This recipe came out of a need. A need for a roast beef sandwich. Where I live, the options for lunch meat of any variety is abysmal – and roast beef is nonexistent.

I’ve been missing my favorite Boar’s Head London Porter something fierce lately, and the paltry French Dip offerings I’ve found (which are wholly not French dip sandwiches and range from sad to inedible) just aren’t cutting it.

I’m still working on my uncured sandwich beef recipe, but this onion roll was too good not to share in the meantime. It’s a Frankenstein of a few different recipes and techniques, most notably a video by Joshua Weissman, Making The Arby’s Beef ‘N Cheddar At Home | But Better.

I used his recipe for the main part, but fleshed out the technique from how I generally make bread at home. I was pleasantly surprised at how light and fluffy these were – I’m imagining because of the extra yeast than what I’m used to with my lazy person Artisan bread – and I got 9 buns out of my batch, so there were plenty of extras with which to make egg sandwiches out of. Y’all know I love a good egg recipe. Yum.

Nope, nothing – not even gluten-free or vegetarian. This may be the first time in the history of this blog I’ve ever posted a recipe that falls into zero dietary categories. Oops. Still good, though.

Caramelized Onion Rolls

Caramelized Onions:

2 yellow onions

1 Tbsp. butter – chilled is fine

2 tsp. sugar

Hefty sprinkle salt

Thinly slice the onions and add to a pan over low heat with the butter, salt and sugar. Cook, stirring frequently, until deeply brown. The browner and jammer the better. I’m poo at having the patience necessary to do this, so I always end up jacking the heat up to medium and working through half-burnt onions. Which I happen to enjoy, so you do you.

Let sit to cool. You don’t want to add hot onions to your dough.

Rolls:

3 1/4 cup flour – I used a mix of mostly white all purpose with a little wheat left in the container; he used bread flour. I’m sure bread flour is even better, but I can’t be bothered

3 Tbsp. butter, softened

1 Tbsp. instant yeast

2 tsp. sea salt

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup lukewarm water

In a large bowl, stir the flour, yeast and salt together. Crack the eggs in, add the butter, and slowly stir in the water. Chuck in the previously caramelized onions.

When your flour is incorporated, i.e. not running around like lots of dust in the bottom of the bowl, dump onto a floured surface. He used a dough hook on a Kitchen Aid mixer and let run until … ? … I quit paying attention to that part at dough hook; I don’t have one, so I went old school.

Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is just tacky to the touch. This will take a lot of dusting of your work surface to get your dough to quit sticking. That’s okay; you won’t kill the dough by doing what you need to do with it.

When your arms are dead and your dough is where you want it, add back to the bowl, cover, and let sit 2 – 3 hours in room temperature to rise.

About an hour before dinner, punch your dough down and separate into about 9 balls. I did this by pinching off about a hand full, lightly rolling in my hands to form something that looks like a roll, and placing on a silicone lined baking sheet. I ended up with 9 roughly same-sized balls.

Cover and let sit 30 – 40 minutes.

While your dough is resting, preheat the oven to 200C/375F.

*Note: If you want your buns to be shiny, brush with a little egg wash before baking. It won’t affect the taste, but they will be prettier. A little butter brush would also be a nice addition.

Bake 15 minutes or until browned but not burnt on the top and sounding hollow when you knock on the top.

Makes 9-ish buns of sandwich size