Carrot dinner rolls

I saw these carrot poppyseed rolls.  They looked great.  But I don't have spelt flour.  Instead I added poppyseeds to these carrot-flecked dinner rolls.  I had promised we would do some painting.  Sylvia was busy setting up a shop-cum-bedroom with her puppet theatre, some blankets and a couple of kiddie chairs.  I took the opportunity to get the dough underway and we were eating soft yellow bread rolls with dinner.

Once the carrots were grated, the recipe was fairly straight forward.   The dough seemed quite crumbly at first but once I plunged my hands in it was pillowy soft.  A light knead dispersed the carrot throughout the dough to give it a glorious golden glow.

The rolls were a great success.  E loved them because they were soft and fluffy.  Sylvia loved them despite the poppyseeds and small flecks of carrot.  Well they were little and tiny. I loved them because they are such a lovely yellow and have quarter a carrot.  Colour and vegies always get my vote in any bread.  Our only quibble was that there were bigger than we though dinner rolls usually are.  Perhaps it is because I left them spread out in a larger baking tin.

I made the rolls to eat the rolls with some leftover chickpea, potato and tomato stew and brussels sprouts.  They were perfect.  Though it probably would have been a bit better if it wasn't just out of the oven.

The next morning I made them up with cheese and vegemite for E and myself to have for lunch.   They were such great lunchbox snacks that they filled me with visions of making these every single week so we could have them for lunch every single day.  If only...  That night we enjoyed them with some sweet potato and red lentil soup for dinner.

I am sending this to Elizabeth of Elizabeth's Kitchen who is hosting this months Fresh from the Oven.  This food blogging event by Michelle from Utterly Scrummy Food for Families and Claire from Purely Food challenges us to share bread recipes.  This month the theme is Picnic/BBQ bread.  These rolls would be perfect on a picnic or even with small burgers at a BBQ.  I am also sending the bread rolls to Susan for YeastSpotting.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: RRC Show us your Cookbooks
Two years ago: Little Deer Tracks - Coburg chic
Three years ago: Tofu omelettes from China
Four years ago: Pudding, Parties and Plate Smashers
Five years ago: Tabouli from the Tree
Six years ago: Quick and spicy noodles

Carrot and poppy seed dinner rolls
Adapted from The Bread Bible via 17 and baking
Makes 12 rolls

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp dried yeast
270g carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2-3 tsp poppyseeds (I only had 1 and 1/2 tsp)
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp margarine, melted (or butter or olive oil)
2-3 tbsp milk (I used soy), for glazing
Extra poppyseeds (or sesame seeds), to sprinkle

Place lukewarm water in a large bowl. Sprinkle dried yeast on water and set aside while you prepare carrots.

Peel and trip carrots, then finely grate (after discarding peel, tops and tails, of course!)

Stir flour and salt into yeast mixture and then add carrots (I think I might add them all at once next time). Stir in margarine (or butter or olive oil). It will be quite shaggy and take a bit of time to work in all the flour. I did this with my hands in the bowl. Once I plunged my hands in, I realised the dough was a lot lot softer than it looked.

Tip dough out onto a lightly floured board. Knead for about 10 minutes. My dough was quite sticky so I used some flour so it didn't stick to everything. Then I worried I had used too much flour and used a little olive oil on the surface to make it easier to handle. Return to scraped out bowl, cover with a tea towel. Set aside in warm place to rise for about an hour or until doubled.

Punch down and lightly knead for a few seconds. Leave for 10 minutes uncovered on the floured surface. Cut into 12 pieces (weigh them if you want them exactly the same size - I didn't). Place pieces in a roasting dish almost touching. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. While the dough is rising, preheat oven to 200 C.

Bake dinner rolls for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and hollow when tapped (it said for 15-20 minutes in original recipe but after 20 minutes I gave it another 5 minutes to brown the tops evenly and then turned them over and they looked slightly pasty so I returned most of the buns to the oven for another 5 minutes bottoms facing up.)

Cool on a wire rack. Break apart rather than cut apart. Best on the day or baking or the following day but still edible on the third day.

On the stereo:
The Boy with an Arab Strap: Belle and Sebastian