40 Minute Wheat Buns

I made these as whole wheat rolls for the first time today and I can say that I love them.  They are tender, soft, slightly sweet and they almost melt in your mouth.  I paired them with salmon patties-a recipe I found on Green & Thrifty (Hi, Marishannon!).  The daycare kids were a little skeptical at first, but once I got them to take the first bite, they were hooked (funny pun, LOL!).  My son ate three and was mad that there wasn't more.

Oops, off track... back to the buns.  The kids didn't need any encouragement to dive into these.  I managed to save enough so that hubby and the girls can have one with dinner tonight.  If they give them thumbs up, which I'm sure they will, these will be our new go to dinner roll/bun recipe.

The original recipe came from Taste of Home, but I modified it a bit.  Imagine that! :)

1 cup warm water
2 T. yeast
1/3 cup oil (I'm using up my canola oil, but will most likely use coconut oil next time around)
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
3/4 tsp. salt
3 cups whole white wheat flour

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in water and let stand for several minutes.  While the yeast is doing it's thing, put the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl.  I used my stand mixer for this recipe.  Start mixing the ingredients in the big bowl together and then add the yeast mixture.  Mix together.  I added a bit of extra flour here-maybe 1/4 cup as my dough was a little too gooey (this is a soft dough, but it has to be workable too).  Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead about 5 minutes.  Immediately cut the dough into 12 pieces, rolling them and shaping them into balls.  Place on a greased baking sheet and press slightly to flatten (or you buns will be the size of softballs-yeah, I did that!).  Cover and let them rest 10 minutes.  Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Place buns on wire rack to cool.

UPDATE 03/23/2011:  Given that I've now figured that sticky is better for whole wheat dough, use as little flour as possible to make these buns.  I did it the other day with 2 3/4 cups, but it wasn't very humid (that can be a big issue in Missouri).  I roll the dough into balls and put them in a muffin pan to bake.  They made wonderful dinner rolls-great with homemade strawberry jam!