Submit your recipes on this Real Food Recipe Makeover Submission Page.
Did you know that I really, really love butter?
Let’s see – which do I love more? Butter…or jars? That’s a toss up. Hey, did you know you can make butter IN a jar? That tidbit of information is irrelevant to this post, but still worth mentioning…just because it involves two of my favorite things.
It is a fact that Matt’s eyes got really big as I was buttering my biscuit last week – even though he obviously knows how much I love butter. I mean – it was enough to stop our conversation at the time.
“What?” I said, “You’ve never seen me butter my biscuit before?”
“Yes,” he said, “I’ve seen you. But there is almost more butter than biscuit this time.” (At which point I grinned – and got just a tiny bit more butter because there was a spot on my biscuit not yet covered…)
Alrighty. So I like a little biscuit with my butter. And I like it to be all melty down the sides. Then I like to sop the buttery drippings off of my plate as I eat my biscuit. It’s just best that way if you ask me.
Which is why I was excited to make over this recipe. I mean, they are called Butterhorns! I didn’t have to make many changes in this recipe – just a few minor tweaks. And wow is it delicious!
With Christmas coming, many of you are looking for a yummy, whole grain roll to make with your holiday meal. This would be perfect if you ask me. :)
Whole Wheat Butterhorns
2 Tablespoons dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
9 cups whole wheat flour, divided (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
2 cups warm milk
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sucanat or 3/4 cup honey
6 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. (Water should be warm, but not so warm that you can’t comfortably put your finger in it to test the temp.) Add 4 cups flour, milk, butter, sucanat, eggs, and salt. Beat with an electric mixer until contents are smooth.
Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. I found it easiest to do this by hand. Although if you have a Kitchen Aid type mixer, I’m sure that would work well too! Turn mixture onto floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes.
Place dough in a bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1-3 hours).
Punch dough down and divide into four equal parts. Roll each part into a 12-inch circle and brush with melted butter.
Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges.
Roll up each wedge from wide edge to tip of dough and pinch to seal. Place rolls, top down, on baking sheets.
Allow rolls to rise again for about 30 minutes or until they have doubled in size. Bake at 375° for 10-20 minutes (every oven is different!) or until they are lightly browned. Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Remove and serve immediately or cool on wire racks.
This recipe makes about 30 rolls. These freeze very well! I found that having a batch of these in the freezer is wonderful when I need something additional to help stretch a meal! I simply take out the amount we need, warm them in our toaster oven, and serve them with…you guessed it…butter.
Who loves butter as much as I do? Do tell.
Is there such a thing as too much butter? :)
It’s funny; I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, disliking butter, milk, cheese, pretty much all of it. Now that I’ve grown up and switched to whole foods for the sake of my kids, it’s all back in my house again and I love it!! Go figure. These look delicious and what fun for the kiddos to roll them up. Will be making soon :)
To funny you say this I grew up in the country side of Wisconsin and never really like any of those things except I have always loved cheese, but now we use them all the time and I actually like butter.
I really, really love butter. I love it even more while pregnant. For my baby shower years ago I requested soup and bread so we could have butter!
My 3rd little one seams to be allergic to dairy, so as long as he is nursing, no butter for me :(
I am there with you…love the butter but off of all dairy and soy. There isn’t a good substitute, either. Pretty sure I am going to butter everything when I can have it agaiin!
Teresa and Lyndsay, I’ve been there! My son couldn’t have soy or dairy, but thankfully he grew out of it at 6 months (I had a huge bowl of ice cream that day!!!). The best butter substitute I found was not actually butter at all but this “whipped cream” http://nuttykitchen.com/2010/06/01/coconut-whipped-cream/. I found it too rich to use as whipped cream but perfect spread on toast. Coconut milk (for coffee creamer) and coconut oil (for baking) became my best friends during those months. Good luck to both of you! Hopefully your little ones will outgrow it!
That’s interesting … we curve the ends in a little and call these “crescent rolls”. I always thought “butterhorns” were puffed pastry filled with sweet cream filling (or maybe those are cream horns …?) Now, THERE’s a recipe challenge for you! How do you do a healthy puffed pastry?! And what about that cream filling? (real whipped cream would just melt away). I’m sure the ones in bakeries are made with loads of vegetable shortening! Yuck! Bring on the butter! (-:
Yes!!! I initially thought this was a cream horn recipe too. It’s one of the last indulgences (after switching to a real food diet) that my husband purchases occasionally. I admit that I indulge too when he buys them. Unfortunately, I looked at the ingredient list last time, and WOW… is it bad. Now I’m going to have to look around and see if I can find a homemade version.
