Quick Brown Rolls for Toddlers

If you’d love to prepare some fresh, whole wheat brown bread rolls for your little one, but don’t have time for all the kneading/proofing etc involved in making ‘yeasty’ bread, then try this easy recipe instead!

Ideal from 12 months onwards, these rolls use baking soda (bicarbonate of soda in the UK) rather than yeast to make them rise.

The resulting texture is perhaps a little denser than yeast bread and, of course, the flavour’s a little different too.

But they’re still very tasty, particularly warm from the oven… and you’ll be amazed by how quickly you’ve been able to produce healthy, homemade bread from scratch!

I tend to make bread like this as and when needed because, personally, I don’t find it stores as well as yeast bread. That being said, it CAN be frozen if you’d prefer to make it ahead of time.

Fortunately, though, the preparation is so quick and easy that it’s really not too difficult to make it “on demand”!

This recipe makes 6 standard size rolls.

To Make Quick Brown Rolls for Toddlers You Will Need….

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup buttermilk**
2 tsp honey (please note – you should not use honey in recipes for babies under 12 months of age)
oats (optional)

* I actually used granary flour in my recipe, which accounts for the little “bumpy bits” you see in the photo. Granary flour is only suitable for older toddlers who can cope with seeds.

** Buttermilk is hard to get in my area, so I make my own very easily by putting 1 1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar into a half cup measure, then topping it up to half a cup with regular milk. I leave this mixture for at least 5 minutes, then it’s ready to use.

Mix the flours with the salt and baking soda in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir together both types of milk and the honey.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together until the mixture forms a dough. If it seems too moist, add a little more flour (but don’t add too much – the dough SHOULD be quite sticky).

Preheat the oven to 375 deg F and thoroughly grease a baking sheet.

Divide the dough into 6 balls and place on the baking sheet. Remember that they will rise, so don’t put them too close together. Sprinkle with oats (optional).

Bake for around 25 mins until golden.