Healthy Rye Bread Rolls

When I went to school in Sweden in the early 1980´s, it was (I believe it still is) mandatory to attend "hemkunskap" (translates into "home knowledge", probably somewhat close to home economics). These classes were taken during 7th to 9th grade, and included cooking/baking, how to do dishes, washing clothes by hand, creating a budget and furnishing an apartment with a set amount of money.

A couple of years ago, my sister found a recipe I had written down on a piece of paper from when we baked bread rolls at school. I favored graph paper, not just for math but for all kinds of notes, as you can see in the scan below.
One entertaining thing is the note in the upper right section, next to the amount of yeast to use. Translated it says "Note: put it [the yeast] in first, otherwise mom will be angry." Not long before I wrote this down, I was supposed to bake some bread using our breadmaker at home, and I forgot the yeast in the beginning, so I added it at the end of the baking process, with above mentioned result… I.e. my mom being less than happy with me...


After I got the recipe, I tried to make the same rolls, and they actually turned out very tasty. As they are healthy, I wanted to share how to make them. I have made one change to the recipe above, I added a small amount of sugar for the yeast to consume, but I am sure it would also be very good using a little bit of honey.
  • 1 cake of yeast (or 3 packets dry yeast, do not use RapidRise!)
  • 8 dl (27 fl oz/3.4 cups) warm water (32 °C/90 °F for yeast cake, 37 °C/100 °F for dry yeast)
  • 8 table spoons of oil
  • 16 ml (just over 3 teaspoons) of salt
  • Barely 1 tablespoon of sugar (or honey if you prefer)
  • 12 dl (5 cups) graham flour
  • 4 dl (1.6 cups) wheat flour

Put the yeast in a big bowl. Add sugar and salt to the warm water, stir to dissolve. Add a little of the water to the years and stir to dissolve yeast in water. Add the rest of the water and the oil, stir well.
Add the wheat flour and the graham flour. Add half of it, stir well, add half of the rest, stir more. Add the rest little by little. When the dough is getting fairly solid, dump on a baking table and start kneading, adding more flour as needed.
When the dough is sticky but not wet, and well kneaded, shape it into a big ball, put it back in the bowl, and cover with a baking towel. Let it rise for 20-30 minutes. Don´t allow it to stand in a cool area or in draft/near an air conditioning vent. I prefer to put it outside, the Texas summer temperature of 95-100 degrees is perfect. Don´t let it get over 100 degrees, or the yeast will die.

After the dough have been rising (should about double in size) put it back on the table. Cut it in four sections, shape each part as a small loaf and cut in 6 pieces. Shape each of the 24 resulting pieces into a ball (don´t press too hard, you just want to shape them, not compact them) and put them on cookie sheets. Leave plenty of space between each, I usually put no more than 12 on one cookie sheet. Again cover with baking towels and rise additionally 30-40 minutes.
Bake the rolls about 7-9 minutes in 435 °F (225 °C). After you take them out, quickly brush each roll with cold water. Let cool on a rack.