Poppy Seed Pull-Apart Rolls

I think Vegan Brunch is becoming my favorite cookbook. I adore a nice home-cooked breakfast. There's just something comforting about waking up on a lazy weekend morning and starting to cook something delicious. We all get so busy, especially during the work week that it's rare to have a hot breakfast anymore. It's so hard to find the time. I think that's what makes it feel a bit more special, really. For a while there we were making a point to make a nice brunch for ourselves every weekend, but between forgetting to go to the market the night before and getting busier as the weather gets warmer, it doesn't always happen now. There's always breakfast for dinner, I guess.

One of the things I really love about Vegan Brunch is the nice variety of recipes. There are quite a few in there that I've used for lunch or dinner. (The Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes being one of my favorites of that kind!) There are actually quite a few recipes in there that would be a great side dish for a potluck or even a summer picnic. I'm excited to try a few more of those this year.

I was flipping through the book last weekend looking for a recipe I hadn't tried and came across Poppy Seed Pull-Apart Rolls. I usually bake bread every weekend, but I had too many things to do on Saturday last week so I didn't get around to doing it. I haven't made a yeast bread in ages so I thought this sounded like a fun one to try.

I'm so used to using a starter now that I've forgotten how slow yeast doughs can be. Even though I had just bought my yeast a couple of months before and always keep it in the fridge, all of the risings took about twice as long for me. Keep that in mind when you're making this. You could try using the rapid-rise yeast, that would probably speed things up a bit. You also want to make sure to keep your dough in a warm area, away from any drafts because that'll slow it down quite a bit, too. I wasn't in a rush when I was making these, but I was kind of bummed that it took so long to rise. No problem, though. It was such a nice day that day that we went and hung out in the park for a bit as the dough was rising.

These rolls were quite tasty. Goodness, I can't even remember the last time I made rolls of any kind. I especially liked these with a little smear of Earth Balance on them. They were good for a few days after baking, but I think they were best when they were still warm from the oven. The cool thing about this recipe is that you can easily cut it in half and just use a smaller pan to bake them in. I used one of my springform pans which seemed to work out quite nicely. I took the sides off and then didn't have to deal with transferring the rolls to a plate.

I bet these cute little poppy seed rolls would be really good for making tiny sandwiches, actually. It would be something cute for a picnic or as finger food at a party. I would definitely make these again. I probably will, actually, but next time I'll just make half since it was hard for just the two of us to eat them all.