PB & Jelly Challah Rolls

I’m sorry to be bossy and a bit dramatic…but please, take a moment.  Stop what you are doing and take a look at these.

I’ve been waiting almost two weeks to share thesewith you. These rolls are peanut butter perfection!

We LOVE peanut butter in our house.  My husband figured out that we finish off a container in a little over a week (ouch)!

I start sounding like Bubba from Forest Gump when I think of all of the things we make or put peanut butter on.  I’m sure you can tell from the list of peanut butter recipes in my recipe box…it is a top favorite all time ingredient!

I can’t believe how easy these were to make and how delicious they turned out!

Now, if you haven’t tried the whole wheat/low sugar thing, please listen up.  These rolls will change your life.  You WILL NOT be able to tell they are whole wheat AND low in sugar.  I promise.

Want to jump on my fun bus? Make these, please.

It is time to fool yourself, your husband/wife, and your kids.  They will never know that you are feeding them something “healthy”! And if you are a busy lady like me (or man for that matter) AND you have kids then this is the perfect make-head lunch!  What kid (or adult!) doesn’t want a fun pb&j for lunch.

You know that you enjoy ‘unrolling’ a breakfast bun.  Think about how much fun that could be for lunch?

Genius, I know.  They are incredible!

PB & J Challah Rolls
2/3 c warm water
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/4 c honey
2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/4 c whole wheat white flour
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 c creamy peanut butter
1 c stawberry jam (no sugar added)

First step is making the challah dough.  I used my bread machine for this part of the process. If you have a bread machine which makes it very very easy. To do this is a bread machine, put the ingredients in, in the following order: water, vegetable oil, honey, eggs, salt, flour, vital wheat gluten, and yeast. Then set the machine on the dough setting and wait for the cycle to complete (about 1.25 hours on my machine). This will also take care of the 1st rise for you.

If you are not using a machine, Whisk yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, a few minutes. In the bowl of a stand mixture, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Switch to dough hook and add 4 1/4 cups flour and salt. Use dough hook on a moderate speed until it pulls all of the flour and wet ingredients together into a craggy mass. Lower the speed and let the dough hook knead the dough for 5 minutes, until smooth, elastic and a little sticky.Transfer dough to large oil-coated bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size.

Then, roll out the dough onto a floured surface until it is about 1/4″ thick and in a large rectangle.  Spread the peanut butter over the dough (as evenly as possible).  Then, spread the jam.

Grease a deep casserole pan. Then, starting on a long side begin to roll the dough until it forms a long roll.  Using a serrated knife, cut the roll into 2″ long pieces.  Stand those pieces on their ends in the pan (so you can see the roll pattern at the top) and press them down slightly. Leave about 1/2″ between the rolls.  Repeat this process until all of the rolls are in the pan.

Cover the pan with a dry towel and place it in a warm dry place.  Let the dough rise for another 1 hour.  After 45 minutes, turn on the oven to 375.  When the dough has risen for an hour, bake the rolls at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until they are lightly browned.