Whole Wheat Pesto Rolls

In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat.Add the buttermilk and sugar and stir just until sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and let set until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add the eggs, 2 cups freshly ground whole wheat pastry flour, and gluten flour. Stir in a circular motion for 2 minutes or until the dough is fairly smooth. Allow to rest until it just starts to rise a bit. Here at high altitude it took about 20 minutes; if you are not at high altitude, you may want to plan more like 30–40 minutes.

Beat in the salt and 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour as best as you can, then sprinkle more of the whole wheat flour on a clean surface and turn the dough out of the pan. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour to the counter when necessary, about 2 minutes or less should do it. Spray a clean bowl with cooking spray or coat with olive oil and place the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise until doubled. Mine, again at high altitude, took an hour, but if you are lower down, plan for longer —I used to plan for 2 hours when I was at sea level.

Punch the dough down to remove any air bubbles and set aside for about 10 minutes while you prepare your baking dish. Which shouldn’t take you 10 minutes, but it’s something to do while you wait. All you have to do is smear butter all over a 9×13” baking dish.

After the 10 minutes, lightly sprinkle a clean counter with flour and roll out the dough so it is about 1/8″ thick and in a rectangle. Then spread the pesto all over the dough. Then starting at one long end, roll up, jelly roll style or like you are making cinnamon rolls. Don’t worry if some of the oil from the pesto oozes out, that just means it’s gonna be extra good. Once it is rolled into a log, cut into evenly-sized slices, about 2 1/2 – 3″ wide. The place cut side up into the prepared baking dish. Preheat oven to 350ºF, cover and let rise about another 20 minutes or till doubled in size.

Bake about 20–25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

Note: If you do not have access to freshly ground flour, just use half white, all-purpose flour and half store-bought whole wheat flour and eliminate the gluten flour.