Honey Whole Wheat Rolls

Honey Whole Wheat Rolls. . . Honey whole wheat rolls. . . I really don't know what to say about these. They are just. . . good! I know when people think of wheat rolls, they imagine the dense, bland kind you can find at most grocery stores, but these are NOT dense and they are NOT bland. I will say they are healthy, but healthy doesn't mean you have to sacrifice on taste! I've made these multiple times for potlucks, church get-togethers, and family dinners and they are always a hit. People are amazed that whole wheat rolls can actually taste good!
With Easter coming up, why don't you give these a shot to compliment your ham and tatoes. :)

Honey Whole Wheat Rolls
Dear author of this recipe, you rock!

Ingredients:
4 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast (or two of those costly little bags)
1 Cup Warm Water, 110-115 degrees
1/4 Cup Butter, melted
1/4 Honey
1 Egg
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 tsp Salt
2 1/4-2 3/4 Cups of All-Purpose Flour (You can also substitute Bread Flour and add an extra 1/8 Cup of water, but I was out of bread flour yesterday)

-Yeast and water not really pictured because they are working their magic in my mixing bowl right there in the picture.

 Dissolve the yeast in your mixing bowl. After 10 minutes it should look foamy and bubbly.

Now add everything else to the yeast! Well, not quite. Only add 1 cup of the all-purpose flour at first. Also, make sure your melted butter is cooled down. If it's too hot from being melted, it could kill the yeast! Oh no!
Slowly add another cup of flour until you get some big chunks sticking together, like this.

Now you can transfer your dough to a nice floured area. Keep about 3/4 cup of flour handy, like in my measuring cup in the picture. :)

Knead that sucker! Slowly add more flour until it's not too sticky anymore, or what the original recipe calls "smooth and elastic." This should take about 6-8 minutes. You probably won't use all of the flour. Try not to skimp on the kneading. When you knead, it helps the gluten develop and will make your rolls fluffier!

Once you have a beautiful ball of dough, set it in a greased bowl and cover to rise for about an hour.

After an hour, punch down the dough and divide it up into your rolls. You can probably stretch this dough out to make 15-18 rolls, but I usually just stick with 12. Place them in a greased 9x13 pan and cover. Let them rise at least 45 minutes. In all honestly, we unexpectedly had to go somewhere at the exact time that the 45 minutes were up, so I let these suckers rise for an entire hour extra while we were gone. And no harm was done. :)

15 minutes before they are done rising, start pre-heating your oven to 375. Then you can put them in for 20 minutes. or 18 minutes if you like your rolls a little underdone. ;)

 Take em out. Mmmmmm!!!! Let them cool for about 5 minutes and then serve!

We like just about all bread products to be smothered in butter in this house, but eating them plain works fabulous as well!

Extra notes: Don't you just love that there is NO sugar in this recipe?! I love that! Not to mention the whole wheat flour and oats. :D