Buttermilk Wheat Rolls

For Thanksgiving I told my grandma I would bring homemade rolls. I'd only made homemade rolls once before and they only turned out okay. Since then though I’ve made several loaves of bread and countless pizza crusts so I figured I’d be okay. Or else I'd be running to the store for the heat 'n eat kind!

The recipe I chose is called Whole Wheat Buttermilk Rolls from the cookbook Baking by Carole Clements. I like this recipe because there’s only one rise instead of the normal two when making yeast breads.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Rolls
Makes 12 rolls

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
¼ cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ cup lukewarm buttermilk
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 beaten egg, for glazing

I decided to double this recipe.

Begin by combining the yeast, water and sugar in a large bowl. Stir and leave for 15 minutes to dissolve. The yeast will make the liquid all bubbly. It's "burping" as Alton Brown would say.


Add the buttermilk, baking soda, salt and butter and stir to blend. The butter doesn’t really blend completely so just chop it up some and move on. It will be blended in when the flour is added.


Stir in the whole wheat flour. I used the paddle attachment on my stand mixer. Add just enough all-purpose flour to form a stiff dough. The recipe calls for one cup, but I used up to 1 ½ cups. At this point I switched to the dough hook attachment.


Transfer to a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. OR use the dough hook attachment to knead. The dough ball should come together and clean the sides of the bowl. If the dough is sticky, add more flour a little bit at a time.


Once dough is smooth and elastic, transfer to a floured surface (if you haven’t already) to shape the dough into rolls.


Divide into 3 equal parts. Roll each into a cylinder then cut each cylinder into 4 pieces.


Form the pieces into torpedo shapes (aka football shapes). Now unless you are an expert, it will be impossible to get them all the same size. And mine didn’t really look like torpedos as you can see below:


I’m not sure that it’s really necessary to form the dough into a torpedo shape. I think next time I will just make them round. Much easier!

Place on a greased baking sheet, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in volume (about one hour). Tip: place pan over a bowl of warm water, like suggested for homemade pizza crust to help the rolls rise. Here’s what they looked like after one hour:


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush with the glaze. I forgot to do that part - oh well! Bake until firm, 15-20 minutes. Cool. Here’s how they turned out:


These rolls turned out really well! They looked really nice and they tasted great warm with butter. They were a hit at my grandma’s house. I thought they were really easy, especially with only one rise. I usually have all these ingredients on hand, except for buttermilk. Tip on buttermilk: if you do not have any buttermilk and your recipe calls for it, mix 1 tablespoon white vinegar with 1 cup milk and let stand for a few minutes to curdle. Use as directed for buttermilk in your recipe. I do this all the time and I can never tell a difference from real buttermilk.

I will definitely be making these again!