Whole Grain Cranberry Vanilla Dinner Rolls with Whipped Vanilla Bean Maple Butter
Take your holiday menu to the next level with these nutty whole grain dinner rolls! They’re full of hearty whole wheat, sunflower seeds, oats, and quinoa, with a hint of sweetness from dried cranberries and rich vanilla. Serve with a fluffy vanilla bean maple butter- your guests will adore!
This is a sponsored post, written by me, and created in partnership with Nielsen Massey Vanillas. All opinions expressed herein are straight from my heart.
It’s Friday morning y’all! Can you believe another week has whizzed by?
It sure went in a hurry for me. I’ve been traveling since Monday. You may have noticed all the tweets I’ve been sending from Chicago. Earlier this week I attended a most incredible blogger retreat, hosted by my besties over at KitchenAid. And now I am living it up at BlogHer Food. It’s been a blast, but you know me, I’m a homebody, and I’m already feeling a little homesick. I’m looking forward to getting home to my boys, and to starting to plan my Thanksgiving menu.
It’ll be here before we know it!
One thing that’s for sure going to be on the table this Thanksgiving is a pan of these amazing homemade dinner rolls. They’re loaded with hearty texture from whole wheat, quinoa, oats, flax, and sunflower seeds, with a soft/chewy texture and a great yeasty flavor. But the best part is the hint of sweetness you get from the dried cranberries and vanilla. There’s just so much going on! And it’s all so home-y and comforting, and it just screams family and holiday.
The only thing that could make these rolls any better is a generous smear of whipped vanilla bean maple butter. I just love the contrast of sweet and salty, and this butter totally brings it. It’s beautifully complex but perfectly balanced. I used Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste, so you see all those gorgeous little black flecks, and it’s just bursting with rich vanilla flavor.
Even though there’s yeast involved, this recipe couldn’t be simpler. You know I am myself a novice bread baker, so I wouldn’t post it here if it was overly complicated. This is basically dump, stir, rest, shape, rise, and bake. Boom.
All the Nielsen-Massey products are stellar! My pantry is stocked with just about every extract in their line, and I use them all. But the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste are my favorites! You can learn lots more about Nielsen-Massey vanillas here and here. And be sure to keep up with all the Nielsen-Massey happenings by following on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube!
This post contains affiliate sales links.
Whole Grain Cranberry Vanilla Dinner Rolls with Whipped Vanilla Bean Maple Butter
Ingredients
For the Whole Grain Cranberry Vanilla Dinner Rolls
- 2 cups (240 g) whole wheat flour, (you may need as much as 2 1/4 cups)
- 3/4 cup (90.91 g) dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup (33.5 g) sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup (20.25 g) old fashioned oats
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
- 1/4 ounce (7.09 g) dry active yeast, (1 packet)
- 1/2 cup (122 ml) milk
- 1/4 cup (62.5 ml) water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (46.25 g) cooked quinoa
For the Whipped Vanilla Bean Maple Butter
- 6 tablespoons (88.72 g) unsalted butter,, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) kosher salt
Instructions
To Make the Whole Grain Cranberry Vanilla Dinner Rolls:
- Place the 2 cups of flour, cranberries, sunflower seeds, oats, flax, and yeast in a large mixing bowl, and stir to combine.
- Place the milk, water, butter, and maple syrup in a large liquid measure, and warm in the microwave, in 15 second increments, until the butter is mostly melted and the mixture feels very warm, but not hot.
- Add the liquid ingredients into the dry, along with the vanilla and quinoa.
- Stir until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (Add additional 1/4 cup flour if the dough seems too sticky.)
- Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes, then allow it to rest (covered), for 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, rolling each into a ball.
- Place in a lightly greased 8-inch pan, and allow to rise (covered) for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and bake for 20 minutes or until puffy and golden. Serve with Whipped Vanilla Bean Maple Butter.
To Make the Whipped Vanilla Bean Maple Butter:
- Place the butter, vanilla bean paste, maple syrup, and salt in a small bowl and whip on high speed until pale and fluffy.
