They may not be green, but these dinner rolls are exactly what you need for your St. Patrick’s Day meal. Made with Guinness, Irish butter, and oats, their flavor is rich and hearty, and they have a fantastic texture. Soft but substantial – which is what they’ll be calling me if I keep testing my creations!
And believe it or not, the rolls are super easy to make. (See the recipe below? See how short it is? I think this is a personal record.) I made three batches of dough in less than forty minutes, but I admit that flour was flying. My mixer is a real workhorse, thank goodness. For the sake of full disclosure, I also have to mention that each batch uses one cup of beer, so there’s a little left in the bottle. By making 3 batches back to back, I got to have a full bottle of Guinness as I worked. Sweeeeet.
Dividing the dough into 36 equal parts and rolling them into balls is the only thing that will take a little time, but there’s nothing hard about it. I wanted mine to be similar in size, so I weighed the dough, did the math, and (in case you’re wondering) each ball was approximately 1 1/2 ounces, or 45 grams. Just sayin’. You don’t have to do this unless you plan to take photos and put them on a blog!
I used Irish butter because I love it and it seemed appropriate. It’s a little pricey for baking, but hey – St. Patrick’s Day only comes once a year. Splurge a little; it really does have wonderful flavor.
You’ll smell the beer as the rolls are baking. I’ve got to say, it made me a wee bit nervous; it smelled like a distillery in my kitchen. But the rolls didn’t taste like beer at all to me. If anything, the Guinness gives them sort of a whole wheat taste, and I’m good with that. Yum.
The only warning I’m going to give you is this: keep an eye on the bread as it’s rising! Mine only took about 45 minutes for the first rise and once the rolls were formed, it took less than an hour for them to be ready for the oven. They are very enthusiastic.
| Guinness Cloverleaf Rolls | Print |
- ½ cup very warm water
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 2 packages active-dry yeast
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 cup Guinness Extra Stout Beer
- 5½ -6 cups white bread flour
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1 tablespoon salt
- In a small bowl, combine ½ cup very warm water and sugar. Add yeast and set aside to proof.
- In a small saucepan, bring milk and water to a simmer. Remove from heat.
- Add butter, molasses, and beer. When butter is melted, place mixture in large bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook.
- Add the yeast mixture and 5½ cups flour, the quick oats, and salt. Mix on low for 3 minutes. If the dough isn’t coming cleanly away from the side of the bowl, or if the dough feels very sticky, add the remaining ½ cup flour. Knead for 3 minutes. (If kneading by hand, place on floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.)
- Place in a large greased bowl, turn to coat the dough, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise until doubled – about 1 hour. It may be less, depending on the temperature of the room.
- Grease jumbo muffin pans and then divide the dough into 36 equal pieces. (For small rolls, grease standard muffin pans and divide dough into 72 equal pieces.)
- Allow rolls to rise until almost doubled, about 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 400 F.
- Bake 15-18 minutes, or until tops are rich golden brown.
- Remove from oven and brush tops with butter. Turn out of the pan and serve warm, or allow rolls to cool completely on rack.
Stir butter and molasses into the hot milk mixture and then add beer.
Add the foamy yeast to the warm liquids, then add dry ingredients.
This is where you knead the dough, of course. I use my stand mixer and a dough hook.
Put dough into greased bowl. Turn it over to lightly coat.
This dough rises quickly!
Put 3 balls of dough in each cavity of muffin pan
Let ’em rise. Bake!
Brush hot rolls with butter
. . . and enjoy!
Oh, and you might want to keep this recipe around, because it will make two wonderful loaves of bread if you’d rather not fuss with rolls. It slices perfectly, doesn’t crumble, and makes great sandwiches and toast.
Three bottles of beer left. Hmm. More bread? I don’t think so. Sláinte!
Lorinda
I’m excited to make this recipe! It was years ago that I made a decent cloverleaf roll, and then I used potato in the dough. I’m not fond of beer (alas!), but if it makes a great dough, I’m all for it! Thanks for your efforts, Lori. I see you’ve rewarded yourself with the leftovers. Good show! Sláinte!
They won’t be quite as light and fluffy as a potato roll, but they have a great texture. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! You can always make one loaf of bread and 6 jumbo (or 12 regular) cloverleaf rolls, too. The beer really adds something – just buy one bottle!
Thanks for the wonderful comment, Mary Rose!