Hawaiian Sweet Roll Sliders with Ham, Cheese, Apples & Caramelized Onions

With all of the extra time spent at home these days, why not roll up your sleeves and try your hand at baking a thing or two? Bread has been a very popular quarantine cooking choice, and I understand why. Making your own bread from scratch is somewhat therapeutic and the smell it wafts through your home is to die for. These Hawaiian rolls are soft and sweet, are amazing on their own with just butter or jam or as sliders as described below.  

Hawaiian Sweet Roll Sliders with Ham, Cheese, Apples & Caramelized Onions

Prep time: 45 minutes + 2 hours and 10 mins inactive
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1.5 hours + 2 hours and 10 mins inactive
Yield: 18 dinner-sized rolls

INGREDIENTS

For the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

• ½ cup whole milk

• ¾ cup pineapple juice

• ½ cup packed brown sugar

• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and divided

• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 4 tsp. active yeast*

• 2 tsp. salt

• 2 large eggs, divided

• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

• 1 tbsp. butter, melted

For the Sliders

• Caramelized Onions

• Black Forest Ham

• Sliced Granny Smith Apples

• White Cheddar

• Garlic Aioli

*You can substitute instant yeast for active dry yeast, you might just need an extra 15 mins or so to rise

DIRECTIONS 

In a medium bowl, combine milk, pineapple juice, brown sugar, 6 tbsp. melted butter and vanilla extract. 

In a large bowl, or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, sift together flour, yeast and salt. Slowly add the wet mixture into the dry (on low speed if using an electric mixer), stirring to combine. Add in 1 egg and the apple cider vinegar and continue to stir until fully combined.

Knead for 10 minutes. Cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap let rest in a warm place for 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size. To speed things up a little, I like to turn my oven on to the lowest possible setting, let it preheat and once ready, I put the dough in there and immediately turn the heat off.

Grease a 9x13 inch pan and set aside. Gently deflate the dough and divide it into 18 even sized pieces (I used a scale to ensure even rolls . Simply place the entire ball of dough on the scale, then divide the number by 18 to figure out how heavy each roll should be. Place the rolls in the greased pan evenly spaced apart with approx. ½ an inch of space left around the perimeter of the pan.  Brush the tops and sides of each roll with the remaining 2 tbsp. melted butter.

Cover and let rise again until doubled in size (another hour).

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls Pre-Rise

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls Post-Rise

 Preheat the oven to 350F. Whisk the remaining egg with 1 tbsp. of water and brush the tops of the rolls. Bake in a preheated oven for ~25 mins, until the tops of the rolls are golden brown.

Let cool for at least 10 minutes, remove from pan and then cut the rolls in half. Smear each half with garlic aioli then place the bottom half of the rolls back in the pan. Top with ham slices, apples, caramelized onions and cheddar slices, then put the top half back on.

Place the rolls back in the oven at 350F for 20 mins or until cheese is melty.  Serve hot!

Thanks to Life’s Simple Ingredient for sponsoring this recipe. Find more delicious recipes at www.lifessimpleingredient.com