Sun-dried tomato pesto Breakfast rolls

I know, I know it has been pretty quiet in here lately…but it is just that too many stressful things are going on in my life these days. Back home almost everyone was very much sick. My mother went through her hysterectomy surgery; dad was suffering from low-blood pressure and now my little brother is hospitalized because of dengue fever. Phewww…yeah too many things are going on. So you can imagine how stressful it must have been for me. I so wished I was there to take care of them but thankfully out of us 3, one sister is there with my parents and she is taking care of everyone. So bit relieved. I definitely did lot of cooking, baking, and photographing but it was just that I haven’t had enough motivation to sit and write a post with all that stress in my mind. And they are recovering slowly day by day so I am finally ready to carry on with my blogging. I so apologize for my absence in here. I missed blogging and I missed you guys too.

But carrying on with my breakfast/brunch series, I have made these savory/spicy sun-dried tomato pesto breakfast rolls that I love to have it with my coffee. I am not a sweet lover, but V can eat sweet things any time of the day. If given me a choice of cinnamon rolls/jalapeño poppers, I will definitely go for the spicy poppers. 🙂 And V will definitely go with sweet rolls.

These rolls are just perfect with your morning coffee, afternoon tea or anytime, why to wait for tea/coffee time, right? These soft and savory rolls are filled with the goodness of sun-dried tomato pesto, goat cheese, basil, pine nuts and most importantly they are loaded with lots of love & care. So you can’t go wrong with that.

If you are not a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes then you can make these rolls with regular basil pesto and it will still taste heavenly.

These rolls are very easy to make. Once you try it, you will never prefer store-bought rolls made with extra preservatives which your body really do not need. Here you go with the recipe.

Sun dried tomato pesto rolls

Total time: 3-3 ½ hours – wohooaaa do not freak out, it is mostly unattended and it includes baking time too…phewwww

Yields: 24-25 small bite-sized ones or 12 Big regular sized ones

(I like bite sized ones because that way I have control over my diet 😉 )

Dough 

Ingredients:

• 1.5 tsp active dry yeast/Rapid rise yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (1/4 cup divided + more for rolling)
• ¼ tsp of baking soda
• ½ tsp of baking powder
• ½ tsp of dried basil leaves

Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Sun dried tomato pesto (Recipe follows)
• ½ cup of crumbled goat cheese
• 2 Tbsp toasted pine-nuts (Optional)
• ¼ cup of packed basil

Method:

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water along with sugar, olive oil and set aside until it is frothy. It will take about 10-15 minutes. But if you are using rapid rise yeast, skip this procedure and just mix wet ingredients along with rapid rise yeast.
• Side by side, in a large bowl mix 2 cups of flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add yeast mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon and mix well. Make sure there are no lumps. Now add basil leaves and rest of ¼ cup of flour if needed. Gently knead the dough in to a ball. Now coat the dough well with olive oil and put it in a bowl which is also greased with olive oil. Cover with cling film. Allow to rise for 1.5 – 2 hours in warm place.

• After 1.5/2 hours your dough should be doubled in the size. You can let it rise for more time. Punch the dough down and take it out of the bowl to rolling surface.

• Gently knead the dough again and cut it in the half. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle/oblong shape (About 1/4” thick). Once rolled, spread sun dried tomato pesto leaving about half an inch of the sides. Sprinkle with some goat cheese, toasted pine nuts n basil leaves. Just like you decorate your pizza.

• Now roll up from the lager side and seal the edges. Check the pictures to get an idea. Cut about ½” slices and place the rolls very close to each other on an EVOO/Butter greased pan. Let it not stick to each other because you are going to let it rise again for another ½ an hour so they will need some room to rise. (Do not skip this step).

"Rising process for the rolled rolls before baking"

• Make a second roll with remaining dough and follow same procedure. Each roll will make about one dozen bite-sized rolls. So overall about 24-25 rolls. Now cover with the cling film again and let the rolls rise for another half an hour to 45 minutes. (Do not skip this step).
• When you are ready to bake, pre-heat you oven to 350F and bake your rolls for 25-30 minutes until they are lightly browned. I covered mine with aluminum foil after 20 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.

Sun dried tomato Pesto recipe:

Total time: 10 minutes

Yields: 1 1/2 cups

Method:

• 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil or else add 1/2 cup of EVOO
• 2 garlic cloves (Add more if you really love garlic)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves packed or 1/4 cup dried basil
• 2 Tbsp roasted pine nuts
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Blend the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts, salt and pepper and basil in a food processor and blend until the tomatoes are finely chopped. Stir in the Parmesan and blend once.

Transfer the tomato mixture to a bowl and use as required. Or you can even store it in a refrigerator for a week or so.

My Question to you: What will you prefer in the morning? Cinnamon rolls or something spicy??

Enjoy!