Tuca's Whole Wheat Rolls

Well this is absolutely our favorite roll recipe. My sweet friend Tuca would make these rolls for our family each time we had a baby. So I always teased her we would have more babies just to get her rolls. Finally I told her I just needed the recipe because it was hard having all these babies.

Put the following ingredients in your bread machine pan (2 lb. size machine) in this order:

1/2 cup honey
dash of salt
1 stick of butter (melted)
1 cup whole milk, warm (80 F / 27 C) (about 40 seconds in the microwave)
1/2 cup cold water
2 eggs (beaten)
3 cups unbleached flour
2 3/4 cups fresh ground, whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. dry bread yeast

Do not mix the ingredients, just put them in your bread machine pan. Place pan in machine and set it for the "dough cycle". You should check the machine after about 5 minutes to scrape down the side with a spatula to make sure it's all combining.

When the dough cycle is done, dump dough onto a floured surface, and cut the dough into 3 equal sections. If you want to make them into crescent rolls, shape the first half into a ball and roll it into a circle (12"approx., like a mid-size pizza dough), and cut into 12 pieces. Roll them into shape, starting with the wide end, and tuck the pointed end under. Repeat the process with the remaining dough. Place these on a greased cookie sheet, let them rise until doubled in size, and bake them in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes. Check and turn cookie sheet around. Bake for another 2-3 minutes, or until lightly brown on top.

Note: For smaller size rolls, or to make pigs in a blanket, divide the dough into 5-6 pieces, instead of 3.
For smaller bread machines (1 1/2 lb. size or smaller), make half the recipe.


Resist the urge to add any extra flour. I always look in the bread machine and think it's way too wet. But after the kneading process is going for awhile it comes together.


Cut the dough like a pizza, into 12 pieces.
Rolls each of these up.

Make sure your end is underneath or otherwise when it cooks, they will stick up.

Let them rise on a cookie sheet. I think air bake is best.

This recipe makes 3 dozen rolls. Enjoy them!!

Five or six loaves at a time.

I use my bosch mixer for this recipe. It is big enough to handle it.

This is how I cut my bread. It is just a bread slicer guide. You stick the bread on and it has grooves that show you where to put your knife through. I just bought mine at a thrift store. I have seen many at the thrift stores. I just use a bread knife to cut it, so it doesn't smoosh it. I have seen cheap bread knives like the one I use at The dollar tree, for a buck.

We make our own wheat bread. The recipe we use makes 5 loaves at a time. One recipe and cooking time lasts us all week and beyond. Yes we eat lots of peanut butter and jellies. I freeze my loaves of bread and use them whenever we need them.

I use my Bosch mixer and this recipe:

2/3 cup honey

2/3 cup oil

5 1/2 cups warm water

3TB. SAF instant yeast

1 1/2 TB. salt

16-18 cups fresh whole wheat flour (I never use more than 16 cups though)

3 TB. dough enhancer

Combine the oil, honey, yeast, dough enhancer, salt, warm water and 5 cups of fresh whole wheat flour in bosch mixing bowl. Allow this to sponge for 5-15 minutes while you prepare your pans. Add to the above mixture additional flour until the dough begins to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead for 6 minutes in a bosch mixer. Be careful not to allow the dough to become too dry by adding too much flour at this point. Oil your hands and form dough into loaves, rolls, pizza crust or pastries. Let it rise until doubled in size (30-60 minutes) and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom and the bottom and sides are golden brown.

This is Debbie Bartons recipe and I bought my wheat grinder and bosch from her. She is a wonderfully, sweet homeschool mom and she is always at homeschool convention. You can check out her website at http://www.sonrisewg.com/ I get the dough enhancer, bread bags and wheat from Debbie. I buy my yeast at Sam's though, it is a little cheaper, and you get two big deals of it (though it is not SAF yeast it is Fleishmans).

Muffins on baking day!

Muffins are always another great thing to make, bake and freeze on our baking day. They are an easy breakfast for anyday or snack. We love to have these around easy to pull out and have whenever we need.

Cookies Anytime

To have a fast cookie snack around, make your dough and freeze it on cookie sheets. Then put them in freezer bags for when you want them. This is a great way to have just a few cookies at a time or a quick thing to take somewhere on a busy day. I love to just bake a few for my husband right before he comes home on his late work nights. Fresh homemade and quick. We have a baking day, where we make our own bread and do other baking and freezing items. This is one of the easy things to do on that day. Along with muffins, waffles, and rolls. The kids all love to help in the kitchen and we get lots of items made and frozen.

Waffles, Waffles and More Waffles

We make our own waffles and freeze them flat on cookie sheets. When they are frozen we put them in bread bags and freeze. Easy to reheat in toaster or on cookie sheet in the oven. We use wheat flour so it is healthier than frozen store bought ones and way cheaper. This is one way to have quick breakfast on hand.

I just use a Betty Crocker recipe for this:

2 eggs

2 cups whole wheat flour (I use pastry wheat flour)

1/2 cup canola oil, or butter melted

1 3/4 cups milk

1 Tbls. granulated or brown sugar (I never put this in, since we use syrup on top of our pancakes)

4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Heat waffle irons. Beat eggs with hand beater in medium bowl until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth. Pour batter from cup or pitcher onto center of hot waffle iron. Bake until your waffle irons says done. (When I use this recipe I always think it's a little on the thin side, not thick, but once it sits for a few minutes it seems to thicken. )

We let the waffles cool on wire racks then freeze them flat on cookie sheets and then put them in bread bags that I get from Debbie Barton.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Well Sunday mornings can be quite crazy without planning ahead. I don't find time to cook big breakfasts on Sunday morning, and make it to church on time. So we make meals ahead of time that are easy. Here's one of our favorite easy to heat meals. And if your kiddos are already dressed in Sunday clothes before they eat, then this is a pretty no mess meal.

Sausage Balls

3 1/2 cups Bisquick

1 lb. sausage

2 eggs

10 oz. grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup milk

Mix Bisquick, sausage and cheese with hands. Add eggs and milk. Mix until all moist. Roll into balls. (I use a small ice cream scoop to make balls) Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

I always double the recipe and only use a 16 oz. block of cheese for the double batch. This makes four sacks of sausage balls that I freeze and we pull out for Sunday breakfast.