Disappearing Mini Kaiser Bread Rolls & Quick Ham Salad

Last Saturday was my daughter's bridal shower, it turned out to be a great day weather wise and a beautiful event that was enjoyed by all.  One of the many food items that was served was an enormous spiral ham.  I had the good fortune to be given some of the leftover ham to take home.

My husband loves homemade ham salad so on Monday I took out the ham, the food processor, the Victorinox knife and all the other items needed to get this done. It was quick and very easy.

Homemade Ham Salad

1/2 lb. leftover ham - cut ham into 1 inch cubes or if you have sliced ham, cut it into 1 inch strips.
1 Tablespoon mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon relish

In the bowl of your food processor add all ingredients, pulse for only a few seconds until you achieve the consistency that you like for ham salad.  If you over pulse, you will end up with ham spread, which will still taste good if that's what you like.
Adjust the amounts to taste.  I like my ham salad on the dry side, so I don't use much mayo.

                                                                   

Rough chop & done!

                                       
                                                               

On this same Monday, my sister in law was coming for lunch.  I thought I'd attempt some freshly baked Kaiser rolls to go with the ham salad.  The rolls came out smaller than I expected, but were amazingly delicious non the less.  I found a couple recipes I liked and took the best from each recipe and came up with this:

Mini Kaiser Rolls
Bread Machine & Manual Instructions

This was my first attempt at making these rolls.  A few of them "unknotted", but they tasted delicious and I will be making them again! So very much better than store bought.

Time:      About 1 hour
Makes:   16 mini rolls

If you have a bread machine, put the below ingredients in your machine and select the Dough cycle. When the dough is ready, follow the remainder of the instructions shown in the photos below.

1 large egg (whisked  well)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened)
3/4 cup water

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

If you do not have a bread machine:  
In a large bowl, or the bowl of your electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients, stirring till the dough forms a cohesive mass and begins to clear the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then allow it to rest for 10 minutes (which gives the dough a chance to absorb the liquid, and the gluten in the flour a chance to relax.) Knead the dough for an additional 5 minutes, or until it's smooth and supple. The dough should be quite stiff, but not at all "gnarly;" adjust its consistency with additional flour or water, as necessary. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise in a warm area to rise until it's noticeably puffy, about 35 min. or so.

After the dough has risen, place it on a cutting board and follow the below instructions.

Optional: Brush tops with egg wash (one beaten egg) and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at 400 for 10 - 12 minutes.


There are many bread machines to choose from. They are not all created equal. Many end up at thrift shops or yard sales.  I've tried a few, and these are affordable and work extremely well. 


For this recipe, I used my Sunbeam Bread Machine. 



                                                          

This Oster bread machine is another one of my gadgets.  I use both machines equally. It's handy to have two when I want to make two at the same time.




                                                                

Dough after coming out of bread machine

Cut dough in half. Then cut each half in half again
until you have four quarters.

                                                                  

                                                               

Continue cutting the four quarters into sections of four.
Ending up with 16 pieces of dough.

Take each section and roll it into 8 inch strips.
I found it easiest to hold the dough ball between my
two hands and roll it vertically.
Similar to the motion of rubbing two sticks together to start a fire.
I know...we don't really do that anymore,
but it's the best I could do for a description.

Cross one end over the other.

Make a knot.

Take the top piece (left), stretch it, bring it under the knot
and tuck it up into the bottom of the knot.
Take the bottom piece (right), stretch it, bring it up over
the top and tuck in into the top of the knot.

It sound harder than it actually is.
Here is what it should look like.

Put them on greased cookie sheets on use silpat mats.
Let rise, covered, in a warm place for 30 min. or more.
I put mine uncovered, in a 100 degree oven.
which is my new oven's Bread Proof setting.
I'm sure you can do this in any oven.

                                                                       

This is how they look after 30 min. Puffy. The tops got
a tiny bit crusty, but it didn't effect the final baking.

After baking this is how they looked.
We "tested" four, that is why there are only 12 in this photo.

Picture perfect and delicious dinner rolls.
We put our ham salad in lettuce cups and had the rolls on the side.
They were big enough to cut in half, but we ate them "as is".