Ricotta Rolls

I am so excited! This is my first blog on my "Cooking Mommy" website.

Do not be fooled by the name of this recipe. You do not even know it has ricotta cheese in the bread. I have served these to over a dozen people, and none of them detect the ricotta and all of them love it, even people who do not like ricotta at all. I think it just makes these rolls extremely soft and delicious! I got this recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German, and I put in some of my own modifications. These are my and my hubby's favorite!

Ingredients

1/3 cup milk
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 Tbsp. canola oil (or margarine/butter, I use canola oil because it's healthier)
1 egg (see bottom for egg-free version)
2 1/2 Tbsp. honey (or sugar, again I use honey for health reasons)
1 tsp. salt
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. yeast

Directions

Put all of the ingredients into your bread maker and mix it on the dough setting. I only wait until it's completely kneaded it before taking it out. You could let it rise on the dough setting, but it's not necessary. You could also try mixing it with a stand or hand mixer, but I've honestly never tried it that way. 7/16/09: I made this the night and I put all of the ingredients into my stand mixer to try it for all of you out there who don't have a bread machine. I put in all the dry ingredients first. Then I turned it on low to start with and as it gathered the dough, I turned it up a little faster. It gathered the whole thing together in a big ball of dough. I took it all out and hand kneaded it (without adding any additional flour) for about 5-10 minutes. Then I followed the next instructions without the bread machine....

Take the dough out of the bread machine. Divide it into twelve parts and roll each part into a ball and flatten them some. Place them on a cookie sheet, cover with a dish towel, and let rise for at least 1-2 hours.

This is the dough before rising. I only used half of the dough and put the other half in the freezer. The rolls don't rise a whole lot like you might expect, so don't worry.

Here is the dough after rising for 2 hours.

Bake rolls in the oven 13-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Yummy!

Variation: If you'd like to make this into a loaf in your bread maker instead of rolls, use 2 1/4 cups of bread flour instead of 3. It makes a medium size loaf.

Tips: We could but should NOT eat 12 rolls as a family, so I divide the dough in half and only make 6 at a time. I could make it all at once and save them, but they are so much better fresh out of the oven. I put half the dough in a freezer quart ziplock bag and freeze it. Even if I'm making them the next day, I still do this. For some reason it changes flavor if you try to put it in the fridge. I take the dough out that morning or early afternoon and let it thaw out. This takes about an hour. Then proceed with rolling it into balls. Make sure you allow yourself enough time to let them rise. When I say these freeze well, I mean in dough form.

Another tip is to put the rising dough outside when it's warm or on your warm (not hot) stove top or even clothes dryer to help them rise faster.

WW points/calories: 3 per roll (180 calories per roll if you use skim ricotta cheese and fat free milk)

egg-free version: get unflavored gelatin and dissolve one package into 1 cup boiling water. Use 3 1/2 tbsp of this in place of 1 egg. Store in fridge and reheat to liquid form when you need to use in the future.... or use 3 tbsp water and 1 tbsp ground flax seed in place of one egg (very healthy and my preferred substitution)