High Altitude Cinnamon Honey Whole Wheat Soft Dinner Rolls
Soft and fluffy whole wheat dinner rolls, lightly sweetened with cinnamon and honey, filled with butter and rolled into spirals.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
- Small Saucepan
- Medium-Sized Bowl
- 9x13 Baking Dish
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 3 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 2 tbsp bread flour
Dough
- 8 tbsp softened unsalted butter, divided
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry or instant/rapid rise yeast
- ¼ cup honey, divided
- 1 ½ cups bread flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg, room temperature
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
Make the Tangzhong
- In a small saucepan, whisk together the water, milk and flour. Cook over medium heat for several minutes, whisking constantly, until it thickens into a paste.
- Remove from the heat, scrape the tangzhong into a small bowl, and refrigerate to cool it down while you make the dough.
Make the Dough
- In the same saucepan you used to make the tangzhong (no need to wash the pan first), melt 4 tablespoons of the butter (reserving 4 tablespoons for later) over medium heat. Stir in the milk, and warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in the yeast and 1 tablespoon of honey. Let sit for a few minutes until it starts to get bubbly.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the bread flour, whole wheat flour, salt and cinnamon with the remainder of the honey, the warm yeast mixture, the cooled tangzhong, and egg.
- With the dough hook, knead the dough for 10 minutes on low speed. The dough should be soft and smooth, and will wrap around the dough hook, but may still stick to the bottom of the bowl. Don't be tempted to add more flour, though, or the rolls will be dense.
- Scrape the dough into a greased bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. This could take anywhere from 45-90 minutes, depending on the freshness/brand of yeast, and how warm your kitchen is.If your oven has a bread proof setting, you can use that. Otherwise, preheat your oven to the lowest setting, turn it off, then set the dough inside to rise.
Shape the Rolls
- Use 1 tablespoon of butter to grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
- Baker's Note: If you don't want your rolls to look like cinnamon rolls, place the coiled strips on their sides, instead of with the spiral facing up, as demonstrated in these Parker House rolls. For a more traditional look to your dinner rolls shaped as smooth, rounded buns, see the steps demonstrated for shaping these potato rolls.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and flour the top of the dough, too. Gently roll the dough out into a square, about 14x14 inches. Spread the dough with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter.
- Cut the dough in half down the center, then cut into strips, so that you have 12 strips of dough. Roll up each strip of dough into a coil, then place the coils of dough in the greased baking dish.Baker's Note: If you want to make the dough and shape the rolls the night before a holiday, complete all the steps up to this point, cover the baking dish with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, proceed to the next step. The buns may need an hour or longer to come to room temperature and warm up before they start to puff and fill the pan. Once they do, they're ready to bake.
- Cover the pan loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside until the buns are starting to puff up, about 20-30 minutes.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- For the egg wash, whisk together the egg and milk, and brush the egg wash over the buns. This will give them a beautiful golden brown shine as they bake.
- Bake the rolls for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the rolls reads 195 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Let cool for a few minutes, then pull the rolls apart and serve warm with soft butter.
Notes
Store leftover rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. To reheat, place the rolls in the oven and warm them at 300 degrees F for about 5-7 minutes.
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