If you already have a favorite enriched bread recipe, you can easily substitute a portion of the flour with whole wheat for light wheat dinner rolls. You don't need a roll-specific recipe to make dinner rolls.

You can start by using 20-25-percent whole wheat flour, and adjust it up until you find "just right" for your personal preference. Or are you wanting 100% whole wheat? I use the same 100% whole wheat dough for nearly everything I make (dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, cinnamon rolls).

When it comes to making 100% whole wheat dough in a bread machine, you may want to check to see if it's even advise in your machine. Some machines just can't contend with 100% whole wheat dough and you can chance burning the motor out. I mill my own flour and some machines don't suggest using it at ALL. My Zojirushi never has a problem with 100% whole wheat bread dough from freshly-milled flour.

When it comes to all-purpose flour, it will work perfectly well in a bread recipe that calls for bread flour. There is plenty of gluten in all-purpose flour to make rolls or bread.

You may want to decrease the amount of liquid in the recipe by 1-2 T. The reason for that... Gluten in flour is like a sponge and it soaks up a lot of hydration. If you use all-purpose flour in a recipe that called for higher-gluten bread flour, then there isn't as much available gluten to soak up the water. As always, you need to check your dough development and adjust it as needed until you have a nice soft ball of dough.

Consider this fact -- all-purpose was the only flour available for decades; and everyone made all their yeast breads and naturally-leavened breads using all-purpose. It wasn't until the late 1980's - early 90's, due to the advent of the bread machine, that "bread flour" became available to home bakers - along with a number of add-ins, like vital wheat gluten and dough relaxer.

FYI -- All-purpose flour is the preferred flour if you want soft rolls, while bread flour is best for making hard crusty rolls.

It's great to have options....

-Grainlady

You can probably just used the recipe that you know you like. Sub whole wheat flour for 1/2 of the flour in your recipe. Whole wheat flour will absorb more liquid so you will need to reduce the amount of flour slightly. I also find it helpful to increase the sweetener a little, like a tablespoon or so.

Using half whole wheat will still give you a light product but still have the whole wheat taste. Unless you normally eat a loaf with all whole wheat, you might want to work up to it with a half and half loaf.

Oops, Grainlady's post wasn't there when I started typing. Good advice.

Thank you for the help. I guess now it's just time to start playing around to see if I can come up with a whole wheat portion that I like.

Pam

I use this one, and I like it a lot. I make it in the bread machine all the time, it's Elery's favorite. Liquid on the bottom, dry on top, yeast on very top...

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

3 cups all purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 pkg. active dry yeast (4½ tsp.)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
1 egg

Melt butter and pour into bread machine with the water, milk, honey and egg. Add both flours and put the yeast and salt on top. I make separate "wells" for the yeast and the salt, Makayla says they "are not friends and need their own rooms". (grin)

Process on dough cycle, then remove and shape into dinner rolls or loaves. Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes for rolls or 25-30 minutes for loaves.

Yield: 2 loaves or 24-36 rolls, depending on size

I know Momj47 uses a similar recipe but it has some orange juice in place of some of the water, I think that sounds really good but I seldom have orange juice. I don't bother to add vital wheat gluten because I normally use King Arthur all purpose and it doesn't need the extra gluten, but if I were using something like Gold Medal I'd probably add a couple of tablespoons of the VWG.

Happy baking!

Annie

Sheesh! I typed this out last night and then got distracted. I hope I'm not too late to chime in.

I use this recipe from King Arthur Flour quite often. It is a perfect blend of white & whole wheat flours and makes lovely soft dinner rolls or sandwich buns. I usually use white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat. It calls for potato flakes & dried milk which make the rolls very tender.

It also includes orange juice. The explanation is that the OJ seems to cut the bitterness often associated with whole wheat baked goods.I don't always have OJ on hand, so I came up with a solution. I keep a container of frozen OJ concentrate in my freezer. When one of my whole wheat recipes calls for OJ, I just combine equal parts frozen concentrate with water until I get the amount needed.

I always make this in my bread machine, a Zojirushi. It does the kneading for me. Since the amount of flour is relatively small, I also let the dough rise in my machine. I make sure the dough is on the soft side and does not get too stiff or dense. Also I form the rolls on a Silpat. That way I don't add any more flour and they don't come out dry.

