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Butternut Dinner Rolls #BreadBakers


Our Bread Bakers theme for this month is the wide variety of dinner rolls, hosted by Zesty South Indian Kitchen.  I chose the lovely rolls that I have made every year for Thanksgiving with family.  They are easy to make ahead, freeze, and reheat on the day of feasting and they are delightfully soft.  Absolutely brilliant with a little butter and cranberry sauce!  The original recipe called for pumpkin, and any hard winter squash should work, but I do really like butternut squash for delicate color and flavor.
 

I suggest roasting over steaming if making your own puree, to get a consistency closest to canned puree that will work the best with the flour quantities listed.  Steamed puree tends to need significantly more flour.  These are an easy recipe roll and forgiving on time.  You can let them rise once, or twice, depending on how busy you are, or if you forget about the dough for a while... 😉  I use millet flour or meal instead of corn because of corn sensitivities, and millet lends a nice corn flavor to the rolls.  Feel free to use the original cornmeal though!  This recipe is half the original recipe, which makes both loaves and rolls, so this can easily be doubled to make 24 rolls, or a dozen rolls and a loaf, or two medium loaves and 6 rolls.


Butternut Corn Dinner Rolls
Yield:  12 dinner rolls

2 tsp active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
½ cup warm water (105˚ to 115˚F)
½ cup warm buttermilk or kefir (105˚ to 115˚F)
2½ tbsp melted butter or oil
2 tbsp + 2 tsp maple syrup or golden syrup
¼ cup butternut squash purée (pumpkin or delicata works as well, canned is fine)
1¼ tsp sea salt 10g
½ cup fine-grind yellow cornmeal (I like to use millet flour)
½ cup medium rye flour light rye 53g
2¼ to 2½ cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour

2 tbsp butter, melted, for brushing

In a large bowl, whisk together the warm water, sugar, buttermilk, melted butter/oil, syrup, yeast, and pumpkin purée.  Add in salt, cornmeal or millet flour, and rye flour, and beat for a few minutes until smooth.
Add the all-purpose flour or bread flour ½ cup at a time, until a soft dough is achieved.  (You may need more flour depending on the water content of your puree.)  Knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, either by hand or with a dough hook.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until double, about 1½ to 2 hours, depending on your kitchen temperature.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 12 equal portions.  Bring the edges of each piece together repeatedly to form a ball.  Place in a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking dish and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a tea towel.  
 

Let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 20 minutes.  You can also place in refrigerator for 2 hours to overnight.
 
 
Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375˚.  While the oven is heating, brush the tops with half the melted butter.  (If you want a shiny, well-browned top like the top picture, brush rolls with a mixture of egg and milk).
 

Bake on the center rack of the oven until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush with the remaining butter before cooling on a rack.  Rolls may be served warm or reheated later in the oven.
 

(adapted from Bread for All Seasons by Beth Hensperger)

 #BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

 
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

 

BreadBakers

 

Be sure to check out the rest of our delicious dinner rolls:

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