St. Joseph's Rolls

Until 2 days ago, I was completely unaware that there was such a holiday as St. Joseph's Day.  Luckily for me, Louise is always there to inform us about food-related holidays which we usually don't even know exist (or, at least, I don't).  Her Wednesday post included a plethora of miscellany, including a recipe she found somewhere for St. Joseph's Bread.

Since my dearly beloved's surgery, I've been very conscious of sodium content of everything.  Can you believe that ordinary run of the mill bread usually has in excess of 200mg of sodium per slice?  Sweet Jesus on a Whole Wheat Cracker, that's insane!  So I've been making rolls of various compositions for him (which makes breakfast for the little boys easier, because it takes 22 seconds to nuke 2 buttered rolls, instead of about 4 minutes to make toast).  After seeing Louise's post (click here if you missed it), I commented that this recipe might make outstanding dinner/sandwich rolls, and she encouraged me to try it.  Here's my heart friendly rendition of a traditional braided loaf:

ST. JOSEPH'S ROLLS

1-1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp yeast
4-1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1-1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp tub margarine
1 tbsp vegetable oil
----
1 egg white, beaten with 2 tbsp warm water
sesame seeds

In your mixing bowl or bread machine bucket, pour the warm water; sprinkle the yeast over it.  Add the flour, sugar, salt. margarine and oil.  Mix according to my directions over there ------->

After the dough has been mixed, let it rise for 15 minutes, covered to keep it warm.  Punch it down and form into 16 rolls (approx. 2 ounces each), by forming balls, placing them on the baking sheet, and squishing them flat.  Brush the tops with the beaten egg white, and sprinkle with as many sesame seeds as make you happy.  Let your rolls rise until doubled in size, then bake at 350F in a convection oven or 375F in a conventional oven for 15 to 17 minutes.

These were fluffy, and pretty as a picture.  When I took them out of the oven, and put the trays on the butcher block pass-through (between my kitchen and breakfast room), my dearly beloved came over to see what was going on, and then took one off a too hot-sheet, tossed it around a little bit, ate it and wordlessly came back for another.  Hooray!  Ryan opined that these were every bit as good as the rolls you'd get in a good restaurant, and Cass said they were "bangin".  I'll take compliments whenever I can!

Happy weekending, everyone; here's hoping we all get at least a sampling of spring weather!