The Tri-City Herald's Food & Wine section Dec. 21 will feature Menu Planner, a weekly feature giving seven days of dinner menus, shopping hints and tips on using leftovers from one meal in a new way later in the week. The section also includes more recipes plus buying, cooking and health tips on a variety of food-related subjects.

Slow-Rising Pumpkin-Thyme Dinner Rolls

Total time: 30 minutes, plus 2 hours standing and 8 hours chilling

Servings: 12 cloverleaf or 18 dinner rolls

Ingredients

2 ( 1/4-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 cups flour, plus up to 1 cup more

Olive oil, for greasing bowl

2 tablespoons melted butter

Instructions

Sprinkle the yeast over the water in a large mixing bowl and stir to dissolve. Using a wooden spoon, beat in the eggs, pumpkin, soft butter, sugar, salt, thyme and cayenne. Add 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth, gradually adding more flour as needed to make a soft, sticky but still manageable dough. Make sure the dough is well mixed. Oil a larger bowl and scrape the dough into it, turning to oil all sides. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch the dough down, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For round dinner rolls, grease 2 (8-inch) cake pans with melted butter. Punch the dough down again and shape into round rolls, arranging them in pans with about one-half inch between each. For cloverleaf rolls, butter a 12-cup muffin tin, tear off tablespoon-sized balls and place 3 in each muffin cup. (If the dough is too sticky to handle easily, lightly butter or oil your hands.) Cover the rolls with a dish towel, and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the rolls until browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

Each roll: 188 calories; 317 mg sodium; 40 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 1.59 grams fiber.

From: Los Angeles Times