Sunday, November 16, 2008

Flax Seed Dinner Rolls


Yesterday Dan and Rebecca came over for lunch. It was "cold" (40's) and raining, and grey, and awful...and the perfect day for Cheddar Broccoli Soup with homemade dinner rolls! The four of us have been trying to get together for dinner, but with work and class schedules, it just hasn't worked out. Lunch was a great solution.

Baking yeast rolls was a great way to warm up the apartment, too! And then our place just smelled sooooo goooood! I've made these rolls before, and they never last more than a day or two, they are that tastey. The recipe is a Betty Crocker classic, and I'm a bit hesitant to go about changing the white flour to wheat flour at all, since the texture is so nice as it is. The only real change I made was to throw some flax seeds into the dough. They are so small you can hardly taste or see them. It's a nice sneeky way to add health.

Recipe: Makes 15 rolls.

3 1/2 C. flour
1 pkg yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 C. butter, softened
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 C each of milk and water, heated to 120 degrees
1 egg
1/4 C. flax seed

-Mix 2 C. flour, yeast, salt, butter, flax and sugar together. I prefer the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (Thanks Mom and Dad Dekker!!!)

-Add the milk, water and egg. Once these are mixed in, the dough will be very sticky. Add the remaining flour in 1/4 C. increments until the dough is easy to handle.

-Put the dough in a greased bowl and let rise for one hour in a warm place. My favorite way to let dough rise is to set the oven to preheat at 400 degrees for 2 minutes. Turn the oven off, place your dough in, close the door, walk away. Rebecca taught me that trick! It keeps a nice constant warm temp.

-When the dough has doubled in size, flour your hands and gently push it down and kneed for a bit. Then break the dough off into 15 equalish portions. Form into balls, and place in a greased 9x13 inch pan. Bake for15 minutes at 375 degrees.

-Once done, remove imediatly. Take a bit of butter (I used less than 1/2 tbs) and rub the tops of the buns to get a nice top. Serve warm.

-Enjoy!