The best cream horns I have ever eaten come from a little Swiss bakery near my hometown. The pastry is homemade and the filling is super light and creamy. Not at all like the sugary frosting type filling in grocery store versions! I tried googling to find an authentic Swiss recipe to see which filling to use without much luck. I found some recipes calling for sweetened whipping cream and other’s calling for Swiss meringue butter cream (all butter, low sugar frosting). I think Swiss meringue butter cream would be closer to the filling I ate.
http://www.marthastewart.com/353415/swiss-meringue-buttercream
(my FAVORITE frosting recipe for cakes, I use farm fresh eggs, organic butter and organic sugar)
As for puff pastry, try making your own, but substituting with part or all white whole wheat for the white flour. If using all white wheat, you might need to add a little extra heavy cream. http://www.marthastewart.com/349987/puff-pastry
There are youtube videos that show how to cut and roll the pasty dough onto horn molds.
So probably a little healthier, but still dessert. Though frankly, for all the work involved, I’ll stick to trekking to my local Swiss bakery once every year or two. That way, I can eat just one cream horn, instead of half of the batch :)
These look delicious! Does anyone know if I could successfully use spelt to make these? Also, are they “soft” rolls or do they have more of a hard texture? My husband likes all his bread soft, where I like mine chewy or crunchy…I usually try to let him “win”!
They are soft. :)
Thank you, Celena!
We eat these all the time! When I butter them at the table my husband laughs. He calls it the ‘fourth buttering’ because it’s the 4th time butter has been added to the roll. :) YUM!
I’m laughing at your biscuit and butter story. I LOVE butter, too, and so do my kids. My husband is always reprimanding the kids for putting too much butter on things, so I have to rein it in so I set a good example for them! Have you ever tried butter on saltine crackers? Whole wheat saltines, of course. Mmmmmmm! Oh, and have you ever tried making homemade saltines? Wondering how hard that would be.
Look delish! Can’t wait to try ’em.
Laura,
Is it possible to include the original recipe so that we can see how it’s “made over”? Or perhaps you did and I missed it — I’ll go back and look! I made these for Thanksgiving (same exact recipe from MoneySavingMom) and they are very delicious. I’m making them again for a dinner this weekend.
Thanks.
I did actually link to the original recipe in the post, but I sure didn’t make it very clear! Sorry about that! I simply said, “Which is why I was excited to make over this recipe.” – and I linked to MSM’s recipe within the words “this recipe”. :)
Oh, I just found the link to the original! So sorry I didn’t read more carefully the first time!
No prob! Like I said, I sure didn’t make it very clear. :)
I definitely love butter too, haha, and usually have more butter than biscuit also. These rolls look so yummy! Can’t wait to try them. Thanks!
If you place the bowl full of dough in a larger bowl full of hot water and cover it with a tea towel, the dough will rise in 20-30 minutes. Then you can call them 60 Minute Whole Wheat Butterhorns. Brushing on the butter is delicious, but not necessary if you are trying to lower your fat intake. The rolls will still be tasty without it. I love butter, too, but have tried to cut down on that particular type of fat.
Butter is my favorite! My 4 1/2 year old son loves it too. He always says “Mmmmmmm, butter” whenever he sees it. Which is my cue to offer him some. He eats a chunk right off the butter knife… and I let him. :) It’s so cute, how could I resist?
thanks for the info., even I could make this :)
I had to laugh… we buy our butter 20 pounds at a time when it is on sale. My husband always gets questions about why so much butter! People just about drop over when they find out that our family of 6, with four little ones, goes through about 2 pounds a week. We use so much butter, it’s obscene. :) My kids really need the extra fat and calories though, and it’s good for you!
Do you freeze them before letting them rise a second time?
You can if you want. I typically bake them, then freeze them so that they are ready to warm up and serve. But you can shape them, freeze them, then thaw them and let them rise, then bake before serving!
I make these a LOT, actually. I usually freeze them before I bake them and I freeze them FLAT, not rolled up. Then I can use them however I want! I make yummy cinnamon rolls out of them, or roll something up in them (think hot dogs, pepperoni & cheese, ham & cheese) these are amazing and WONDERFUL to have in the freezer!
I’m still a “soaker”–how do you think it would work to soak the flour overnight in the butter and buttermilk instead of milk? I have to read the recipe over again.
I tried not soaking for a while, but it really didn’t agree with my stomach!
I really am not sure since I haven’t ever tried. I think it’s a great idea to try using buttermilk instead of milk and using the butter for more liquid. :)
Try soaking with just water. I have done it for years. I am able to eat the fresh ground wheat bread that I make. I was not able to prior to soaking. But I just use water and half the wheat. Then proceed as normal.
