky. Whoops. But I got a good one.

My partner was Erika of Learning the Ropes...One Recipe at a Time and she's got quite a collection. She has some pasta dishes that look great but I decided to try her Quick & Easy Wheat Dinner Rolls with Garlic Herb Butter.

Hi Erika! Nice to "meet" you. I had fun stalking your blog. We'll have to talk about where you grew up in Michigan. We have that in common.

This recipe calls for wheat pastry flour, which was not at my regular Kroger. I had to run to Whole Foods to find it. I'm glad I did though, these rolls were good, and really easy. They're dense but soft & not dry, which is always good in a roll. Also, I halved the butter recipe so you can double it if you want to use a whole stick.

Source: Learning the Ropes...One Recipe at a Time
Makes: 16 rolls

Ingredients
For the Garlic Herb Butter
1/2 stick butter (4 Tb), softened (I used salted, if you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt)
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch dried parsley
1 pinch dried rosemary
1 pinch dried basil
1 pinch dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used garlic pepper)
1 pinch black pepper
1 pinch seasoned salt
1/4 tsp lemon juice (I skipped this & used lemon pepper)

For the Wheat Dinner Rolls
1 1/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)

3 1/2 tsp dry active yeast

2 Tb sugar

2 Tb butter, softened

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups wheat pastry flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tb butter, melted (I used the garlic herb butter from above)

Directions

For the Garlic Herb Butter

Using a fork, mix everything together & store in an airtight container. Butter will keep for 4-6 weeks in the fridge.

For the Wheat Dinner Rolls

In a mixing bowl stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar and let sit until mixture foams; about 10-15 minutes.

While you're waiting, combine the two flours and mix well.

When the yeast mixture is ready, add the butter, salt, and 1 1/2 cups flour mixture and mix until ingredients come together. I just used a spatula for this step.

Continue to add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until mixture begins to clean the sides of the bowl (add more flour if necessary). 

Let dough rest for about 10 minutes.

Knead dough until smooth and elastic (dough will be slightly sticky), about 5 minutes. I used my bread hook for this. 

Form dough into equal sized balls and place on a greased cookie sheet so they are not touching. I made two sheets of 8 rolls. One sheet I cooked immediately, one I froze. 

Let rise in a warm place for about 20 minutes.

Brush rolls with melted butter.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.

To freeze rolls - after they have risen, place the entire cookie sheet into the freezer overnight, then transfer to a ziploc freezer bag. To prepare, brush frozen rolls with butter and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.