Since now being able to grind our own flour with the fantastic Wondermill, I’ve become hooked on adding oat flour to much of our baking. I love the flavor that it lends! Oats have a natural sweetness that I think combines so nicely with wheat and other grains. I recently came up with a dinner roll recipe that uses a generous amount of oat flour, and my whole family simply loves these rolls!
Like most of the baked items I make, these rolls are naturally leavened with sourdough starter. You can easily make your own starter at home, though it may take more than one try, or you can purchase one if you’d rather get one going without any mishaps. You can get more information on beginning a sourdough starter here.
These dinner rolls are enriched with butter, eggs, milk, and maple syrup, giving them a 
wonderful velvety texture and a mildly sweet and maple flavor. Because of the extra additions, the rising time may be longer than with a standard sourdough dough, but the wait is worth it! At least we think so.
One thing worth mentioning: I use eggs fresh from the backyard of our friends, and I’m therefore not overly concerned about the raw eggs being in the dough for a day or so before baking. However, if leaving the dough out at room temperature for rising concerns you, or if you are using supermarket eggs, you can absolutely allow the dough to rise in the refrigerator. It will take a day or so longer, but you can speed up the final rise by putting the rolls into a warmed oven for a few hours.
- ½ cup melted butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 2 cups oat flour
- 3½ to 4½ cups whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Additional butter or oil
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- ¼ cup rolled oats
- In a medium mixing bowl with pouring spout, combine butter, eggs, syrup, milk, and starter and mix well.
- In the mixing bowl for a large stand mixer, add oat flour, 2 cups wheat flour, and salt.
- With the dough hook attached to the mixer, turn on to the speed for mixing bread doughs, and allow the flours and salt to combine. Slowly pour in the liquid ingredients until a wet batter forms.
- Gradually add additional wheat flour, ¼ to ½ cup at a time, until a soft dough forms, allowing the dough to remain moist but not sticky.
- Allow the dough to rise, covered, in a buttered or oiled bowl on the counter for 12-18 hours or in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours, or until doubled.
- Punch down the dough and place on to a lightly buttered or oiled counter. Divide into 24 equal pieces. Butter a 9x13 glass baking dish.
- With buttered or oiled hands, gently shape each dough piece into a round roll and place in the buttered baking dish. You will have six rows of four rolls.
- Allow the rolls to rise until doubled in a warm (and turned off) oven for 3-6 hours, on the counter for 12-18 hours, or in the refrigerator for 24 or more hours.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Gently brush the risen rolls with milk and sprinkle each with rolled oats, gently pressing the oats onto the rolls.
- Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm and with butter.
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