Good morning!
Thanks for all your great comments on my Fluffy White Clouds post. I loved reading them.
I woke up to a spooky and foggy morning outside…
and the leaves on the ground have at least doubled since I got home last Thursday!
I can’t believe today is the last day of September. Where did it go?
I made an equally spooky breakfast…
Meet Pumpkin Delight Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait:
That would be my Gingerbread Vegan Overnight Oats layered with Pumpkin Gingerbread Soft Serve (recipe below)!
Pumpkin Gingerbread Banana Soft Serve
Process together:
- 1 frozen banana,
- 1 tbsp almond milk,
- 3 tbsp canned pumpkin,
- 1 tsp blackstrap molasses,
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice.
It was ridiculously good!
Yesterday marked the first time I have ever made Vegan Dinner Rolls. I admit, I was quite apprehensive about making dinner rolls, especially after the ‘hard as baseball’ rolls I made last year. Those weren’t even vegan either and they were a huge fail. The disaster sort of crushed my roll making confidence.
But I decided to fear a dinner roll was silly.
After all, it was just a bit of flour, yeast, water, salt, sugar, Earth Balance, and egg replacer….
After a few prayers and a lot of patience, magic happened.
Vegan Pull-Apart Fluffy White Dinner Rolls
Adapted from Spark People.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt (or regular)
- 2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
- 1 cup very warm water
- 2 tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Stick
- 1 egg replacer (1 tsp egg replacer + 2 tbsp warm water)
Directions:
1) Proof your yeast! In a small bowl mix 2 1/4 tsp of Active Dry Yeast with 1/4 cup of very warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F). Stir and let dissolve. Now add 1 tsp of sugar and stir. Let it sit for a good 5-10 minutes. You will know the yeast is active when it is slightly foamy and smells like bread.
2. In a stand mixer or by hand, add 1 and 1/4 cup of flour, remaining sugar (1 tbsp + 2 tsp), salt, and yeast mixture. Mix briefly for 10 seconds or so. Now, add the remaining very warm water (3/4 cup), slightly melted Earth balance, and egg replacer and mix until smooth. Slowly add in the rest of the flour (1 cup) and mix until smooth.
3. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. I put my bowl of dough in the oven with the light turned on (but not the oven itself!)
4. Grease a pie pan and set aside. After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the oven and knead with hands for a few seconds. Divide the dough into 12 balls with hands and place the balls into the pie pan (see image below).
5. Cover pie pan with towel and place back into the oven with light on for another 30 minutes. The rolls will expand and fill the pie pan during this time.
6. After 25 minutes, remove from oven and preheat the oven to 400F. After 5 more minutes, it is time to bake the rolls for 15-18 minutes until golden and fluffy. Makes 12 pull apart rolls.
7. Serve with Earth Balance and enjoy!
After rising the dough for 30 minutes, it was time to put 12 balls of dough into a pie pan! I decided to create pull-apart rolls because I think they are so fun.
I was nervous at this point, thinking that they weren’t going to rise, but lo and behold after 30 minutes they filled out and looked beautiful!
Look at that before and after:
Fun, right?
Then I basted the rolls with a coating of Earth Balance and popped it in the oven for about 17 mins. at 400F.
Deep inhale.
The house smelled wonderful!
Insert self-congratulatory pats on the back. ;)
The best part about baking fluffy rolls?
Getting to be the official taste tester!
I enjoyed 2 rolls with Earth Balance and had to practice serious self-control not to devour the entire lot.
These are some good rolls. Slightly crispy on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside.
Moral of the story: Do not fear making dinner rolls. It really wasn’t that hard! The toughest part was waiting for the dough to rise as I impatiently peeked at it every 5 minutes like a mother who just brought home her baby from the hospital.
Have you ever made dinner rolls or bread from scratch? Did it turn out?
Those look so pretty!! I haven’t tried making rolls but I did experiment with bagels once and they went horribly wrong! Do you think these rolls would work if you used other flours, like whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour?
I made a loaf of spelt bread before and it turned out horrible….I think that was because I subbed 100% whole grain spelt for the flour. If using spelt again, I would probably only sub in spelt for 25% and use the white spelt if possible. I’m very leary of it after my bread experience (it didnt rise and was very dense)
Whole wheat pastry flour might be a better option! I would try googling bread recipes with it and see if there are any already out there. :)
That recipe is what I have been looking for. I like to make bread from scratch but do not do it often anymore. It is funny because I can make a nice french bread but not biscuits. Thanks for the recipe. :)
I really love the no knead bread recipe from The Minimalist a few years back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html
It takes a couple tries to get it right, but there is a lot of information on the internet about how to do it, and once you perfect it, it’s really easy. When I was making it regularly, I adapted it into a honey oatmeal whole wheat loaf and would start it just before bed (which took all of 15 minutes), let it sit out to rise overnight, pop it into the fridge when I got up in the morning and bake it when I got home from work.
They look like some of the best rolls I have ever seen. I’m making these for Thanksgiving for sure.
those look so good! do you think you could sub in flax+water if you dont have egg replacer? if so, how much woud you think to use? i want to make these today!!!!
I can’t see why not!
I would sub in 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp warm water.
I’ve made them a few times with 1tbsp flax + 3tbsp water. They are always delicious, you just have to add a little more flour, just go by feel on the dough, it usually takes me an additional 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup flour if I add it little by little.
Yeast scares me and I think that is why I never bake bread but these looks so amazing I may have to try. Better make sure my husband is home though because I would eat all of them, at least if he is home we can split them.
I have never tried to make them myself. Then again, I only ever eat dinner rolls on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just don’t find that they add much filling power to my dinner for the calories.
I’ve never made homemade dinner rolls but my mom and I make bread from scratch and it’s incredible! My favorite is this stuff called “box bread” that you actually have to bake in a covered bread pan to keep it from rising- it turns out sooo dense.
My smalls (and I) just gobbled up “punkin pie sundaes” for brekkie… inspired very much by you… YUM!!! and my smalls asked for more! Now… would you care for some plum butter to go with your lovely rolls? Our kitchen is plum full of PLUMS…. thanks to our generous tree out back : >
I made multigrain rolls once and they DID turn out! But these look so delicious I need to try!
Love that you made the rolls so you can pull them apart. They look so fluffy and delicious!
i love how the rolls expanded. i am definitely scared of baking rolls, pizza crust, and all other breads. probably in part due to past failures, in particular in the “easy” pizza crust group, but i guess you just have to keep trying. you should make some awesome vegan mushroom gravy to dip the rolls in.
Ohhhh yum. My mom makes dinner rolls like that (dairy free, but with eggs) every year for Thanksgiving, and they are just insane if you have them hot with honey. Ooohhh, that’s making me hungry… breakfast time?
Yum!!
The only bread I’ve ever made at home was with a bread maker. This looks fairly easy, incredibly good, and I know it would impress my husband : )
You are so creative!! I wish I could be more open minded about the variety of flavors that are out there. Do you draw your inspiration from anywhere in particular?
These look amazing!! i think I’m going to have to give them a shot for thanksgiving next weekend. Thanks for posting the recipe :)
Pumpkin gingerbread softserve: love it! Looks amazingly delicious!!
And your rolls look perfect!!
Ana
That looks SO good!!! I tried to make vegan biscuits once and they turned out terribly :-(.
these look SO GOOOOD… sadly, I doubt I could re-create in a gluten free version.
your egg replacer box is so much prettier than mine… :) weird, I know… the Ener-G brand looks like something from the 70’s !! :D
Not sure I have the guts to try making my own rolls. I can’t believe you made these! They look like they’re straight from a pilsbury can!