Milk and Honey Golden Rolls

As the holiday of Rosh HaShana comes ever closer, I like to prepare myself mentally, spiritually and physically. For the physical part, we bring in the New Year traditionally, with something sweet, generally with honey although sweet foods are always a theme.

This year, I decided to go with a “milk” and honey theme, since Eretz Yisrael, or Israel is known as the Land of Milk and Honey. I put the milk into quotes since I use non-dairy milk for this, but you get the gist. These can be regular rolls but I made them into challah rolls since they are rich and sweet. Since I was hosting a friend for Shabbat who has a corn allergy (crazy how many things have corn derivatives, like cornstarch, high fructose corn syrup, etc, etc) I used some things I might have otherwise not, such as coconut cream as opposed to oat or almond milk since she can only use very specific brands. This all turned out to the good, since the texture of these challah rolls was, to put it frankly, divine (and ain’t that what we’re going for?) and actually creamy. My mom was also with us and concurred on the texture. So where could you go wrong here? Creamy, sweet as honey (heh) and if you make them round in shape, traditional for the New Year in every way.

So gather your ingredients

As you can see, the ingredients are fairly straightforward. Place into a bread machine or bowl of a mixer the honey and the yeast. If the honey has crystallized and become too thick to pour, simply warm it quickly in the microwave or in a bowl of hot water (putting the jar right in there) just till pourable.

Now add half the room temp “milk” of your choice just make sure it’s not cold out of the fridge or your yeast will balk and it retards its growth. Let sit covered (bread machine, just lower the lid; mixer bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap) for about 5 minutes or till it gets nice and foamy like so:

now add the eggs

and on top of this mixture, add the flour and salt on top. (In the mixer, start mixing with a paddle beater and gradually add half the flour.) Then add the other half of the milk. (In mixer, continue beating and add oil just till combined then switch to dough hook and knead for 10 minutes).

Turn on bread machine on dough cycle. As it starts to blend all the ingredients, add the oil and continue the cycle.

Keep it going and when really properly combined it will look like this:

Keep lid closed and let rise till doubled in bulk. In mixer, cover with towel or plastic wrap and let double in bulk.

Turn dough out onto oiled mat and oil your hands.

For the rolls, divide more or less evenly into 12 largish balls.

then roll each ball into a snake and tie into a simple knot. Place into large oiled muffin tins or on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Brush with beaten egg and let rise about half an hour in a warm environment (try a turned off oven with oven light on, works a treat).

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and bake rolls about 25-28 minutes or till golden brown, baked throughout and beautiful to behold. Brush the tops with honey oil mixture and it will be mostly absorbed into the rolls, leaving a nice sheen. Immediately after brushing with honey mixture, sprinkle with a light hand some kosher, coarse or flaked salt on top.

Let cool to luke before removing from pan.

A note. If you prefer to bake into round challahs, this will make 3 very nice sized challahs you can coil into a snail shape for the holiday. Just bake for longer, about 30 minutes or so and proceed as above.

Milk and Honey Golden Rolls

1.5-2 tablespoons active dry yeast

4 tablespoons honey

2 cups (473 ml) room temperature almond/soy/oat milk/coconut milk or diluted coconut cream 

3 large eggs , room temperature + 1 egg, beaten for brushing top

1 cup canola/soy/sunflower/walnut oil

8 cups (1 kilo) bread flour

1 tablespoon salt

topping for rolls – mix together:

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon honey

for top of honey mixture: coarse or flaked salt

Directions:

In bread machine, place the yeast and honey and half the room temperature milk of your choice. Let sit for about 5 minutes or till yeast is foamy. Add the eggs, flour, salt, rest of milk and turn machine on to dough setting. As it starts to knead mixture, pour oil in. Keep an eye on it at first to ensure the flour is incorporating properly into the liquid. You may need to help it out with a spoon (unplug machine to give a few brisk stirs which should do the trick and replug). Give dough a chance to combine and check that it’s smooth and you’re good to go. Let rise till doubled in bulk.

In mixer, proof the yeast with honey and half the milk as above and then add eggs and start stirring with paddle beater. Add flour slowly, salt, rest of milk and oil and stir just till combined. Switch to dough hook and knead about ten minutes. Cover with towel or plastic wrap and let rise till doubled in bulk.

When dough has risen, turn dough out onto an oiled mat and oil your hands. For the large rolls that I made, I divided the dough into 12 more or less equal pieces. Let rest a bit and then form into balls by smoothing and tucking them. Then roll each piece into a snake and make knots. Brush tops of rolls with the beaten egg and place into spray oiled large muffin cups to rise again, approximately 30 minutes or so. I find an unheated oven with just the light on is a great spot to let them rise.

Bake in preheated oven on 350 F/180 C for about 25-30 minutes until rolls are a beautiful golden brown and baked throughout.

Remove from oven and immediately brush tops with the oil and honey topping mixture and you will see it makes a gorgeous glaze and gets mostly absorbed into the rolls with a light sheen. Immediately after brushing with honey mixture, sprinkle with a light hand some kosher, coarse or flaked salt on top. Lovely for your Rosh Hashana table or all year round.