Special 5 Pepper Rolls for Thanksgiving

Tue 25 November 2025

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Ingredients:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbl Five Pepper Mix (recipe below)
  • 1 pkg active dry yeast
  • ¼ cup warm milk
  • 3 Tbl Maple Syrup
  • 2 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp Sumac (or subst 1 Tbl lemon juice)
  • 2 Tbl finely chopped cilantro
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 ½ Tbl Olive Oil (split)

Instructions

  1. Combine flour and Five Pepper Mix in a large bowl.
  2. Dissolve this yeast in the warm milk to proof - about 10 minutes, or until bubbly. Stir in maple syrup, salt, cilantro, water and 2 Tbl of the olive oil
  3. Pur the liquid team over the dry team and mix well to form a dough. Turn onto a floured work surface and wash out and dry the bowl. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until smooth and satiny. Shape the dough into a ball, place back into the bowl and brush the top with remaining oil. Cover the bowl and let prove about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
  4. Preheat over to 400F and grease a large baking sheet.
  5. Punch down the dough, knead briefly and divide into 16 portions. Shape each into a round ball and place about 2" apart on the sheet. Cut two sides off of each roll, invert and press back in the shape of turkey drumsticks. Cut a small V on the top end of the roll. You should have a turkey shape. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise another 30 minutes
  6. Brush the tops of the rolls with an egg wash, if desired. Bake on the upper oven rack for 15 minutes, or until light golden.
  7. Cool the roll on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp.

Five pepper mix

Five peper mix is a careful combination of five different peppercorns that brings out the finer points of peppers and their pungency. Use it on grilled seafood, as a rub for meat. It is also great in bread or rolls.

This makes about ¼ cup. Combine 2 tsp black peppercorns, 2 tsp white peppercorns, 1 Tbl green peppercorns, 1 Tbl Sichuan peppercorns in a small fry pan over medium heat. Toast, shaking and tossing, until the peppercorns give off an aroma and lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Add 2 tsp of crushed red pepper and a 1 ½ tsp allspice berries and continue to toast for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. When comletely cool, grind in a spice grinder until coarsely ground, do not powder the mixture. Transfer to an airtight container and this should keep for 3 or 4 weeks.

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