Inspiration: Honey-Wheat Dinner Rolls

Endeavoring to improve my bread game, I decided to try these honey-wheat dinner rolls. A tad trepidatious, as this style of roll was one I absolutely loathed eating back in grade school; I still decided to give this recipe a go — mainly because I couldn’t recall WHY I disliked them.

In the past, I’ve struggled with consistently producing golden brown well-risen rolls. Pull-apart rolls, in particular, pose an even bigger challenge. 

I had no clue why….until now.

Turns out the reasons for my floundering was, of course, self-inflicted. Thanks to America’s Test Kitchen’s book, Bread Illustrated, I discovered that not only was I not putting enough of the raw dough balls into the pan when getting ready to bake them. (Apparently, their personal bubble is much smaller than mine.)

I also discovered I was using the entirely wrong kind of yeast! 

Never once did it cross my mind that instant or rapid-rise yeast differs from regular old active dry yeast. However, I did discover, through trial and error over the years, that my bakes always seemed to come out better when I bloomed the yeast first and then added the rest of the ingredients. I’m unsure why I finally twigged to the discrepancies between types of yeasts while reading the ingredient list this time, but I did. Thus, I’m passing on my slightly mortifying ‘aha!’ moment in case it helps someone else.

Other than still blooming the yeast first, as I’d no rapid-rise yeast in the house, I followed the recipe to the letter. And, as you can tell from the pic above, the rolls turned out great! 

And I finally recalled why my younger self disliked them. 

It turns out, even back in the day, I didn’t like the extra sweetness the honey gave the roll, especially when served next to a savory dish. 

Changing It Up: The next time I whipped them up, I swapped the honey out for Barley Malt Syrup, which not only has a similar consistency to honey, but it’s not nearly as sweet. Moreover, its malty taste pairs well with wheat. 

The second iteration was definitely an upgrade! (In our household at least.)

From Me To You: If you use the King Arthur Climate Blend Wheat Flour in these rolls, be prepared to add a touch more AP flour or bread flour to the dough. Otherwise, the dough is too loose and sticky to form proper rolls and looks nothing like the nice dough ball pictured in Bread Illustrated. No clue why, but so far, it’s happened every time I’ve made this recipe.

Christie: Though I don’t think these rolls are quite posh enough for Poirot, I can easily see Hastings cleaning the last remnants of stew or soaking up the last bit of soup broth left in his bowl!

(Sorry, I don’t have link to the recipe. ATK charges for the bulk of their recipes, so either you can purchase Bread Illustrated, subscribe to their website, or try a similar recipe from someplace else. I will say ATK’s Bread Illustrated is absolutely fantastic and worth purchasing if you’re new or an experienced baker!)