Sunday Hot Ham and Rolls

Sunday hot ham and rolls is a Milwaukee tradition and a tradition in my family ever since I was a little kid. It started for me with my grandparents, if we were visiting on a Sunday, my Grandpa would go to Roma Italian Bakery right here in Bay View and pick up shaved ham, provolone and rolls for the family. I like mine with just butter, real butter of course, but the occasional yellow mustard on the sandwich is good too.

This week I was surveying the cuts of meat we have from our pig and had the idea to cook one of the ham roasts in the slow cooker overnight and wake up to hot ham on Sunday. So I have the ham, now what about the rolls? Well what better way to try out my new bread maker then to make dough for fresh, hot rolls. I was looking forward to this all week.

The night before I prepped the ham using this recipe. The ham I had was about 5 lbs, bone in.

1 cup apple juice
1/4 brown sugar
1 tbsp. molasses
1 tbsp. grainy Dijon mustard
1 tsp ground pepper

Place the ham in a crockpot and pour the apple juice over it. In a bowl combine brown sugar, molasses, mustard and pepper until it forms a paste. Rub ham with mixture. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Mine was in for about 8.5 hours which was perfect. By the time I took it out it basically didn't even need to be cut but just pulled apart. I have to say, it was ham-tastic.

 

The dough for the rolls was made in the bread maker following the instructions in the booklet. I won't go into that since there's not much improv. there. I knew the dough had to rise in the bread maker, but I did not realize they had to rise once you divided them into balls. I had a time constraint so I had to use store bought rolls this morning, but I will get to enjoy the ham and rolls together this week for a lunch or two. Next time I know to set the timer on the bread maker and add the ingredients the night before so I'll have the dough ready in the morning along with the ham. And that's how you learn, by making mistakes.

 

 

So since I had the rolls ready today and I wanted to eat them while they were the freshest I decided to make mini buffalo chicken sandwiches for supper.

 

 

I cooked a frozen chicken breast in Frank's Red Hot, topped it with a hot buffalo cheese and the garlic aioli from my last post since I didn't have any blue cheese on hand. Served with sweet potato tater tots. Sweet potater tots? Even though they look a little burnt (I blame my brother for this for not setting a timer) you couldn't taste it when you dipped it in the aioli.