Honey Whole Wheat Rolls
Honey Whole Wheat Rolls are sweet, tender, and an ideal addition to any menu whether a weeknight dinner or holiday meal.
Cloverleaf Rolls pull apart easily and have more surface area for cold, creamy butter. That’s definitely a bonus!
Why You Must Make
- Warm bread with cold butter is one of my guilty pleasures. I actually made these whole wheat cloverleaf rolls thinking they’d be part of our Thanksgiving dinner. But they were so soft and delicious, they were gone in just over a day.
- A bit of honey and using White Whole Wheat flour made for an exquisite and irresistible flavor and texture.
- Nick and Bill each ate a couple of these cloverleaf rolls for breakfast then again at dinner. Plus, I found they made a perfect mid-afternoon snack.
Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Butter, All-Purpose Flour, Salt
- Instant Yeast – I use Red Star Platinum Yeast preferred)
- Lukewarm Water – 98-105° F
- Apple Cider – Adds sweetness, flavor
- Honey – Helps feed the yeast
- White Whole Wheat Flour – You get the benefits of whole wheat without compromising the texture.
- Instant Mashed Potato Flakes – Softens the texture and keeps the bread fresher longer.
- Nonfat Dry Milk – The additional protein and sugar contribute to the structure and texture of the bread, making it more tender, increasing the rise as well as enhancing the browning of the crust.
How to Make Plus Recipe Tips
- The bit of honey makes for a touch of sweetness to these pull-apart cloverleaf rolls.
- Plus using the softer white wheat flour doesn’t weigh down the dough like the classic red wheat variety of whole wheat flour. If you haven’t been successful with baking whole wheat bread, be sure to try out (affiliate link) white whole wheat flour.
- You get the benefits of traditional whole wheat with a lighter, sweeter, and milder flavor. It’s a bit darker than all-purpose flour and can be substituted for any type of flour in your recipes. It worked perfectly in these scrumptious whole wheat rolls.
- To make a cloverleaf roll recipe, you must divide the amount of bread dough you’d use for one dinner roll into three equal parts. Roll each third into a round ball. Place three bread dough balls into each cup of a regular, greased muffin tin. Place the smoothest surface on top.
- Proof and bake. Cool slightly, then dig in!!
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does Cloverleaf Mean?
These rolls were named after the clover plant’s leaves that have 3 lobes like the 3 sections of these wheat rolls.
Are Cloverleaf Rolls American?
Recipes for cloverleaf rolls started appearing in cookbooks in the early 1900s. They likely originated in the US, but there is no documentation to prove where they were developed.
Can You Make Cloverleaf Rolls with Other Bread Dough?
Yes, you can make these with white bread dough, challah dough, or any favorite yeast bread recipe. You can even make these with frozen bread dough from the supermarket. Just defrost the dough, roll it into balls, proof, and bake.
More Yeast Bread and Rolls You’ll Love:
- Buttery Soft Rolls from Tastes of Lizzy T
- Homemade Crescent Rolls
- Whole Wheat Challah
- Honey Oatmeal Bread
- Pretzel Rolls Recipe
- Homemade Potato Bread
- Japanese Milk Bread
- More of the Best Bread Recipes
The Recipe:
Honey Whole Wheat Rolls
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Total Time
45 minutes
Yield
12 rolls
Sweet, tender cloverleaf whole wheat rolls!
Ingredients
- 1 packet or 2¼ teaspoons instant yeast (Red Star Platinum Yeast preferred)
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- ¼ cup apple cider
- ¼ cup (½ stick) butter, cut into pieces
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- ⅔ cup instant mashed potato flakes
- ¼ cup nonfat dry milk
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer. No need to proof the yeast when using instant yeast.
- Using the paddle attachment at low speed, mix ingredients till combined.
- Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 6 minutes on low speed till you have a smooth ball of dough.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl and let rise till very puffy, about 90 minutes to 2 hours.
- Grease a muffin tin and set it aside.
- Deflate the dough and divide it into 12 pieces. Roll each into a ball and place one in each muffin tin or divide each ball into thirds and place 3 smaller balls of dough into each muffin tin.
- Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the rolls to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours. While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350°.
- Bake the rolls for 15 minutes, and tent them loosely with aluminum foil. Continue to bake until about 10+ more minutes till they're deep brown on top.
- Remove the rolls from the oven, and after a couple of minutes, transfer them to a rack to finish cooling.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Adapted from King Arthur Flour.
Alternatively, you can grease two round cake pans and place 8 rolls in each.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Amount Per Serving: Calories: 0Total Fat: 0g
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63 Comments on “Honey Whole Wheat Rolls”
There is nothing better than the smell of baking bread, mmmm! These rolls tuned out so light and fluffy, great recipe!
These rolls look great and I prefer small rolls like this – they throw better! 🙂
OH YUMMMERZ!
Lizzy,
These rolls look delicious. Great tip about the type of wheat to use.
Annamaria
I’d make bread thanks
I love baking bread – it’s very therapeutic. Bread right out of the oven is my weakness.
Your rolls look so good Liz. Good luck with the comp.
These are so cute!
Gluten-free sandwich bread!
