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Onion Rolls

4.93 from 27 votes
Prep Time 12 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Resting time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 42 minutes
Servings 12 rolls
Calories 208
These versatile rolls are soft, pillowy and literally packed with onions.

Ingredients

Dough:

  • 141 grams warm water (½ cup plus 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
  • 4 grams active dry yeast or instant yeast (1½ teaspoon)
  • 378 grams bread flour (3 cups plus 2 Tablespoons)
  • 3 egg yolks, at room temperature
  • 43 grams neutral oil such as canola, vegetable, sunflower (3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon)
  • 68 grams honey (3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon)
  • 30 grams sugar (2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon)
  • 4 grams salt (¾ teaspoon)
  • 1 egg combined with 1 teaspoon water (egg wash)

Onion Filling:

  • 1 medium onion (peeled and diced)
  • 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
  • teaspoon salt
  • A pinch of fresh black pepper
  • 13 grams olive oil (1 Tablespoon)

Instructions 

  • Dough. Pour water into mixing bowl of electric mixer. Cover with yeast and about ½ tsp. of the sugar. Stir gently to hydrate the yeast. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes to get foamy. (If using instant yeast, skip this step and mix your yeast and water in with everything else in the next step.)
  • Add the yolks, oil, honey, sugar, and flour. With the dough hook attachment, knead the mixture for about 4-5 minutes.
  • With the mixer on low, slowly add the salt. Knead for an additional 2-3 minutes until the salt is fully absorbed and the dough passes the windowpane test.
  • Place dough in ungreased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in warm area for about 3 hours.
  • Onion filling. Toss all ingredients in a medium frying pan. Remove 3 tbsp. of the mixture and store on counter in plastic wrap. (The raw onion mixture will be used to sprinkle on top of the rolls.) On a medium-low heat, cook remaining onion mixture until onions are translucent and just begin to caramelize on the sides, 5-7 minutes. (The cooked onion mixture will be used for filling the rolls.)
  • Line the bottom of a 9 inch by 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
  • Gently deflate the dough. Divide into 12 equal portions (approximately 60 g. each) and shape into balls. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
  • One ball at a time (while keeping the others covered with plastic wrap), pat down the ball into a flat oval. Use about 1 tsp. of the onion mixture to fill each roll. Lay the onion mixture across the top third of the oval. Fold the top third of the oval over itself. Fold the left and right sides over itself and pinch the dough to make sure it is fully enclosed. Fold up the bottom and again pinch the edges to ensure it is fully enclosed. (Alternatively, you can flatten the dough into a circle/oval, place the onion mixture in the middle, and pull the edges into the middle, connecting them but not touching any of the onion mixture.) Use your hand to cup the ball against the countertop with your fingers and thumb closing in on the base of the ball. Rotate it clockwise to round out the ball. Repeat with remaining balls of dough, placing each ball in the prepared pan a couple of inches apart from each other and from the sides of the pan.
  • Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour.
  • Preheat oven to 350° F.
  • Apply egg wash. Sprinkle each roll with uncooked onion mixture. Bake 28-32 minutes.

Notes

  • Either take your eggs out of the refrigerator an hour before you plan to make the dough or place them in a bowl of warm water for approximately ten minutes. Once you separate the eggs, you can store the whites in an air-proof container in the refrigerator. They will be good for up to one week to use in recipes that call for egg whites (meringues, French macarons, angel food cake or for an egg white omelet).
  • Do not grease the bowl you place the dough into for the 3 hour bulk rise. Non-stick spray or oil will make it more difficult to work with the dough. In the unlikely event that the dough sticks to your bowl when you go to remove it at the end of the 3 hours, just use a bowl scraper or a rubber spatula to get it out of the bowl.
  • Do not grease your pan! And be careful when filling the rolls with the onion mixture. Any sort of oil or grease (including from the oil in the onion mixture) that touches the dough will make it difficult to close the dough on itself.
  • When you place the balls into the pan, leave lots of space between them and near the edges of the pan. The dough will rise and spread. If you want rolls that bake more compact, use a smaller pan. Alternatively, you can place the rolls on baking sheets, spread apart, if you want rolls that do not touch each other.
  • Rolls will last for several days wrapped in plastic wrap. They also freeze beautifully and can be defrosted at room temperature in about 15 minutes or wrap in foil, place in oven, turn oven on to 350° F. Within a few minutes of the oven getting to temperature, rolls will be warm.
  •  I strongly advise weighing ingredients rather than measuring them. For more information, see my post Weighing vs. Measuring.
Calories: 208kcal
Course: Bread
Cuisine: American, Jewish
Keyword: challah, dinner rolls

Nutrition

Calories: 208kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 159mg | Potassium: 64mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 86IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg