Whole Wheat Clover Dinner Rolls
on Oct 05, 2012, Updated Jul 26, 2024
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This Whole Wheat Clover Dinner Rolls recipe makes soft and fluffy rolls! They are super easy to make using a muffin pan and pull apart into three pieces, which means more places to put the butter!
I’ve been searching for a great whole wheat clover roll recipe for years, and love this one. My mom’s homemade dinner rolls recipe just didn’t adapt well from the Indiana baking of my childhood to my Utah baking now. The altitude and dryness really do change things! I think the eggs in the recipe are the key; the bread is very tender and soft because of them.
The clover roll is my mother-in-law’s specialty. She makes Grandma Lucy’s famous clover rolls for every family gathering; no one complains because they’re exquisite. I think she owns twelve to fifteen muffin tins to make gobs and gobs of rolls at a time. Let me know if you make these! I think you’ll be super pleased because they are fantastic.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Here’s the beauty of the clover roll: a traditional roll is broken in half, and you can butter the top and bottom, while a clover roll splits into three pieces. Three pieces buttered instead of two is always a good thing.
- They are absolutely beautiful. They look fancy and elevate the look of any dinner table!
- Freshly baked bread’s wonderful taste and aroma is one of life’s greatest pleasures.
Recipe Ingredients
- Sugar
- Yeast
- Eggs
- Honey
- Butter
- Wheat gluten
- Whole wheat flour
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Clover Dinner Rolls
Step 1: Add water, sugar, and yeast
Step 2: Add the eggs, honey, butter, salt, gluten, and flour
Step 3: Shape the dough into a ball and let rise.
Step 4: Bake the rolls in the hot oven and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
The common issue with baking with whole wheat is that it can easily make the dough heavier and more challenging to rise. To get around this and get extra fluffy whole wheat clover rolls, 2 eggs, and a half-cup of butter in the recipe, allow the buns to rise and get nice and puffy.
These will last well in the fridge for up to a week. If you freeze them, they’ll last up to four months.
After mixing and kneading the dough, it should rise for about an hour and double in size. After you portion the small balls of dough out into the muffin tins, let them rise again for another half-hour.
Expert Tips
- Looking for more dinner roll recipes? You’ll love Mom’s Jumbo Dinner Rolls!
- To freeze, wrap them in tin foil and place them in a freezer-safe zipper-topped baggie. They will last up to 4 months frozen.
- Leftover clover rolls should be stored at room temperature. Let them cool completely, then wrap them in tin foil and place them inside a sealable baggie. Refrigerating them may dry them out and cause them to become stale, so keep them at room temperature for up to five days.
More Bread Recipes to Consider
Roll Recipes
Overnight Dinner Rolls
Yeast Bread Recipes
Bread Bowls
Roll Recipes
Easy Croissant Recipe
Sweet Treats
Hot Cross Buns
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Whole Wheat Clover Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons wheat gluten, optional
- 7 to 8 cups whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Add the warm water, sugar, and yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer and allow it to sit and get bubbly for 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs, honey, butter, salt, gluten, and 2 cups of flour to the bowl. Using a dough hook, mix the ingredients in the bowl on low speed for 5 to 6 minutes. This is the stage my mom calls “the cake batter stage,” and it is important to work the gluten in the whole wheat flour well at this point.
- Add the remaining flour, a half-cup at a time, while the mixer is running, until the dough starts to pull away from the edges of the bowl but still sticks to the bottom of the bowl.
- Let the dough mix well in between each addition of flour. It should take around 10 minutes of mixing, adding flour, mixing, etc. for the dough to be ready.
- When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until it is soft and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and return to a clean, lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 18 muffin tin holes.
- To make the rolls, pinch a small piece of dough, about the size of a large marble or small walnut, and shape it into a round ball. The top of the dough just needs to be round, the bottom can be more pointed. Lots of the imperfections in the shape will smooth out as the dough rises again. Put the piece of dough into a muffin tin hole. Repeat this process until the dough is gone and you have three little balls of dough in each muffin tin hole. Let the rolls rise in the muffin tins, covered, for 30 minutes.
- Bake the rolls in the hot oven for 18 to 22 minutes until the tops start to brown. Dump the rolls out of the tin into a towel when the come out of the oven. Serve hot with butter and honey.
Notes
- I’m sure the bread could be made without adding gluten, but I think it helps. Gluten is cheap and can be found in the baking aisle. I think it’s worth the purchase if you are going to be making lots of whole wheat bread products.
- To freeze, wrap them in tin foil and place them in a freezer-safe zipper-topped baggie. They will last up to 4 months frozen.
- Leftover clover rolls should be stored at room temperature.
- Refrigerating them may dry them out and cause them to become stale.
The rolls look deliciousous
Loving your pictures! These rolls look delicious and I love the honey stirrer thingy – I don’t know if it has a real name, but it’s so cute! I must try these rolls!