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Whole Wheat Butterhorns Recipe
November 20, 2005 | 19 Comments
Before I jump into today's recipe, I figured some of you are still scrambling for Thanksgiving ideas and recipes - so I went through the archives and made a list of a few winners for you:
- Bourbon Baked Sweet Potatoes
Notice there are no rolls or yeast baked bread recipes in that list? It's because it has been a while since I've dabbled with the yeast beast. I make a lot of yeast-based pizza dough, but bread or rolls? Not so often.
I came across a little book in the library the other day called Recipes from the Old Mill, and it got me charged up to do a bit of baking this weekend. The book was written by sisters (Sarah and Mary Beth)- their father was a country doctor and bought a plot of land in rural West Virginia where he was going to build a clinic. The land had an outbuilding on the property next to a stream and pond, a water-powered mill where their uncle would eventually mill whole grains into flour. The book is a collection of their favorite, tried-and-true baking recipes. They dedicate chapters to baking with each of the following: corn, wheat, rye, and buckwheat, and multi-grain recipes.
I picked the Whole Wheat Butterhorn rolls because I suspected I might get assigned bread-duty for Thanksgiving (turns out my dad is actually going to make homemade sweet potato rolls). The recipe also sounded like it was a nice balance of whole wheat and all-purpose flours and was accompanied by a note from one of the author's stating that these have become her trademark rolls. A good sign.
The rolls are very straight-forward and easy to make as long as you don't kill the yeast right off the bat. The recipe calls for warm water, I use water that is very warm to the touch, but not at all uncomfortable. In my head I think "warm bath water"...I want to give the yeast a nice warm, relaxing, unstressful bath. If you are a little freaked out by yeast, just use a thermometer and shoot for 105-110F.
This recipe makes a honey-wheat tasting, soft roll. You could conceivably make them in any shape you like - the butterhorns are easy though, and you feel like you are practicing for homemade croissants. I like a little extra color and crunch to my crust so I brushed the rolls with a bit of slightly beaten egg to really put them over the top, and let them bake an extra couple of minutes so they would get extra golden where the rolls touched the buttered pan. The key to enjoying these rolls is to eat them hot out of the oven slathered with slightly salted butter. If you have to prebake them, give them a quick reheating just before serving.
Whole Wheat Butterhorns Recipe
2 packages dry yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons. oil
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2-2 1/2 cups flour
6 tablespoons soft butter
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)(hs note: I also ended up using one egg, lightly beaten to give the rolls a quick brush before popping them in the oven.)
1. Dissolve yeast in water.
2. Add brown sugar, oil, honey, salt, and 1 1/2 cups whole what flour. Mix well.
3. Stir in remaining whole wheat flour and enough flour to make a stiff dough.
4. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Divide into 3 equal pieces. Shape into balls. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
6. Roll each ball into a 10-inch circle. Spread with 1/3 butter (hs note: I used melted butter). Sprinkle with nuts if desired. Cut each circle into 8 wedges (hs note: like pizza slices). To shape rolls, begin at wide end of wedge and roll toward point. Place on greased baking sheet.
7. Cover and let rise 20-30 minutes. (hs note: this is when I brush the dough with the egg wash to get a nice golden crust). Bake in 375F oven for 12-15 minutes. Brush with milk or margarine while still warm.
Variation: Before rolling up, sprinkle generously with sesame or poppy seeds.
Yield: 2 dozen rolls
Related Entries
Peter Reinhart's challah recipe creates a wonderful (and reasonably forgiving) dough that bakes into a tender, delicious version of the traditional Jewish celebration bread.
Peter Reinhart's Napoletana pizza dough recipe. It makes my all-time favorite pizza dough using a delayed-fermentation method.
Your Comments
One of my favorite, tried-and-true recipes is Whole Wheat Butterhorns - a recipe that I learned in 7th grade (I'm 26) in Home Ec. I still have the same sheet I filled out in pink and blue pen!
They're always a HUGE hit.
But I'm going to try this recipe, too, since you speak so highly of it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
These look quite lovely, might try them over christmas.
I adore making the "Joy of Cooking's" White Bread Plus. It makes the most decadent and flavorful rolls and breads.
If you have ever had those rolls at Bertucci's, they come out somewhat like that, only even better because you make it fresh, with all natural ingredients.
