Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

With the holidays coming up, if you're anything like me, you're starting to compile your special recipes.

I stumbled upon this recipe several years ago while looking for something to make for Thanksgiving. My mom had stacks of recipe books, catalogs, etc. and I sat on the dining room floor and sorted through all of them. Finally, I found a recipe I felt worth trying in an old Taste of Home catalog (click on link for original recipe).

Thanksgiving is, by far, my favorite holiday so I wanted my contribution to be meaningful, full of love, tasty, healthy-ish (it is a holiday after all).

I wanted to serve a little piece of me.

Not only are these rolls fun to make, they are delicious. There was not one roll left after our Thanksgiving dinner, a chef/bakers true sign of success. These rolls have been a Thanksgiving tradition ever since.

Through the years I have altered the recipe slightly from the original to better suite my personal preferences.

So, here it is, a little piece of my heart for you to serve to your family.

From my kitchen to yours.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

2C water

1C Quick Oats

3 Tbs Butter

2 1/2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast

1/3C Warm Water

1/3C Packed Brown Sugar

1Tbs Sugar

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

4 3/4 - 5 1/4C All Purpose Flour

In saucepan, bring water to a boil; add oats and butter, cooking for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes. Add sugars and salt. Let oat mixture rest until lukewarm (about 20 minutes).

In a large mixing bowl combine warm water and yeast, stirring gently until all yeast is dissolved.

*Don't use hot water as it will kill the yeast

Add oat mixture to yeast and stir gently, then add 4C flour and combine until smooth. 

*Too much flour will result in a very dense roll. You can go up to 5C if you wish, but tread carefully

Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn dough onto floured surface and kneed until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

*Give your hands a quick douse in non stick spray to prevent the dough from sticking

Place dough in greased bowl, turning once to grease both sides. Cover and let rest in a warm, draft free, place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape into balls ( bigger gets you more, smaller gets you less... you get the idea) and place in greased baking pan (round, square... you want them to just be touching). Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until desired level of golden has been achieved.

Remove and let cool on wire rack.

** Try adding some cinnamon to your dough or sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over them just before baking

ENJOY! :-)