In the Kitchen

A Way With Bread

The Best Breakfast Rolls

I am always looking for new techniques and interesting ingredients to make bread. My recipe collection has more than 500 different recipes for yeast breads alone. When I recently ran across this breakfast roll recipe, it seemed “new” because I hadn’t made it for so long for my family. This recipe contains an interesting combination of ingredients and also allows busy cooks an opportunity to prepare everything the evening before and bake the next morning for breakfast.
The warm marmalade in the center oozes out during baking and makes the rolls sticky and delicious.  You can use any kind of marmalade or thick jam. I prefer citrus, but you can also use any fruit jam.  You can substitute lemon zest or leave it out completely. One variation I tried that turned out very well uses thick cherry preserves with orange zest — almost as good as the original recipe.
These make an excellent picnic food that goes very well with chicken salad. The next day, slice them in half, toast and spread with peanut butter for a super quick and nutritious breakfast or snack.

Best Breakfast Rolls
¼ cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 packages dry yeast
3 tablespoons orange zest
1 stick of butter, at room temperature,
cut into 16 equal pieces
¾ cup warm orange juice
¾ cup scalded milk; do not boil
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon dry ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
Orange marmalade
Egg wash

Stir together the first three ingredients until dissolved and set aside to proof the yeast, which takes about 5 minutes.
In a standing mixer, or by hand, blend the orange zest, butter pieces, warm orange juice and scalded milk until
the butter is completely dissolved. Add the eggs and egg yolk, yeast mixture, salt, ginger, and cardamom to the mixing bowl and blend until well mixed. Add 2 cups of the flour and mix until blended. Add an additional 2 cups of flour and again mix until well blended and smooth. Pour 1/2 cup of the remaining flour onto the counter and add the dough. Knead by hand for 2 or 3 minutes, adding additional flour in small amounts as needed, until the dough is smooth, shiny, elastic and not too sticky.
Shape the dough into a round-shaped loaf and set aside. Grease a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter. Add the dough and turn once to coat all sides. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about 90 minutes).
Grease a muffin tin with the last of the warm butter. Pull off pieces of risen dough large enough to fill the muffin tins about 1/2 full. Flatten the dough in your hand into a small circle. Place 1 teaspoon of the orange marmalade in the center and fold the sides of the dough around it and pinch together, sealing the marmalade inside. Place the shaped dough, pinched side down into the muffin tin. Repeat until all the dough is gone.
At this point, you can either wrap the rolls loosely in plastic wrap and place the tin in the refrigerator overnight or continue letting them rise. If you are baking the rolls immediately, cover them loosely with plastic wrap and place them in a warm place to rise. After about an hour, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the rolls have doubled in size (about 90 minutes total time), brush them lightly with the egg wash (1 egg slightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water), and using a sharp knife, cut an X into the top of the risen rolls. Bake them in a preheated oven until nice and brown on top, about 20 minutes. When done, remove the rolls from the oven and serve immediately. This makes about 18 rolls.
     Note: If you place the rolls in the refrigerator overnight, be sure to let them rise an additional 20 to 30 minutes before baking to overcome the cold temperature.

This article appears in the July-August 2010 issue of Alameda Magazine
Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to Alameda Magazine »