We will have white + for t-day.
Yeast bread aroma trumps turkey any day so I love to make yeast rolls for Thanksgiving. I love the idea of these rolls and will try them, except I'll do them as refrigerator rolls. Place dough ingreased bowl the night before Tgiving, then remove the bowl of risen dough the next morning, punch down, warm up and proceed. the final bread should have a more developed flavor this way plus it gives me one less thing to worry about on the big day. Thanks for reminding me.
linda eckhardt author
Rustic European Breads
Not that I don't want to try these darling little things, but I'm currently more enamoured with the concept of sweet potato rolls. Is your Dad willing to share his recipe?
Wow...
One of the disadvantages of going to culinary school that no one told me about:
Between cooking full-time and going to school part-time, along with being a full-time husband and dad, leaves no time to cook what I want to cook. >sigh<
That being said, I *have* to cook these. Maybe Wednesday. It's my day off, or as I like to call it, "Barefoot Day"
Maybe I'll ask him if he would be up for doing a guest post about them. heh. -h
I like the way you call yeast the 'beast'! That is exactly how I think of it after having had a couple of huge disappointments. In hindsight, once it was because the yeast was dead before I started and the other time, I put the dough in my oven to rise and it didn't dawn on me that my oven is in the wall and therefore not draft-free because of the way the designers built it, so, of course, the dough did not rise. I haven't got my nerve and energy up to try again but those rolls look good. We have a good friend who makes fabulous rolls and we go there and gorge on hers when we get a chance :-)
Oh my, everything you posted for Turkey Day looks soooooo good. Thank you Heidi.
I do believe I'll add these to the Thanksgiving spread, thanks Heidi! My younger sister and I are responsible for Thanksgiving this year (with maybe a bit of help from our Mom), and I'm always looking to make healthy things--so whole wheat is perfect.
these sound great. is there any way to do some of the steps ahead of time, to try to make it a bit less hectic on thxgiving?
Sabina,
I think if you made the dough today (up through the step where you divide it into three balls) - you'll be fine. As, Linda says above, when you leave the dough overnight the flavor really seems to develop (I do this w/ my pizza doughs often).
Just roll them out, cut and shape them tomorrow. good luck -h
I just stumbled on this website yesterday and tried the rolls today-- I wish I'd discovered this website a long time ago! I'm not much of a breadmaker, but these rolls turned out great. One thing though, I forgot about misting the oven until the first batch was almost done; I did it for the second batch and they had a much better crust; I wish this step was in the recipe for those of us who aren't regular bread-making folk. The dough was very forgiving. Heidi, thank you for a great site!
I am curious about Rebecca's comment-- for those of you more skilled in baking and proportions, how would this recipe work out with a little sweet potato added to the mix (substituted?) for festivity? Would it be too much moisture?
kg
I hope my kids will find whole grain spelt butterhorns waiting for them today. It's almost 7 AM; I'll start now! The book sounds like a find...there's a little one from VT with a similar story, from the founders of the VT Country Store?
Well, for lack of your Dad's roll recipe, I went ahead and made these -- only I forgot to spread the butter on before rolling them up. They're still amazing, and even a tad less fattening. Very strong yeasty taste (which I adore) and I think the honey helps make these rather moist, even without the added butter. Of course, I did baste them with butter when fresh from the oven. Curious, what's with the margarine recommendation for this step? Does it behave differently?
I made these vegan and they were delicious. I decreased the salt in the recipe by 1/2 tsp. because all the vegan margarine I had was salted. I used that (softened, not melted) spread over the circles (and used much less than 6 Tbsps--more like 2 Tbsps. I had some za'atar (a Middle Eastern spice mix available here in Whole Foods) and used that to sprinkle on. When they came out of the oven, I basted the tops with a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). They were tender and absolutely yummy.
Came out beautiful with spelt (1/2 whole, 1/2 white), but needed a lot more flour. I spread them with olive oil ...we loved it! Thanks!
I am looking for a new publication with stories about kitchens and the recipes cooked there.
Many thanks for the yummiest Thanksgiving recipes! I made the Sweet Potato Puree, the autumn spice oil, and these rolls. Everything complemented our veg-Thanksgiving foods just perfectly and even our non-vegetarian guests were gushing. Your website is the best!
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