No-Oil No-Dairy 100% Whole Grain Rolls

There seems to be limited variety when you're looking for a 100% whole grain roll recipe that doesn't involve any kind of oil.  It basically boils down to 1) flour, 2) water, 3) yeast, 4) some kind of sweetener to feed the yeast.  Then I saw another recipe on The Red Kitchen that sounded more promising, partly because it didn't ask me to do weird things with kneading or not kneading and would let me just use the bread machine like I always do.

I'm making so many crazy changes right out of the gate that I have no idea how it will turn out.  I wouldn't normally mess with a recipe I haven't even tried yet, but I'm trying to make this bread Esselstyn compliant.  I'm basically reducing calories from fat and sugar -- and probably making it quite a bit blander and possibly messing up the texture -- by switching the amounts of the soy milk and the water, as well as the amounts of honey (agave nectar or maple syrup would make this vegan, but I want to use my fancy orange blossom honey on this) and unsweetened applesauce.  I don't have quick cooking oats, so I figure I'll just prepare some old-fashioned rolled oats and see how that goes instead.  The crazy changed-up version I'm using this week is below.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 3 tbs soy milk
• 4 tbs unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tbs honey (or agave nectar or maple syrup to make vegan)
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 serving of prepared oatmeal

Directions

1. Put everything in the bread machine according to manufacturer instructions and set to "dough."  

2. After the first rise, pull out the dough and roll it into small balls, a la dinner rolls, on a baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.  

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Place rolls on a rack to cool.

[Edited 9/18/2013:  These actually turned out fine.  The texture was soft and chewy, though the flavor was as bland as any other 100% whole wheat recipe I've tried -- I think this is just how such things taste.  I only liked them with butter or something on them, but Simran gobbled them up dry.  They did get a lot drier and tougher by the next day though, so these are a same-day sort of roll.]