I’m making these today for my freezer!! Nothing goes better with soup than a perfect roll for dipping! I love rolls as much as you love Buttah!
I really wanted to try and make these for dinner but it requires more flour than I currently have on hand. Can you give any tips for reducing the recipe?
I’d say just cut the recipe directly in half and that should do the trick! :)
I just made these, and they came out awesome! I added some cinnamon sugar to some, and some garlic powder and parmesan cheese to some others, just for some variety in the freezer! They all came out GREAT! Thank you.
These tasted amazing! We put a little butter and honey on them and they were delicious.
Any special trick to keeping them rolled up? Mine kept unrolling and looked nothing like yours. Although they were definitely delicious, I just wanted them to look like the picture.
There is no special trick…it’s possible that they were a little too dry. I am not certain though. :)
Just made these last night–mmmmm!! I haven’t gotten into sucanat yet (I used pure cane sugar), but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. These were fabulous!! Our unexpected company thought so too! :) And the butter…what would we do without butter? ;)
Can these be made with a non-dairy milk such as coconut or almond?
Don’t see why not!
I love these; making them for the 2nd time for Easter with crock pot spiral ham w/o vermouth :) http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ham-with-rosemary-sweet-vermouth-10000001973630/
I’m going to freeze some ham butterhorns for quick lunches! Thanks again for this recipe; I’m linking it to my blog as well b/c they are that tasty and healthy. Congrats on your book!
Wow Laura! You didn’t mention how BIG some of these turn out!!! Maybe I should have divided my dough up into more than 4 lumps….or made more than 8 triangles. I’m not complaining by any means, but those who got the big ones didn’t need to get seconds!
Thanks for the recipe!!!
Hello Laura! I just had to come back to this post and say this: I made a double batch of these. Went ahead and baked some and left some “flat” and uncooked to freeze. We ate some couple nights ago with our supper, (the ones I baked before freezing & reheated), my boy, nearly 8, says, “This is the best bread I have ever eaten!!” And let me tell you that kid has eaten some bread! Lots of homemade bread of all sorts! All the children and their daddy raved. And ate some more. With butter!! Now, the kids have somehow decided that I should make pretzels with the dough! Hmm. They are remembering the ONE time many moons ago, we made your pretzels and they loved them! Oh, the options of heavenly homemaker bread-things!!
I should add in case anyone else is in my boat, that I did divide the dough into 5 portions instead of 4. The rolls were plenty big, and next time I’ll do 6 because we have many little kid mouths to feed and they don’t so much appreciate being given half a roll. Plenty big for big mouths too! (;
I have a recipe called crescent taco pie that uses crescent rolls for the crust. I am wondering if these butter horns could be used in place of the crescent rolls? The recipe says to put the crescent rolls in pie pan, place crushed corn chips on top followed by taco meat, salsa, sour cream and cheese on top – then bake it. Wondering if I should maybe lay these butter horns in the pie pan and bake it before adding other ingredients, and then bake again after remaining ingredients were added.
I think these are too bready for something like that. I tried them in place of canned crescent rolls once and it didn’t work very well. :(
I literally JUST made these (they are still cooling) and have already eaten 3! (Oink, oink :P)
Absolutely delicious! And very easy. Thanks so much, Laura! Your recipes have been a blessing to me as I am learning how to be a young homemaker. :)
My two high school boys just had a stand-off over who would get the last butterhorn! (Rock-Paper-Scissors determined the winner.) There would be no dividing in half…it was all or nothing. I guess it’s time to bake another batch! Thank you for these great recipes. : )
I just recently found this site. I am getting very hungry just reading. I have one question tho……I see you use wheat flour for everything. I don’t like the flavor that wheat flour gives breads and pastries. Can regular white flour be substituted in your recipies in place of the wheat flours? I would assume that the measurement would stay the same.
Yes, you can definitely use white flour instead, usually with the same measurements. The whole wheat flour I use is freshly ground from white wheat, which dramatically changes the flavor/texture compared to using regular whole wheat flour (because I don’t like that flavor either!). ;)
I made these in the past and loved them, then looked for the receipt to bring to a church pot-luck, and realized it really wasn’t that complicated, so I should make them more! As I recall, they also froze nicely, so it’s worth the effort.
This time, though, I found I had to add at least a cup (probably more like a cup and a half?) of extra flour beyond what the recipe indicates, and they are good but a tad too dry, I think. I kept trying to work with the dough without adding more, but they were super sticky! Any tips or idea why I had to use so much extra flour, or how I could avoid this in the future?
Also, I just realized I did use whole wheat pastry flour. Do you think that would have made a difference?