Simple Multigrain Rolls

Place the milk, butter and brown sugar into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is just melted.

While the butter is melting, combine the rolled spelt, rolled oats, cornmeal, flax meal, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot milk mixture over the combined grains and stir until well mixed. Allow to cool until barely warm to the touch.

While this mixture is cooling, stir the yeast into the warm water and allow to dissolve.

When the grain and milk mixture is barely warm to the touch, stir in the dissolved yeast. Then stir in all the whole wheat flour. Then add enough of the bread flour to form a stiff dough. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface that has been dusted with flour. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is somewhat elastic and not sticky, using as much of the remaining bread flour as necessary.

Place the dough into a large, lightly-oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free spot and allow the dough to rise until double in bulk. (My kitchen is very friendly to yeast, so this only took about 45 minutes for me, but may take twice as long if your kitchen is cooler or you don’t often bake with yeast.)

When the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide into 15 roughly equal-sized pieces. Shape the pieces into round rolls. Place one of the balls of dough into your hand, flatten it, then roll the edges into the center. This will create some tension on the exterior of the dough and make your rolls rise evenly into pretty rounded shapes. Repeat with the rest of the balls of dough.

Place the rolls onto a large baking sheet that has been covered with parchment or lightly oiled. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and allow to rise until almost double in bulk. When your rolls are getting close to double in bulk, preheat your oven to 350 F.

Place the rolls in the oven and bake for 18 to 22 minutes. They should be golden brown and sound hollow if lightly tapped. Remove from oven and place the baking sheet on a cooling rack and allow the rolls to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then remove the rolls from the sheet to either serve or continue cooling directly on the rack.

Note: If you have difficulty finding rolled spelt, you could use rolled wheat, or even another half cup of oats instead.