by Adam Hawkins

Our son loves few things more than fresh bread. I’ve tried to screw this recipe up, but they are always delicious. I’ve substituted so many things in and out of these and it never doesn’t work. So don’t be afraid, even with little or no bread experience you can pull this off. Plus it’s fun to let the little one help out and get all messy.

Ingredients:
For Onions:
1 large yellow onion
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 pinch of salt

for Rolls:
1 1/2 C warm water (110 degees or so)
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 Tablespoon honey
3 – 4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Cups All Purpose flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 – 3 Tablespoons butter (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1 – Start by slicing or dicing your onion. Saute in 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil over medium-low to medium heat. Salt immediately. This helps draw out the water and allows the sugars to develop. Keep heat low enough to prevent any brown crap from building up on the pan. This junk will burn your onions, which will taste bad. If this starts to happen, you can add a few Tablespoons of water to the pan, scrape that stuff up and reduce the heat. Low and slow is the name of the game. This can take anywhere from 15-40 mins depending on your patience. Then allow them to cool, unless you’re in a hurry. In which case throw them in the dough all warm, or consider making something else, like Pillsbury croissants or toast.

2 – Pour warm water in a bowl. Add yeast, honey and 3 Tablespoons of olive oil. Stir it up!!! Now leave it alone!!! It should start getting all foamy after a few minutes. If it doesn’t you screwed something up. Start over. You can still use your onions, though. In fact, now they’ll have some time to cool down. Your water may have not been warm enough or too hot, or something else. I don’t know. I wasn’t there.

3 – Combine flour and salt in a separate bowl. Toss in your onion stuff. Mix until combined. Now pour in your foamy yeast water stuff. It should be messy and sticky. Throw flour on whatever surface you’re going to be kneading on. You can use quite a bit. Whoa not that much! Roll your dough onto the floured surface and begin kneading. If you’re not sure how you can google it or something. Knead it about 15 times. Just a few minutes, you don’t have to get all crazy. Lightly coat another bowl with olive oil. Put your dough in said bowl. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm place. Your dough should grow until twice the size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4 – Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Separate your dough into 12-15 chunks. I like to use a muffin tin but you can free form it if you’re into that. Let your stuff rise again for another 15-20 mins, then throw them in the oven. Bake 20 mins or so. I just keep checking and checking. Burn them and you’ll be sorry. If you’d like, you can brush these little rolls with a few tablespoons of butter (not per roll, per the whole batch. Or whatever, they’re your rolls) about half way through the cooking process. That’s it!