Whole Wheat and Cracked Wheat Dinner Rolls

The best thing about these rolls is how soft they are with just a hint of 'cruinch' from the toasted sesame seeds. These are perfect for dinner or just for a quick sandwich. I have been piling them with tomatoes, cheese and lettuce and gobbling them up all week. You won't be disappointed, believe me.

Here's What You'll Need:
1/2 cup cracked wheat (sometimes called bulghur wheat), softened
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110°F)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup mashed potatoes, room temperature
1 cup warm potato water (110°F)
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups AP f0..0
lour
2 1/2 cups  whole wheat flour
slightly beaten egg white
sesame seeds

Here's What You'll Need To Do:
To soften cracked wheat: Cover with hot water in a small bowl and allow to stand until softened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Drain if necessary.

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine butter or margarine, honey, salt, mashed potatoes, potato water (water in which potato has cooked) and eggs. Stir in yeast and cracked wheat. Mix in unbleached all-purpose flour and beat for 2 to 3 minutes by machine, about 150 strokes by hand. Add whole wheat flour to form a dough stiff enough to knead.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead till smooth and elastic. Shape and bake rolls immediately, or refrigerate the dough up to 6 days, covered with plastic wrap, punching down as necessary.

To shape and bake: If the dough has been refrigerated, let it come to room temperature. If it hasn't, let it rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down.


I found at this stage, that the dough was still too sticky to work easily, probably because of the whole wheat flour. Whatever. The easy solution, but you have to be careful, is to add more flour, a little at a time until you get a workable dough. In my case I ended up adding about 2/3 of a cup a regular AP flour in order to 'dry' out the dough. BE CAREFUL!! If you add to much the rolls will be dense, and simply will not rise very well. In the end, you'll have a tray of baseballs, not dinner rolls.

Cut off about 3oz (almost 100g) of dough and roll into a ball. Place then, seam side down, on a lightly-greased tray leaving some (but not a lot) of space between them. We want them to grow together, so we can pull them apart (still warm and very yummy)!

Cover lightly and let them rise again about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Brush the risen rolls with egg then sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Bake for about 20 minutes until brown. Cool on a rack.