- Serve at room temperature.
What could I substitute quinoa with?
Oh, wow! You certainly are living it up! Good for you, girlfriend! But, I know you must be missing your adorable boys!! Anyways, I totally want to live it up in carb-a-licious style with a ginormous basket of these rolls! Talk about crazy delicious flavors going on here! These are the ultimate whole grain dinner roll! And that vanilla maple butter?! OMG, I would like to put that on everything! These rock, chicka! Pinned! Cheers and hope you are having safe travels! <3
Thank you so much Cheyanne! I’m finally home and just trying my best to get back on top of everything. I did miss my boys! Thanks you so much for the sweet comment, dear. Hope your week has been amazing so far 😀
I absolutely LOVE the flavor in these dinner rolls!!! Like wowza!
Thank you so much hon! They were a big hit with the fam 😉
I obviously LOVE that these are whole grain! And with added cranberries and that maple butter?! These are speaking my language!
Yay!! Thanks so much Taylor- I’m so glad you like these! I loved all the hearty texture from the whole grains 🙂
Oooh yes. I could do some damage to a batch of these rolls. I love the butter pairing!
Thanks Alyssa! I think the butter totally made them 🙂
Yum, these look amazing! Love the flavor combination!
Thanks Sabrina! I loved it too!
This is definitely the time of year when I start wishing I was American, Allie! And right now I’m wishing I was part of your family if this is the kind of treat that will be on the table.
Beautiful recipe as usual, with beautiful photos to go with it. 🙂
Aw, thank you so much Helen! I wish you could be here!
Hope you’re having fun at BlogHer food! And these rolls have so much vanilla goodness going on. There’s something about seeing flecks of vanilla bean in something that makes it seem so special — that butter sounds extra delicious!
Thanks Marcie! The butter was my favorite part, lol 😉
Oh my these rolls look absolutely fabulous! I also cannot believe that we’re approaching Thanksgiving. The Nielson-Massey vanilla bean paste is my FAVORITE!!!
Mine too Lindsey! It’s changed my life, lol. Thank you so much for the sweet comment!
I just love dinner rolls that are on the sweeter more rustic side. These look like they’re worth fighting over who gets to have the last one. Growing-up in a home with 3 girls, I’m sure I’d have some competition over these during Thanksgiving dinner!
Haha right! I love the rustic and slightly sweet thing too. So happy you like these- thanks so much for stopping by and for the sweet comment 🙂
These look so good Allie and healthy too! I love the addition of flax and seeds!
Thanks Ester! I really loved the added texture and heartiness. Hope you’re having a great weekend, thanks so much for stopping by!
These rolls look awesome and I love that they’re whole grain!
Thank you so much Medha! We loved them too!
I love Nielsen-Massey! I just finished a massive bottle of vanilla and need to order more!! I’ve been loving all your yeast bread recipes, Allie! These rolls look so delicious!!!
Aw that’s so great to hear! I’m having so much fun with yeast lately. It’s so great learning something new!
These will be at my table on Thanksgiving too. Any suggestions on a making these with a gluten free flour? Enjoy your weekend and thanks for the great recipes.
Hey thanks so much for stopping by and for the great question. I haven’t really tested the recipe with a gluten-free flour blend, so I can’t say for sure. But if you have a blend that you love and you know it works well for yeast breads, I definitely think it’s worth a try! Let me know how you make out! Thanks Karen 🙂
Wow! These look crazy delicious! Especially the vanilla bean maple butter, yummmm 🙂
Thank you Mel! The vanilla bean maple butter was totally my favorite part 😉
These dinner rolls look so good and I LOVE Nielsen-Massey’s Vanilla Bean Paste!!!!!
I do too Alice! I swear I can’t even live without it hahaha!
It sounds like you’re having fun on your travels. Yup, before we know it, the holidays will be here. I’m shakin’ in my boots a bit. These rolls look absolutely delicious.
Me too haha! But I am looking forward to it too. Can’t wait to get home ad start diving in 😉 Thanks so much Jennie!