Sandwich Rolls

I really like sandwiches.  I particularly like these sandwich rolls.  It's a really good way to use up any sandwich type of ingredients you have on hand that might go bad if you don't use them up fairly quickly, because these rolls are perfectly delicious when you freeze them and then re-heat them later.  I usually stick with some kind of lunch meat and cheese sandwich, or a pizza variety, but this time, I decided to try a Peanut Butter and Jelly one too.

For the dough, I used Mel of Mel's Kitchen Cafe's French Bread Roll Recipe.  Make sure that your dough is still sticky when you've finished adding in flour, because that's how you'll end up with a tender and delicious bread.  I doubled this recipe so that I'd end up with 24 sandwich rolls at the end:  

French Bread Rolls

1 1/2 cups warm water

3/4 tablespoon instant yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour


Put everything except the flour in your stand mixer, and mix well with the paddle attachment.  Add in 4 cups of the flour to make a very watery dough.  Switch to the dough hook, and add in the remaining flour, and let it knead for about 5-7 minutes.  Take out the dough hook, cover the bowl, and let it rise until doubled.  Mine only had to rise for 45 minutes, and it was definitely doubled at that point.  Once you get the dough, split it into two equal portions, and roll one of them out onto a floured surface like this:  

Yes, I already spread the peanut butter on this one...

Mine is about 11"x13",  but you can clearly see that it's not exact.  If you're making the peanut butter variety, microwave about 3/4-1 cup of peanut butter for 15-30 seconds so that it's very easily spreadable.  Spread the peanut butter all the way to the edges of your dough, leaving just a tiny space on the bottom for when you roll the dough up.

Mmmm...Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Then spread it with your favorite Jelly--this is black currant jelly from Grandpa Murray (it's delicious).  Roll the whole deal up starting from the top, and then slice it into 12 rolls.  You can do more of you so desire, but 12 worked out really well for me.

Rolls!

I lined this cookie sheet with aluminum foil because I suspected that the jelly would leak out and be quite sticky, and it was.  I would recommend lightly spraying the cookie sheet as well when you do this.  Cover with something (plastic wrap, kitchen towel, etc.) and allow to rise while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and work with your second batch of dough.

 In the second batch of dough, I made this mix:

Spicy Yogurt Sauce (1 cup plain Greek yogurt mixed with about 1 t of hot sauce)
Brown mustard (spread only over the top 1/4th of the dough)
Mozzarella Cheese (probably 1.5 cups of shredded spread all over the dough)
Ham lunch meat
Baby spinach leaves


You could probably just substitute mayonnaise for the yogurt sauce, if you'd like.  I didn't notice anything weird because I used yogurt--there was no tangy-ness whatsoever.


Roll the whole thing up just like the peanut butter and jelly ones, and then cut into 12 rolls. Place onto a greased cookie sheet and cover to rise for a few minutes.

Mmmm...Hammy.

  At this point, your oven is probably preheated, you can go ahead and stick the peanut butter and jelly rolls in  to cook for 12-15 minutes.  Then, just switch out the cooked ones with the other set, and you'll end up with these:

Cooked Ham and Spinach Rolls

Close up of Ham and Spinach Roll

 I forgot to take pictures of the finished peanut butter ones while they were on the tray, but it wasn't that exciting.  After cooling, you can stick them in your freezer for a few hours and then just plop them into freezer bags to eat whenever you want them.  Katie requested a jelly sandwich today, so I took one of the Peanut butter ones out, stuck it in the microwave for 30 seconds, and got this:

Close up of Peanut Butter Roll...the next day

 I had to convince her it was the same thing as a sandwich, but once she tried it, she happily ate the whole thing.  These also work really nicely in lunches for people who have to go to work, especially since you can stick it in the microwave and have a warm roll for lunch.  If it's defrosted, you should probably only microwave it for about 15 seconds, so you don't turn the bread into rubber.