Thanksgiving 101 - Braided Napkin Ring Dinner Rolls

I wanted to come up with some fun ideas for the kids table.  When searching on the internet for new edible center piece ideas I found this super smart idea of making edible napkin rings out of bread.  I think the kids are really going to love this.  I made homeade whole wheat challah for these fun napkin rings but you can just as easily use frozen bread dough or a boxed bread mix.  I like this particular challah recipe because it has 1 cup of finely grated carrots in it.  I love the little orange specs in the dough and why not get some extra veggies into the kids, while they have no idea it's there.  For these napkin rings you will need 3-4 empty paper towel rolls covered in foil, lightly greased to make the shape of the rings.  Below the recipe are a few pictures of the process.  I hope you will try this!

 

Ingedients:

2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 cups unbleached flour
1 package active dry yeast
11/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more to coat bowl and top of dough
3 tablespoons honey
2 eggs, divided
1 cup peeled, finely grated carrots

Preparation:

Combine whole-wheat and unbleached flours.  Place 2 cups flour mixture,
yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl.  (set the other 2 cups flour mixture off to the side)

Heat warm water, oil and honey in a saucepan or microwave oven until
very warm, about 115 to 120 degrees. Add water mixture to flour-yeast
mixture, beating until well blended. Add 1 egg, carrots and enough
reserved flour to make a soft dough. (I needed about 1 1/2 cups of reserved flour)

Turn dough onto a floured board. Knead 5 to 10 minutes, adding additional
reserved flour as needed (I used the remaining 1/2 cup of flour) to make a smooth and elastic dough. Place dough in an oiled bowl.  Oil the top of dough. Cover with a towel; let rise in
a warm place until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

While waiting for dough to rise, Wrap 4 paper towel tubes in foil; grease lightly. Grease baking sheets.

Roll dough on lightly floured surface into two 12×6-inch rectangles. Cut dough into strips (6×1/2-inch) to make 48 strips.  Braid 3 strips of dough together and wrap around prepared tubes, pinching ends of dough to seal. Repeat with remaining dough.  Place on a greased baking sheets. Cover with a towel.
Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Beat remaining egg and use to brush tops of braids, all the way around. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown.