The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Sunday Dinner Rolls, 1/3 Poolish and 2/3rds NMNF Potato Sourdough

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Sunday Dinner Rolls, 1/3 Poolish and 2/3rds NMNF Potato Sourdough

I got roped into making another Thanksgiving Dinner this past Sunday since we had Thanksgiving at Cousin Jay’s and the girls missed their favorite sides of of sweet and Yukon gold mashed potatoes, Brownman’s killer Cognac gravy, bacon, itty bitty onions and Brussels Sprouts and the ever popular candied carrots and butternut squash with brown sugar and maple syrup but we also missed the home made rolls.

 

Normally we make Parker House rolls but this time we did Plain Jane enriched potato rolls that had 20% pre-fermented flour SD levain and a 10% pre-fermented flour IDY poolish.  30% is a lot for preferments but it is winter here and I didn’t have much time.  The 10% dried potato flakes were all in the poolish and I considered them part of the preferment weight.

We use all water instead of milk for the liquid with the sugar coming in at 4% and the butter at 8%.  We didn’t add the sugar or butter to then mix until after the autolyse and the first set of slap and folds to make sure the flour was properly hydrated and these new enrichment ingredients wouldn’t interfere with hydration or the gluten forming for the LaFama AP used in these rolls.

We did 2 sets of slap and folds and 2 sets of stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals and then divided the dough into 12 balls, 12 balls of 45 g each to make 6 rolls out of the dough and let them proof till they had doubled – about 2.5 hours.  We baked them at 400 F with the rest of baked veggie for dinner which supplied plenty of steam.   After 10 minutes we took out the steam making veggies and continued to bake the rolls with fan on until they were well browned on top about another 12 minutes.

You need a lot of gravy to cover the dressing, meat and potatoes and still have some left on the plate to sop up with the roll!

Delicious they were for sure and were perfect for dipping in that fabulous gravy!.  As a side note Cousin Jay’s turkey on the grill method works just as good for Turkey breast.  Heat to 600 F, shut off the two inside burners put turkey over the 2 inside burners on a rack with a pan underneath to catch the drippings and grill indirect at 325 F until the breast is 165 F.  Best turkey ever.  Frees up the oven for all the other sides if you don’t have two ovens too.

Comments

Yippee's picture
Yippee

Could you please share the Brownman’s killer Cognac gravy recipe? Thx!

Yippee

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Making sure you get dark roasted drippings from the turkey or chicken without burning them, separating all the fat from the drippings and keeping the fat to make the roux, making a dark roux, adding in the the neck and giblets with home made turkey stock and the cognac. 

The first part of the gravy is the last part of the last bird. Make a great home made stock from the roasted carcass and bones from the last bird,  Onion, celery and carrot with 2 bay leaves, Italian seasoning and peppercorns and a medium slice of ginger simmered down all day till the stock gets dark - you want it to concentrate down to a bit less than 2 quarts of liquid from the gallon you started with.  I sieve it into a 2 quart Tupperware pitcher and put it in the fridge overnight.  The fat solidifies so it can be easily removed, reserved, and the stock has set up like gelatin. You can then freeze the stock till you need it or leave it in the fridge if you froze the bones and carcass from the last bird and are making stock from them the day before.

Put the neck and giblets in the roasting pan pan when you are roasting the bird with 1/2 cup of dry white wine and 1 cup of turkey stock.  2/3 rds of the way through roasting the bird, you want to take out the giblets so they they don't burn.  Reserve them and chop them up and strip the neck of meat ....these will be added back in after the roux is made.  The darker the drippings the better. Put the drippings in a gravy separator to separate out all the fat, really scrape down that pan and add some water to de-glaze it if you have to to get it all.  Take the dripping fat and put it in the largest skillet you have and add enough high gluten flour, 6-8 tablespoons of flour,  to it to make a medium roux on medium heat.   About the color of peanut butter or a bit darker is spot on -  like you were making gumbo. Add the giblets, 1 shot of cognac or brandy and the drippings to make a very thick stew like mess to get all the lumps out then add in the stock to make a very thin gravy.  Simmer down until the gravy thickens - I usually use at least a quart of the stock .  You can never make enough gravy when it is this good. You can make a really rich gravy without the stock and a bit less roux but you will run out of gravy for the meal:-)

To finish, salt and pepper to taste and add a splash more of cognac and stir it in.  You just made real Brownman's Killer Gravy.  This year we had some gravy left over, but not enough for another meal, and I had a bit less than a quart of stock left over so the next evening I brown up some more flour in the fat saved from making the stock and made another medium roux.  We then added onion and mushrooms to it and got them browned.  Then in went the cognac, the left over gravy and then the rest of the stock with some chopped fine turkey meat to make a Killer Mushroom and Turkey Gravy.  The mushrooms help to make up for the lack of drippings.  Gravy is always the hardest part of Thanksgiving by far but the best part too if it is made just right:-)

Happy gravy making Yippee.

