My friend Catie loves to bake, and makes tons of healthy baked goods, but has always been scared of baking with yeast. I like baking, including with yeast, but maybe sort of hate healthy things a bit. So for Christmas this year, I got her a book neither of us would like, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and then went to visit her in Michigan at the end of January to bake something from the book with her. The rolls were a success, and hopefully the start of lots more yeast baking!

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces (about 5 cups) raw broccoli florets
• 1 1/2 cups water for cooking the broccoli
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 1 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• oil for greasing the muffin tin
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese for sprinkling on the buns (we added more in the dough, and why wouldn’t you?)

Begin by bringing the 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan on the stove. Once the water is boiling, add the broccoli and cover the pot. There probably won’t be enough water to cover all the broccoli – that’s ok. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then transfer both the broccoli and the water it was cooking in to a food processor or blender and puree until pretty smooth.

You should get 3 cups of puree out of this. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl or lidded container, stir together the flours, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten. Add the remaining 1 3/4 cups of water and the broccoli puree and stir in, until evenly mixed. Do not knead.

We also added some extra cheese at this point.

Cover the mixed dough (not airtight) and let rest until it rises and collapses, about 2 hours. You can then either use it right away, or refrigerate up to a week. This recipe makes three batches, so you can do them at different times over the week.

After a while in the fridge.

On the day you want to bake, grease a muffin tin well. Separate out 1/3 of the dough and shape into a ball. Divide that ball into 8 smaller balls, and then each of those 8 into 4 even smaller balls. Put each group of four small balls into one muffin cup. It helps if you put them all in at once, because up at the top where it’s a bit wider they all fit in better than if you try and smoosh them one at a time into the bottom of the cup. We did some with 3 balls per cup, and some with 4, and the ones with 4 looked better at the end, I thought.

Lightly cover with plastic wrap, then let rise 20 minutes for fresh dough, or 40 for refrigerated dough. During that time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with an empty pan on the bottom rack and a baking stone on the middle rack.

Sprinkle cheese over the risen dough, one cup per batch.

Place the muffin tin on the hot baking stone, and put 1 cup of hot water in the empty pan in the bottom. (Use cast iron or a pan you don’t mind warping.) Bake 20-25 minutes, until browned and firm.

The one on the left had 4 balls of dough, the one on the right 3.

Remove from the pans and cool slightly before eating.

Fairly simple, other than all the dividing, and tasty! My one suggestion is don’t take ones that are still steaming hot to the airport, as they do smell a bit cooked-broccoli-y, and your neighbors may not be into it. I’ll be submitting this to YeastSpotting.

Broccoli and Cheddar Clover Rolls

From Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day.

• 15 ounces (about 5 cups) raw broccoli florets
• 1 1/2 cups water for cooking the broccoli
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 1 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• oil for greasing the muffin tin
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese for sprinkling on the buns

Bring the 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan on the stove. Once the water is boiling, add the broccoli and cover the pot. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then transfer both the broccoli and the water it was cooking in to a food processor or blender and puree until pretty smooth. You should get 3 cups of puree out of this. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl or lidded container, stir together the flours, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten. Add the remaining 1 3/4 cups of water and the broccoli puree and stir in, until evenly mixed. Do not knead. Add extra cheese during this step if desired.

Cover the mixed dough (not airtight) and let rest until it rises and collapses, about 2 hours. You can then either use it right away, or refrigerate up to a week. This recipe makes three batches, so you can do them at different times over the week.

On the day you want to bake, grease a muffin tin well. Separate out 1/3 of the dough and shape into a ball. Divide that ball into 8 smaller balls, and then each of those 8 into 4 even smaller balls. Put each group of four small balls into one muffin cup.  Lightly cover with plastic wrap, then let rise 20 minutes for fresh dough, or 40 for refrigerated dough. During that time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with an empty pan on the bottom rack and a baking stone on the middle rack.

Sprinkle one cup of the cheese over the risen dough, then slide the muffin tin on the hot baking stone, and put 1 cup of hot water in the empty pan in the bottom. Bake 20-25 minutes, until browned and firm.

Remove from the pans and cool slightly before eating.