Let me tell you about my 40 minute honey wheat dinner rolls….
It was 30F when we headed to the farmer’s market on Sunday. We must have looked like a couple of eejits, manoeuvring a huge double stroller around the busy stalls at 7am, with two kids so bundled up, you could basically only see their eyes. Oh and the hands reaching out for a share once we hit the pear stand.
You would think that I would be used to the cold, having grown up in Ireland. Or in the least, it wouldn’t have felt so bad seeing as we spent a few nights sleeping in a bare essentials cabin in the snow at Yosemite a couple of weeks beforehand. Nope, I was freezey cold.
We got our supplies and hightailed it out of there pretty quickly. Oh, and in case you are thinking we are awesome for still going to the markets at 7am, when it is that cold – it was all in the name of self preservation….bad night with whiney kids, means getting out of the house (and having someone else hand me a coffee), is essential business for the day.
So, when I was making our ‘warm-up’ soup for dinner later, I realised we had left in such a hurry we hadn’t grabbed any bread from the market. The soup was on, and everyone was hungry, so there was no nipping out to the shops. Long story short, I came up with these little 40 Minute Honey Wheat Dinner Rolls, and I am very happy with them indeed. On the table 40 minutes from start to finish, these honey wheat dinner rolls are subtly sweetened with a hint of local honey, and are really quite delicious. If you like cornbread, I have a honeyed version of that too 🙂
There is a lot of yeast in these rolls, which is necessary, since we are giving them the bare minimum in rise time. But I guarantee you, there is no yeasty flavour to them.
40 Minute Honey Wheat Dinner Rolls are perfect for when you are in a bind, or if you want to look all fancy with homemade rolls, but don’t have the patience/energy/time for the knead/rise/knead/rise versions. Plus, the oven will warm up your kitchen some, which is always a nice bonus 🙂
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
- cup ⅓ olive oil
- 2 tbsp active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- teaspoon ½ salt
- 1 tbsp raw honey
- 1 egg
- 3 cups ½ flour I used white whole wheat
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Preheat oven to 400F. Combine the warm water, oil, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and allow the mixture to rest for about 15 minutes (see note)
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Once the 15 minutes is up, and the yeast is frothy, add in the honey, 2 cups of the flour, along with the salt, and the egg. Combine with a dough hook attachment
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Add in the remaining flour ½ a cup at a time. Combine well
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Shape the dough into 12 balls and pop onto a lined baking tray. Let dough rest for 20 minutes
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Bake for 10 minutes or until tops are just golden brown. Serve and enjoy
If you don't have a stand mixer, you can do this by hand, it will just take a lot longer
I looked over your easy recipe to possibly bake for a quick meal tonight. But I have a question. What’s the tablespoon of honey for? It’s listed, but I don’t see it used in the recipe, at all. I’m not sure why it would be near the end of the ingredient list, anyway. since he sugar is at the beginning of the list. I’m kind of surprised none of the other commenters noticed.
Hi Judith, thanks for pointing out the omission, I have gone back and edited it. As the title suggests they are honey wheat dinner rolls, so the honey is to give a slightly different flavor than a normal dinner roll, it’s very subtle. The honey goes in separately from the sugar as the sugar is being used in the yeast activation step. I’m surprised no one else commented on it either, although if I notice something missing in a recipe I usually just add it in when it feels appropriate and never leave a comment….in hindsight maybe I should start leaving comments so the site owner knows to go and fix it? Thanks again 🙂
Hi Donna, Thanks for your quick reply. I’m also a recipe creator and food writer, but like to glean from others when I’m at a loss and in a hurry. I baked the rolls. They were so easy to make; really quick.
I’ve adapted your recipe using all whole wheat pastry flour, cut the water to 1 cup, because the dough was so wet I had to add an extra 1/2 cup of flour. I also eliminated the sugar and used 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of honey as yeast food/sweetener and raised the salt to 3/4 teaspoon. I found the rolls a little too sweet for my liking with so much sweetener and so little salt. This morning, we still had a few rolls left (there are only two of us) so I thinly sliced off the tops and bottoms and turned them into whole wheat French toast. Perfect! Thanks again.
Ooh yum, I love the idea of using whole wheat flour and making a french toast the next day – perfect way to start the morning!
