So Thanksgiving is a little over a week away which is quite honestly insane. But as was stated in my last post, everything right now is quite honestly insane. But you know what helps? Cute lil pumpkin buns.
But before I get into all that, let’s have a little debrief. So you know that project I’ve been talking about? Yeah, well I had a deadline on October first. Guess who’s still only halfway towards meeting that deadline? Yeah it’s not going so well.
What I’m doing now isn’t difficult, but it sure is time consuming. And I try and work on it in as much of my free time as I can manage, but school work has to come first and there sure is a whole lot of school work. But anyway, I’m getting closer to the finishing everyday and I am making my new deadline the end of Thanksgiving break. I think I can get it done during those days off.
In other news, the weather has taken quite a turn recently. It was 80 degrees last week and now the high is 50? That’s craziness I tell you. Witchcraft perhaps. But I really am loving it because the sweaters are being worn everyday now. You know it’s really getting chilly out when my morning routine switches from pouring cold brew over ice to brewing a fresh pot of hot coffee. I honestly don’t know which one I like better, but this time of year a hot cup of coffee is one of the only things that gets me out of bed in the morning.
You know what else gets me out of bed in the morning? These rolls! (you see that transition there? Seamless.) But seriously let’s have a moment for these rolls, because aren’t they just the cutest little things? This recipe was very satisfying to develop because I was super stressed that the filling and shaping wouldn’t work out, and then it just did.
Describe These Rolls to Me
Taste: These are the sweet and savory rolls of your dreams. The dough is infused with brown butter and herbs for a salty and savory taste, and the filling is slightly sweet from the apples and cinnamon. But that cheddar cheese and salty brown butter really brings out the savory notes to make these the perfect roll to serve for Thanksgiving.
Texture: These rolls have the most magical texture. The dough is buttery and tender, but still strong enough to support the gooeyer filling. The apples become perfectly soft when you bake them, and the cheddar gives you that dreamy cheese pull.
Ease: Although these rolls may look difficult, they’re actually quite simple to make. The dough comes together similarly to most yeasted doughs, and the filling is just a bunch of ingredients tossed in a bowl. The shaping is really just filling some balls of dough with the apples and tying them up to make a pumpkin, so it’s also a lot simpler than meets the eye. And the brown butter topping is super quick as well.
The Dough
This dough is a pretty basic dinner roll recipe, with a few special additions. Instead of regular melted butter, these rolls use toasty brown butter to compliment the apples and sage. We throw in some honey to keep the rolls tender and soft, and chopped sage and rosemary to keep them savory. This dough rises up so nice and fluffy, but is still strong enough to hold the filling.
The Filling
I really wanted to keep this filling super straightforward so the apple cheddar flavor combo really gets a chance to shine. So all this is, is cubed apples, a little flour and cinnamon, salt and pepper, and shredded cheddar. Make sure to get pre shredded cheddar as it is treated to hold it’s shape better. This ensures the cheese doesn’t disappear into the dough when baked.
The Shaping
Although these look adorable and impressive, they’re actually really simple to shape. First you split your dough up into 8 little balls and flatten them out. Put a mound of that filling on top and seal it inside like a dumpling, making sure to pinch it closed tightly. Then, use cooking twine tossed in flour (to prevent sticking) to tie the rolls up into different sections. You want to make sure you’re tying them a little loosely so they don’t get stuck in the dough. Let them rise like that and then bake them with the twine. Let ’em cool and then you can remove the twine. The TikTok embedded bellow shows me shaping these if you need a little extra help picturing it.
The Topping
The topping for these is one of my very favorite fall things that I look forward to year long. I use it as a topping on my squash soup, but it’s just as delicious on these rolls. Brown sage butter truly is the easiest topping of autumn but oh my goodness is it delicious. It’s just salted butter melted and browned on the stove with whole sage leaves tossed in. The sage leaves infuse the butter with flavor, and give you a crispy sage topping that I use for the leaves on these pumpkins.
Apple Cheddar Filled Sage Rolls
Ingredients
Method
- Place the butter in a medium saucepan and melt over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once it melts, it will begin to sizzle and foam. Keep stirring for 3-4 minutes and you will start to see brown specks appear. Keep stirring until the butter becomes an amber brown color and has a nutty aroma. Be careful, it can go from brown to burned very quickly! Remove from the heat immediately, and pour into a bowl. Let it cool for ten minutes while we make the rest of the dough.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the warm milk, yeast, and one Tablespoon of the honey. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 5 minutes. The mixture should become foamy on top, and if it doesn't, then your yeast is most likely dead and you should start over with new yeast.
- Add the remaining honey, cooled brown butter, egg, rosemary, sage, salt, and 1 cup of bread flour. Whisk until smooth. Fold in the remaining 2 cups of flour and fold together with a spatula or a wooden spoon until you have a shaggy dough. Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead with your hands for 4 minutes, or until the dough bounces back when poked. Place the ball of dough in a large greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in a wam and humid environment (or on the counter is fine) and let rise for two hours, or until doubled in size.
- In the last ten minutes of rising time, prepare the filling. In a medium sized bowl, toss together the apples, cinnamon, cheddar, salt, pepper, and flour until evenly coated and combined. Set aside.
- punch down the dough to release the air. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into eight even sections. Press each section down into a circular disk, about 1/4 inch thick. Place a little over 3 Tablespoons of the apple filling in the center, pull the edges of the dough to the center and pinch tightly to completely seal the filling inside. Try and smooth it out so the ball is nice and tidy. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- For the pumpkin shaping, you will need 8 pieces of kitchen twine, roughly 40 inches long. Toss the the kitchen twine in flour so it doesn't stick to the rolls. For help in this part of the shaping process, watch the video above as a guide. Place the filled ball of dough in the center of one piece of the string. Tie a knot, flip the ball, and then tie another knot, with the string running the opposite direction. You should now have a cross of string on the roll. Create another cross like this, but with the string cutting each quarter in half. Tie a double knot on the last one and cut off the ends of the string (you should still have about an inch of string though). Repeat with all the rolls.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and arrange the rolls on them, at least three inches apart. Cover the rolls with a clean kitchen towel and let them rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Keep the string on the rolls! We will cut it off after we bake them. Bake for 23-27 minutes or until golden browned on top, making sure to rotate the pan halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the fresh sage. Once the butter has melted, it will begin to sizzle and foam, and you will start to see brown specks forming. It should be an amber brown or caramel like color, and the sage should be nice and crispy. Remove from the heat immediately, as it can go from brown to burnt very quickly! Remove the sage from the butter and place on a plate.
- Brush the rolls with the brown butter, and stick a pecan in the center to be the "stem". Stick the crispy sage leaves in next to the pecan as a leaf and enjoy!
One thought on “Apple Cheddar Filled Sage Rolls”