Yippee's picture
Yippee

What price range of Cognac/ brandy do I need to get?  Thank you!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

i use Christian Brothers brandy for this at cousin jays it was Hennessy because he has the best of everything

Yippee's picture
Yippee

- by watching this when I grew up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKcNRr-xX5g



dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

now too!

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I need to try potatoes in my breads. You get such wonderful results! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

especially buns and rolls but a bit in all bread adds to the lift.  I like oat flour too. Something about both makes for a higher bread

Gkad you like the rolls and happy baking danni 

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

Even after falling in love with hearty sourdough bread, I still can't resit the fluffiness of hot dinner rolls :) Like you, I too prefer my rolls on the not-too-sweet side. 

And I'm with Yippee: I need the recipe of Brownman’s killer Cognac gravy!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

it is a lot of work but skipping home made  and going for easier is not conducive to killer anything food wise.  The rolls came out fluffy moist  soft and shreddable. Perfect as a gravy sopper upper. I try to lay off the sugar in bread if I can.  The bread is bad enough for us sugar challenged

Glad you like the rolls Elsie’s. The best to you and your parents 

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

I'm having a crazy thought mind: what if I use the drippings from let say, Tandoori chicken, for the broth...wouldn't I get killer spicy gravy? You get me thinking...maybe I should make a quick roux with chicken drippings and powdered cashew for the base of chicken tikka masala. Flavor explosion! 

And you're right: for some reason, store-bought sauce, pre-mix etc. all seem to be lacking the kick we find in the homemade ones :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

near the end and bloom them for some spicy gravy for sure.  Would make the perfect sauce for the Tandoori Chicken.   My daughter loves CTM so I make it but I find it a bit boring and bland when it comes to Indian food. Give me a Vindaloo Lamb or Goat curry or stew anytime but the real reason to eat any Indian food is the Naan - the best bread ever invented by any baker anywhere!  Store bough stuff is made to be on the bland side and has too much salt and sugar in it too.  I guess they figure most people like it that way just like they like yeast white bread.  Oh well...It is more fun to make your own food from scratch and really eat great food that is high on the hog with real flavor.  The problem most people have is no time to do so and or lack the basic cooking techniques and know how.  Slow food takes time and time is the one resource we never have enough of and is truly limited.

Elsie_iu's picture
Elsie_iu

The reason why I cook some kind of chicken dishes (mostly drumsticks) 3 times of of 4 is that dad requests it all the time. If there's no chicken, there must be pork (and definitely not mince!). I can cook as many seafood and beef (for mom usually) dishes as I like but they'd not replace chicken or pork... I'm the only person who love lamb: my parents can't stand its smell. What am I going to do with a huge pot of mutton curry? It's much easier to cook a large batch for food like stews, soup, curry and gumbo. However, I'd get really bored eating the same thing for days, which I'm sure you can tell from the fact that I hardly use the same formula twice :)

So many of my favourite foods are my parents' nightmare: all types of cheese except cheddar and the mild varieties, parma ham, truffle, salmon roe, plain yogurt etc. Worse still, they prefer commercial white bread from bakery chains to the bread I bake... Fortunately. naan is not commonly found in most supermarkets here so as the monopoly of the market, I can teach them what proper naan is! 

I'm so grateful for the invention of pressure cooker that cuts time but not flavor!

Isand66's picture
Isand66

The rolls look and sound great and that gravy is really making me hungry.  I was also at my Brother-in-laws in NC as usual so I didn't get to make my own turkey and gravy.  I love the idea of adding the cognac to the mix and will give that a try when I get a chance.  That plate of food looks amazing!  Wish you could transport some over....better tell Lucy get her big brain going and figure out how to master that technology! ?

Happy Baking from the Long Island Gang!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

brown:-)  Can't even see the roasted Brussels sprouts, summer squash and baby onions, candied carrots and butternut squash and roasted veggies with mushrooms:-)  Lucy stopped work on her teleportation app to concentrate on her plan to make an app that makes all human work unnecessary.  It sounds like a boring world to me but she does sleep all day and night except when she is eating and relieving herself so she knows how great it is is not to have to work or do anything :-)  These rolls take a back seat to your porridge ones for sure but they do sop up that gravy if you don't split them open and put a spoon of gravy on them too like I did:-)

Happy baking Ian 

tqmbill's picture
tqmbill

I'm new here... how do I find the recipe for the rolls?