Carrot and Cheddar Sandwich Rolls
Homemade buns that are perfect for piling high with cold cuts, veggies and condiments, and also make the best burger buns! Carrot and Cheddar Sandwich Rolls are speckled with shaved carrots + shredded cheddar, and my favorite to use for leftover ham.
Are you up to your eyeballs in plastic eggs stuffed full of chocolate candies and dye that smells of vinegar?
Are you elbow deep in a vat of potato salad?
Have Jell-O molds taken over your refrigerator?
Is your apron smeared with deviled egg?
Easter is about to happen, people. And typically Easter means HAM. Ham means sandwiches. Oh sweet hammy sandwiches with a smear of delightfully spicy mustard... I look forward to them every year.
This year my mom and I are putting together brunch for our family. Oatmeal pancake and strawberry skewers, bacon & egg muffins, breakfast casserole, fruit salad, deviled eggs, chocolate, chocolate, and chocolate. Today I learned that our brunch is hamless.
HAMLESS.
As a holiday food traditionalist I'm a little bit depressed.
Because the best part of a holiday feast is the leftovers. Slices of ham piled high on a paper plate, all covered in plastic wrap for the ride home, that starts beckoning you to layer it on a sweet roll with a spoonful of strawberry pretzel salad at it's side. Scraps that add some salty love to your day after omelette or flavor your green beans the next night. Sigh.
For those of you that are not doing without ham, I've a worthwhile task to add to your Easter to-do list:
Super soft and smooth sandwich rolls speckled with shredded carrots and cheese. A little work. A LOT of payoff!
- 1 cup warm water (check your active dry yeast for the recommended temperature)
- 1 cup warm milk (heated to the same temperature as the water)
- 2 (¼ ounce each; 4½ teaspoons total) packages of active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 cup finely shredded carrots
- 1 cup shredded cheese
- ¼ cup cold butter, grated
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (optional)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 5½ cups bread flour, plus more for dusting the work surface and kneading
- Pour the water and milk in a large bowl. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm liquid.
- Add the salt, carrots, cheese, shortening, orange zest and egg. Stir well.
- Add 3 cups of the bread flour. Stir until moist and then for about 3 more minutes.
- Add 2 – 2½ cups of bread flour continue to stir by hand until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Turn it out onto a well floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed. You want the dough to be smooth and silky.
- Place the kneaded dough into an oiled bowl and loosely cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let it rise for 45 minutes to an hour; It will have at least doubled in size.
- Punch the dough down to remove the air and divide into 18 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
- Grease two cookie sheets and place 9 rolls on each. Cover the rolls with clean kitchen towels and let them rise for another 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 375.
- After the rolls have risen, bake them for 13-18 minutes, until golden brown.
recipe slightly adapted from Pillsbury
Wanted: Easter Ham. Will bake fresh bread in lieu of payment. May consider trading one chocolate bunny. But maybe not.
This was excellent - I added fresh basil and arugula leaves., My entire family loved it. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. I will be making it again soon.
Sounds amazing!!! Thanks so much Rachel!
We didn't have ham either and I'm STILL depressed. Maybe this weekend I'm making the ham AND these buns! YES. Loving everything about them!
Thanks Michelle! No ham is a bummer. The good news is that now I guess all the ham is on sale.
These rolls look amazing! So soft, fluffy, cheesy without being ridiculous, and like a great all-around sandwich/dinner roll. Love them!
Hi, Averie! Thanks so much! It's been awhile since I made these but they definitely need to be revisited!
Sorry you had no ham, but your rolls look delicious. Would have said "buns" but the 12 year old inside of me was giggling.
The same thing happens to me when I type things like, "roll the soft dough into teaspoon sized balls"... Maybe it's because I live with an almost 12 year old?
Sounds like a good excuse anyway.
Don't be depressed, this is a great recipe and hamless is a hilarious word! I hope you had a great Easter!
Hope yours was super as well! Thank you!
OH MAN!!! Those look DELICIOUS!!! They look soft and yummy....I honestly may need to figure out the calories in these puppies and make them myself lol YUM!!!!
I have no idea about the calories, but they might be listed on the Pillsbury website. Alls I know is that I can pronounce every single ingredient that went into these, which is more than I can say for anything at my grocery store bakery. They were so good! You could probably sub at least half whole wheat flour, and if you swap the 1/4 cup shortening for olive oil (or coconut oil in its solid form) then they'd probly pack more of a health-conscious punch 🙂
Hmmm...I've heard a few people mention coconut oil, I have never even seen that in the store lol I will have to investigate!!!!! Thanks for the tips!!! And I agree with you, natural products are much better than processed!!!
"As a holiday food traditionalist I’m a little bit depressed." I sympathise. Easter for me doesn't mean ham, but it does mean Cadburys and Hot Cross Buns and roast lamb, none of which are options this year! Your brunch sounds delicious though, and I have a cute dark chocolate chick to keep me going 🙂 Happy Easter!
Hope your Easter was all kindsa happy! Chocolate bunnies will get you through some tough times. Roasted lamb and hot cross buns (something I've always wanted to make!)... yummy.
So festive with the carrots in the rolls! Yum. We are brunching it without ham too! I think I may buy ham steaks 🙂
Well we had a surprise... my little brother made it home Easter morning! So my momma went to cook the ham and I was soooo hammy happy. Until we discovered that my littlest brother stuffed it into the downstairs fridge, except actually it was the freezer. Easter ham, froze SOLID lol. But our brunch was delicious without it 🙂
whoops 🙂
Awww thanks, Uru!
Happy Easter to you!
Being a vegetarian, I appreciate your no ham aspect 😉
Your brunch is mouthwatering, your photos droolworthy and recipe rant-tastic 😀
Happy Easter!
Choc Chip Uru