Dark and Soft Dinner rolls

This is the roll recipe I was supposed to write down the other day.  I guess I skipped it because I didn't go grab the cookbook it was in.  It is from the King Arthur's whole grain baking book.  It is a fun one to try out different grains although this only used wheat flour and regular flour.  It did use some cocoa.  When I made them I tried to speed them along a little.  I think they may have been a little lighter and fluffier if I had #1 weighed my ingredients instead of measured them, and #2 taken the time to do a full first and second rise.  However the flavor was really good.  They would be wonderful if just a little lighter in texture.








Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 1/3 cup orange juice (I think I would warm this next time.  I didn't like that it cooled my dough -especially since I was trying to speed up the process.
• 4 Tablespoons butter cubed
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa  (calls for Dutch-process, but I used regular)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (I did use a bit more.)

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix in a mixer or by hand until you have a medium-soft, smooth dough.  Cover and allow to rise until nice an puffy but not doubled in bulk (1-2 hours.)
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
3. Deflate dough and transfer to greased work surface.  Divide dough into 10 even pieces (about 4 oz. each), shape into 5 X 2 inch oval rolls.  Place on prepared cookie sheet and allow to rise covered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Towards the end of the rise, preheat oven to 350.
4. Bake 25-30 min or until bottoms appear slightly browned.