Cranberry-Nut Rolls

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Even though we decided to cook a lamb for Thanksgiving instead of a Turkey, we still wanted to feature some traditional Thanksgiving/holiday flavors. Cranberries are one of those quintessential ingredients that make an appearance between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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This recipe from bon appetit seemed perfect…we needed some bread for the meal and the walnuts and cranberries in the rolls would complement the apple-walnut-cranberry salad that we had planned. These would also be good with some brie or goat cheese.

We used milk, but didn’t warm it first because we used instant yeast which doesn’t need to be warmed up.

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The recipe called for dividing the dough into 12 pieces, which yielded 12 pretty big rolls. Next time, I’m going to make them half as big which will give me twice as many…a good thing, because they are really yummy! You can freeze some and pull them out for dinner or brunch. To freeze: Wrap in foil, then enclose in a resealable plastic bag and freeze up to 2 weeks. Thaw rolls at room temperature. Warm rolls wrapped in foil in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

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Cranberry-Nut Rolls

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
  • 3 1/2 cups (or more) bread flour
  • 1 tablespoon (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons quick-rising dry yeast (from one 1/4-ounce envelope)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus additional for coating bowl
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
  • Nonstick vegetable oil spray
  • 1 large egg, beaten to blend (for glaze)
  • Raw sugar

Directions:

  1. Stir nuts in dry skillet over medium heat until toasted, about 5 minutes. Cool.
  2. Mix bread flour, brown sugar, yeast and salt in bowl of heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
  3. Warm milk in small saucepan over low heat until instant-read thermometer inserted into milk registers 95 degrees. Add oil; remove from heat. Add milk mixture and 1 egg to flour mixture. Mix on low speed until wet coarse ball forms, about 1 minute.
  4. Add nuts and cranberries. Replace paddle attachment on mixer with dough hook. Mix dough on low speed until smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky, adding more flour by the tablespoon as needed, about 4 minutes. Transfer dough to floured surface; knead 2 minutes.
  5. Lightly oil large bowl. Shape dough into ball; place in prepared bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until almost doubled in volume, 1 3/4 to 2 hours.
  6. Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer dough to unfloured surface; divide into 12 equal pieces. Using cupped hand, roll and rotate 1 dough piece firmly on work surface until dough piece pops up into cupped hand as smooth round ball, about 6 rotations. (This will make dough ball as smooth as possible; if necessary, wipe work surface with damp paper towel to help create traction.) Repeat with remaining dough pieces.
  7. Transfer rolls to prepared baking sheet, spacing apart. Spray rolls with nonstick spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until 1 1/2 times original size, about 1 1/2 hours. Brush rolls with egg glaze; sprinkle with raw sugar. Let rise 15 minutes longer.
  8. Meanwhile, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425 degrees.
  9. Place rolls in oven; reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake 7 minutes. Rotate baking sheet; bake rolls until golden and slightly firm to touch, about 8 minutes longer. Cool completely on rack.

4 thoughts on “Cranberry-Nut Rolls

  1. found these rolls and tried them today. dough didn’t rise much at all. let them rise for 4 hours and barely rose. the finished product resembled scones more than nicely risen rolls. did this problem happen for anyone else? the pictures seemed to show a roll that didn’t rise much either.

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