Soft pull-apart buns are a classic dinner accompaniment. Known for their tender texture and delicious taste, they are a favorite for both adults and children alike. The whole wheat version of our recipe found in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day gives you a slightly healthier spin without compromising the great, buttery taste. While they are easy enough to make any night of the week, these dinner rolls can also find their way to your entertaining table.
We add
3 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon instant or active dry yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (if you use King Arthur or other high protein flours, you may need to add up to a 1/4 cup more water)
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts
2 teaspoons cinnamon
In a 6-Quart Round Storage Container add the water, yeast, salt, flours
raisins
walnuts and cinnamon.
Mix with a Danish Dough Whisk, a wooden spoon or a stand mixer.
Let the dough rise for 2 hours and then you can use it right away or it can be stored for about 7 days.
Pull out a 2-pound piece of dough, about half the dough in the bucket.
Quickly shape it into a smooth oval.
Generously grease and flour the base of the bread baker.
Place the dough into Bread Loaf Baker.
Cover and let rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This will depend on what else you have going on and how chilly your kitchen is.
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Uncover the loaf and use a Pastry Brush to paint with water.
Because this baker has a lid it traps the internal moisture of the dough, almost like a Dutch Oven, to create a shiny, crisp crust. Since it has the small holes, the crust will also color nicely during the baking without having to remove the cover.
Bake for about 45 minutes. If you open the lid and it is not yet golden brown, let it bake another 5 minutes.
Let the bread cool in the baker for 5 minutes
Turn the loaf out of the pan after 5 minutes and then let cool completely.
After you’ve enjoyed some of your bread you can slip it back into the baker to store it on the counter.
Since the cover has holes the loaf won’t get soggy, but it is protected enough to keep the bread from staling as quickly. It also happens to keep nosey puppies from the counter.
Here is the loaf baked in a regular loaf pan. You can see that the crust is pale and dull looking in comparison. It was still as tasty, but without the trapped steam the loaf just wasn’t as appealing. You’d have to add steam to the oven if you were to bake it in this style pan.
Lesaffre Yeast Corp. (Red Star) provided samples of yeast for recipe testing, and sponsors BreadIn5’s website and other promotional activities. Emile Henry provided bakeware and sponsorship.
With less than a week away from the most wonderful time of the year (sing that to yourself in a Bing Crosby voice), I find myself frantically baking for this Saturday and Sunday. I love passing out goodies to the neighbors each year, and while we have stacks of cookies and bars, somehow a loaf of bread is most ideal. This loaf is extra special – with both a tender crumb and studded with chocolate and orange pieces, it is breakfast and dessert, a sweet indulgence to bring tidings of comfort and joy. This recipe makes two loaves, so you can make one for snacking and one for giving. Happy Holidays!
We’ve made plenty of delicious holiday breads here on our site (Christmas Stollen, Brioche Cake with Sugared Cranberries, Pumpkin Spice Monkey Bread, and Panettone, just to name a few), and we’re going to add one more to the line up: Milk and Honey Braided Buns. Studded with dried fruit and topped with pearl sugar, these little braids are a lovely addition to any Christmas breakfast or New Years’ Brunch.
Christmas Stollen is a wonderful German baking tradition this time of year. A sweet loaf that is studded with dried fruit, spiced with cardamom and a special treat of almond paste runs through it. Once it comes out of the oven it is traditional to slather the warm loaf in butter then roll it in sugar, but we skip the extra butter and dust it with a thick layer of confectioners’ sugar to look like the snow outside. This loaf actually holds up very well for a couple of days and that makes it a great gift for the holidays.
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All of our books are available on Amazon, so click on the book-images to the right (or on our home page) to go there. Plus, here are the products we’ve used, tested, and love:
Oven thermometer… so important for getting the perfect crust and crumb.
Full-size baking stone… same! There are even super-small ones that fit in a toaster oven (college students have made our loaves in dorm rooms). Cast-iron “stones” are also great, and more durable.
Pizza peel… for free-form loaves, pizza, and flatbread. This one’s wood, but there are also nice options in composite material.
Danish Dough Whisk… to more easily hand-mix our doughs.
Dough bucket… Amazon sells the lids separately, but this price is much better than what you’ll find it for in kitchen stores. Many more baking products…
It’s that time again–happy Thanksgiving to our Stateside friends. Below, some links to many favorite Thanksgiving recipes:
Thanksgiving short-cut: Refrigerator rise trick for German-style dinner rolls
Thanksgiving Pumpkin Brioche Buns with Chocolate Ganache and Whole Wheat
Herb Crock-Pot Dinner Rolls–Easy Thanksgiving Baking
(The pictures in this post are by Stephen Scott Gross, who did the photography For New Healthy Bread in Five).
After writing the first edition of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in 2007 I was immediately asked how to convert the recipes to whole grains, and maybe even gluten-free equivalents. Through quite a lot of other adventures, the updated version has come out: The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Revised and Updated with New Recipes. Read More
The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day is available (click to order)! The book will ship out on November 1 and it will be available in your local stores as well. This project has been a long time in the making. As soon as I got the chance to rework New Artisan Bread, I knew I’d want to update the whole grain book too. It has everything readers asked for in the original book (many of the recipes, including the GF chapter) and added more 100% whole grain breads…. Read More
