Herb-and-Garlic Pull-Apart Rolls


cooking my way through half baked harvest:
··· recipe #44

Thoughts: I re-read this recipe several times, and I honestly have no idea if I did something wrong, or if the recipe is a bit off. Here is the deal - it’s a two-part recipe. First, you make the Everyday Bread Dough recipe from Page 16, and then you continue to Page 57 for the rolls recipe.

My first issue arose when my twelve dough balls had waaaaay too much space in their 13x9 baking pan. I had to wait almost an hour for them to rise (even though the book says twenty mins) before I gave up waiting and just threw them in the oven. In the book, the rolls look beautifully smooshed together, while mine had a bunch of room around them.

My second issue arose when I was making the herby butter. The recipe calls for one tablespoon of Italian Seasoning, which was WAY TOO MUCH. My rolls looked like they were covered in soggy freckles after I brushed the herby butter onto them. In the book, they seem to only have oregano leaves on top with some butter.

My last and biggest issue arose after I took my first bite. Structurally, the rolls were perfectly fine. They even smelled great and the top layer with the butter was pretty good. However, the other 95% of the bread roll had NO FLAVOR AT ALL. Not a weird flavor, not a slightly bland flavor…NOTHING. I thought I lost my sense of taste and had to make my husband try them to confirm, and he was shocked by the complete lack of flavor as well! What. The. Heck?!

Seeing as how I was NOT impressed by these, I didn’t even bother to style and photograph them properly. I ate half a roll and threw out the rest of the tray. If I remake these in the future, I think I’ll need more salt in the dough mixture and maybe mix some spices in it as well.

Will I actually make the effort to remake them? Who knows. I love, love, love this cookbook…but this recipe was NOT my jam.

Score: 3 out of 10

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