I have found that with rolls or sandwich buns, I do not have to worry about additional vital wheat gluten. They are small and do not need the extra structural help that gluten provides loaves of bread.

Honey Wheat Rolls

1 packet "highly active" active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour or King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup instant mashed potato flakes
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

1) If you're using active dry or "highly active" yeast, dissolve it with a pinch of sugar in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm water. Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If you're using instant yeast, you can skip this step.

2) Combine the dissolved yeast with the remainder of the water and the rest of the ingredients. Mix and knead everything together��"by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle��"till you've made a smooth dough. If you're kneading in a stand mixer, it should take about 5 to 7 minutes at second speed. In a bread machine (or by hand), it should form a smooth ball.

3) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise, at room temperature, till it's quite puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Rising may take longer, especially if you've kneaded by hand. Give it enough time to become quite puffy.

4) While the dough is rising, lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans.

5) Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into 16 pieces.

6) Shape each piece into a rough ball by pulling the dough into a very small knot at the bottom (think of a balloon with its opening knotted), then rolling it under the palm of your hand into a smooth ball.

7) Place the rolls in the 9" x 13" pan, or put eight rolls in each of the round cake pans, spacing them evenly; they won't touch one another.

) Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the rolls to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. They'll become very puffy, and will reach out and touch one another. While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

9) Bake the rolls for 15 minutes, and tent them loosely with aluminum foil. Continue to bake until they're mahogany-brown on top, but lighter colored on the sides, an additional 10 to 13 minutes.

10) Remove the rolls from the oven, and after 2 or 3 minutes, carefully transfer them to a rack. They'll be hot and delicate, so be careful. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

First round of WW rolls. I did the Cindy's rolls with 2 cups of WW flour and 1 1/2 of AP flour. Since most of the WW recipes seemed to call for 375 for 18 to 20 minutes that's what I did. The texture was good, taste was good, but could stand to be a little sweeter for my liking, and I need to move them up a rack because the bottoms were a little to brown. I had some friends serve as testers for me and all liked the texture, didn't think the bottoms were too brown but one agreed with me that they could be a touch sweeter. They also volunteered to serve as testers again, so that tells me they were pretty good for the first try. SO isn't pleased that I'm baking while he can't eat from a visit to the oral surgeon....LOL. I told him I'm saving him calories.

If you need another use for your experiment rolls, you can split them and add some slices of deli ham for Ham Buns. I freeze two in a sheet of foil. These make a quick lunch that can be reheated in about 12- to 15-minutes in a toaster oven (leave them in their foil wrap).

Additional sweetener will also make the rolls brown more, especially if you use honey as a sweetener. Molasses is a good add-in for light wheat rolls. It adds coloring and flavor.

You can also reduce your baking temperature to 350-degrees F. Bake rolls to an internal temperature of 190-195-degrees F. - whatever temperature you use. Check them with an instant read thermometer.

-Grainlady

Grainlady thank you for your advice, I learn so much from you. I don't think I have to worry about what to do with my experiments I have lots of volunteers......LOL. One of the guys that tried my samples yesterday bakes himself so his first hand critiques helped.

I don't know that I need to change the oven temps, but maybe just move the rack up one level. I had the rack fairly low for the rolls I baked for only 10 to 15 minutes because I wanted to make sure the bottoms were brown. Since I'm doing the WW at a lower temp and longer I think a rack more will work, but will only know for sure with trial and error. I'm good at errors too....LOL.

It's hard to believe that I use to bake all the time and could tell by the feel of the dough if the bread would be good or not. Keep in mind that was another lifetime ago, at least 25 years. It's amazing how much you forget without practice. And it's amazing too how much easier it is using the bread machine for the mixing and kneading.

WW rolls round two. Annie thank you for this recipe they were a total hit with my volunteer testers/tasters. I only made half a batch, but the texture was WONDERFUL, favor was WONDERFUL and I was told not to bother making anything else....LOL. That doesn't mean I won't but they were all happier with this round. Comments were that they have the texture and favor more like a regular white roll compared to the ones the other day. I was even told they are just a WW version of what they use to have a resturant here in town that EVERYONE LOVED. We have a winner, but I'm still going to try the ones with juice in them when I have some orange juice in the house. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

SO finally got to try a roll that I saved him from round two. I must have done it right because he asked if I could bake some for their Christmas dinner at work. This is coming from a man that's not a big bread eater.