You had me at 40minutes! This is an amazing recipe – any bread recipe I have takes a lot longer. I’m pinning to try these out. Thank you for sharing x
Thanks Becky! This is my go to recipe to have on hand for last minute bread needs 🙂
Oh my gosh, rolls and buns are always a favorite of mine and these honey ones look absolutely delicious! I cannot wait to try!!
Yay, I hope you love them as much as we do!
I doubt my rolls could ever look as good as yours but I like the sound of sweetening it with honey. What a delicious thought!
Oh you shouldn’t doubt yourself Ana! I am not a baker by any stretch of the imagination, they are super easy 🙂
Mmmm these dinner rolls look amazing! I have a fabulous sweet butter recipe that would probably taste amazing with them. I think I’ll have to bake these this weekend–thanks for the recipe!
Oh yum, that sounds like the perfect combination!
I’m from WI so I get cold, like do not go outside cold. Lol. I hate it. These do seem really easy. Making my own bread always scares me; not really sure why now that I see how easy these are! Thanks so much for sharing.
Oh yes, we went to WI during winter last year (silly move), and it was so so cold. There is no way I could live there, I am struggling in California 🙂 Oh and yes, these are super easy!!
These dinner rolls look delicious. I will try out this recipe soon. Love it 🙂
Oh thank you Ritu 🙂
Wow! This sounds amazing and the fact that it is wheat works for me! Thank you!
Very welcome 🙂
Seriously? Only 40 minutes? That sounds absolutely incredible. We are complete bread junkies in this house.
Yes only 40 minutes 🙂 I tested it like 6 times to make sure that it worked every time, as I hate it when people say something only takes a certain amount of time, and it totally doesn’t! We are total bread junkies too 🙂
hahahaa I relate to the cold! I spent 30 years growing up in England, then moved to Southern California. I now think anything below 60 is cold. lol!
Haha, it’s funny how quickly your body get’s used to something hey! I seriously cannot handle the cold anymore!
The dinner rolls looked oh so good! I can’t wait to try this.
Oh thank you 🙂
My family loves rolls with dinner. Coconut sugar? I have never heard of it, this recipe sounds so delicious.
Oh you should check it out, I use it for everything now. It has a brown sugar taste to it, but is supposedly healthier as it doesn’t have all the ‘processing’ behind it, that refined sugars have. If you don’t have any, you can def sub in some ordinary sugar if you want though
These look so delicious! I can’t wait to include them with our next Sunday dinner!!
Yay 🙂 Thanks Roxanne!
These look delicious and your photography of the rolls themselves is lovely. I am gluten free, but, my husband is a chef and I plan on floating these past him to see if there’s a GF version he can come up with!!
Oh thank you so much Paula, food photography has such a steep learning curve, but I am learning new things all the time, so thats good 🙂 Hope you can get it to work with gluten free ingredients – I would love to hear back if you do!
Bread rolls in under an hour is an awesome thing to have in your toolbox. I’ve done rapid rising like this, but will admit that I do not like it nearly as much as dough that’s risen longer. But, when you are in a hurry you can’t be picky.
Oh I completely agree Laura, these in no way replace those breads and rolls that have been resting for hours – they are still my favourite types, and I always make them for special occasions. During the week I just never seem to be able to fit the process into my day, so I tend to make more rapid rise versions, like this one!
Baking bread sounds super scary at first, but this is a great recipe for giving yeast and bread baking a try. I feel inspired to bake. I’m going to pin this. Thanks!
Oh yes, this recipe is like baking 101. I am not a baker by any stretch of the imagination, but these I can do 🙂
Those look sooo good! I miss being able to eat wheat!
Oh no, that would be horrible! I am the biggest bread fan.
I have never made rolls from scratch. But I must say I love your ingredient list. It is so wonderful to really know what ingredients are in what we eat. You just might have inspired me to try. Pinning for later.
Oh yay 🙂 Thanks so much Stacey! I had actually never made rolls from scratch until recently, when I checked on the ingredient list on the store bought ones, and I just couldn’t put them in the shopping cart! They are so easy, I don’t know why it took me so long!
Oh wow! These sound really good! I love it when honey is baked into the bread!
I know hey, gives it such a great flavour!
Dinner is not complete in our house without some kind of rolls or bread. These sounds super yummy. I will have to try them.
Oh we are the same Robin, we are ridiculous when it comes to bread with a meal! These are super easy, and they taste delicious.