A fresh batch of rolls is far more tempting than a basket of chocolate. These look wonderful and holiday table worthy!
O these sound amazing! Warm bread is always my guilty pleasure, my neighbor makes the best homemade bread, fresh is so so yummy
These rolls look and sound amazing! Thanks for doing a giveaway! 🙂
Totally love those healthy wholegrain rolls!
I also love bread and butter and would definitely make rolls with this flour!
I just finished dinner with homemade rolls – which reminds me, I should have photographed them for the blog. drat. Homemade rolls just dress up a meal, don’t they? Yours look wonderful!
Liz, what perefctly shaped rolls – they look amazing, so very pretty and so delicious. I am not surprised that they gobbled up in no time!
Those rolls do look very, very good so I can totally understand how they were gobbled up before the big day. I have made things before that were eaten well ahead of when I was meant to present them (most recently my cherry chutney) so I’m now starting to think about making double quantities! xx
Even though I make pretty decent gluten-free bread these days, it never looks quite as lovely as that in your photos.
What would I make? Bread, lots and lots of bread! 🙂
Just looking at the ingredients in these rolls convinces me that I would just LOVE them, Liz. Apple Cider AND Potato Flakes! I’m thinking moist, tender sweet goodness. The honey is certainly the icing on the “cake.” Heavenly Liz! Oh thank goodness for simple guilty pleasures:) Thank you so much for sharing…
Fresh baked bread is my heaven on earth. These rolls look perfect, Liz! Thank you for sharing them and the giveaway!
Beautiful looking rolls – I can just about smell them those photos are so nice!
These look just like the perfect dinner rolls! I bet it is just a good with lots of butter and jam.
I would make some cookies and breads for our Christmas get together on Christmas Eve.
I just dug out our old cast iron dutch oven from camping years ago. I have it all cleaned up and larded, set to try baking some good old dense bread for soup dunking this winter. The selection from Hodgson Mill would work perfectly.
I am sooooooo not brown nosing, but I would make your honey wheat rolls! They look so soft and delish!!
I would bake poppy seed and walnut strudel.
I’d make rolls!
Love, love love these rolls!!! While I feel guilty indulging in so much bread lately, the whole wheat flours make me feel better about serving them. I’ll bet the apple cider in these is fabulous!!
I would make pancakes and sweet rolls.
Definitely whole wheat rolls!
Yum! Putting these on the list for Christmas dinner!
Those look amazing Liz with perfect texture! I love warm rolls with cold butter sooo good!
Oh, what yummy and warm looking rolls!
I can certainly see why they didn’t last. They look fabulous Liz!
I would love to make cinnamon raisin bread with these products. Yum!
I’m with you on that warm bread/cold butter thing! Such a lovely tongue pleaser! We make bread all the time, but rarely rolls. We should do this – love the looks of these. Thanks so much for the recipe.
I’m with you-there is nothing like a nice warm roll. Such a simple recipe..there is truly no excuse. I don’t use whole wheat flour that often, but I promise i’ll try to improve!
These look seriously amazing. Best whole wheat rolls ever
I’d make whole wheat tortillas
These look delishious! And thank you for the lovely giveaway 🙂
The smell of bread baking is one of my favorite things! These buns look scrumptious! White whole wheat flour really is great to bake with!
I love whole wheat bread but I have never made wheat bread. I would sure love to make my own.
Bread..!! All kinds of bread.
i’d have to make some whole wheat rolls.
cinnamon & dinner rolls
Yummy! What is the nutrition. Information on this,
If you make 16 rolls from the batch, this is a rough idea of the nutritional info: nutrition information
Serving Size: 1 roll (53g) Servings Per Batch: 16 Amount Per Serving: Calories: 130 Calories from Fat: 30 Total Fat: 3.5g Saturated Fat: 2g Trans Fat: 0g. Cholesterol: 10mg Sodium: 190mg Total Carbohydrate: 22g Dietary Fiber: 2g Sugars: 5g Protein: 4g.
They look GREAT…can’t wait to try ’em!
I would make these rolls first! Love honey whole wheat rolls!
I would make my Whole Wheat Italian Breads to give as gifts. Thanks for a great post!
Oh yes a little honey in bread does create a magical extra taste, been too long. These rolls are so beautiful too!
Big fan of bread, the only bad thing is how much of it I eat.
Looks really good Liz.
I’d make these rolls first, they’d look wonderful!
With the whole wheat pack, I’d love to make THESE! They sound delicious.
Yum, white whole wheat flour in rolls sounds perfect to me!
I think I’d have to try a whole wheat bread that we used to get when I worked at the camp in Wisconsin. Or yours. Yeah, yours. 🙂
those rolls look like perfection! Great giveaway too!
Well…these turned out great! I love using different flours in my kitchen :)) ela
These rolls look awesome – I am a sucker for fresh warm dinner rolls too. I’ve never tried adding apple cider and will have to try that next time, thanks for sharing Liz 🙂
I’d make rolls! My sons look for them with dinner every Sunday! Yours sound great, the addition of apple cider is really different:@)
I like the idea of baking rolls with whole wheat flour. Will make these soon.
These rolls sound delicious and I just might start with them.