dinner rolls

So in a recent thread I posted a recipe that I based on a bread someone had seen on TV. I just did my best guess, based on provided ingredients and my own experience. 

I figured I should post the results, because it was mostly theoretical, but I believed it would work. The goal was yeasty, soft, fluffy bread, and use of a preferment. 

Here's the recipe, makes eight (8) 92g rolls/buns, or one good-sized loaf of bread...hence BreadBuns!

• 100% hydration starter (sourdough or not) 100g (26.50%)
• All purpose flour 375g (100%)
• Water 218g (58%)
• Brown sugar 38g (10%)
• Salt 10g (2.65%)
• Yeast (instant) 12g (3.30%)
• Melted butter 26g (7%)
• FINAL DOUGH WEIGHT (g) 778g

First, make a 100% hydration starter with 50g flour, 50g water and a pinch of yeast, mix, cover and leave at room temp for at least 6 hrs (or use some existing sourdough starter). In this case, I used some starter that I had around. 

Combine starter with remaining ingredients. This is after 1 minute of mixing at low speed. 

Mix with dough hook for 6 minutes total at KitchenAid speed #2 (low speed); this is the end result: soft, supple, quite smooth and satiny. 

Flatten, then roll into log and/or shape into ball and let rise for 1 hr in warm place, covered. 

Shaped and ready for rising...

In the bucket, ready to rise

After a 1 hour rise, it's doubled.

I decided to shape into 92g rolls, placed in a greased 9x13 pyrex dish:

Cover and let them rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, til doubled. Preheat oven to 400F

Bake for 23 minutes at 350F on middle oven rack.

Here's how they look after 10 minutes, just starting to get a hint of browning.

After the full 23 minutes, they're looking nice and brown. 

Remove from oven, carefully remove from pan and let cool on rack about 10 minutes before devouring. 

Crust and crumb are soft, light, tender and fluffy as expected. I think they could use a bit more brown sugar though, a touch more sweetness for this kind of bread. 

I like to store these in a Ziploc plastic bag to maintain that fluffy softness. Enjoy!

What with having dinner guests on Saturday and more coming on Monday, it was a wonderful excuse for puttering around in the kitchen this weekend.  I started with Pain au Levain from Leader's Local Breads Saturday morning and followed with Rich and Tender Dinner Rolls from The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cook Book and finished up with a Chocolate / Chocolate Chip cake, source unknown.  

Having posted about the Pain au Levain previously, I won't go into detail about the process here.  This bread is consistenly good, in both outcome and flavor.  This bake resulted in lovely oven spring and big ears, in spite of some rather deficient scoring.  It hasn't been cut yet, so I don't know about the crumb but the exterior suggests that the interior ought to be good.

The dinner rolls were a typical enriched roll, with butter, eggs, sugar and milk.  The two differences that set it apart from most such rolls was the addition of some whole wheat, maybe 20%, and no refrigeration.  The former was a pleasant addition in flavor and the latter was a real convenience since I was a bit pressed for time.  I just shaped them as simple pan rolls.  As the name suggested, they were rich and tender and a good accompaniment with dinner.

The cake was a bit over the top (which won't stop us from making it again!), what with a cup of butter, 4 ounces of melted chocolate, 5 eggs and buttermilk in the batter.  Oh, and chocolate chips, too.  My wife halved the frosting recipe (it called for 5-1/2 cups of confectioners/icing sugar), since we baked it in a 9x13 pan instead of in 3, 9-inch round cake pans.  This is not a light and airy cake.  It is moist, it is heavy, and it is sweet!  Good stuff, in other words.  Best of all, with others to help eat it, the danger of too much snacking on the leftovers is reduced.

Before going to bed Saturday night, I mixed a biga for Portugese Sweet Bread.  Today I finished the bread, shaped it as hamburger buns and baked it.  Now we have the base for some barbecue sandwiches for our guests Monday evening.  I've learned that the store-bought buns just don't stand up well to the sauce that comes along with the barbecue, so something like PSB is less likely to go all floppy in mid-bite while still being tender.

No pics of anything described here.  Just lots of enjoyment in both the baking and the eating.

Paul

2 bakes in a day.  This wholemeal roll is a mixed of bread flour and wholemeal.  Wanted to try something else for a change  small rolls using the water roux starter,  with 2 bites and they are gone.  I didn't expect it to turn out so tiny,  measured carefully at 40g per piece.  Anyway,  the most difficult I find is try to shape this.  I read the instructions and  after the 5th ball, I think I got it.  Shape the ball into a cone shape,  roll flat into triangle,  and roll it up from the bottom (wider part of the triangle).  Give it a few roll to tighten it a little. Let it proof for about 1 hour, until it is puffy.  I always wonder if I proof enough?  Well, it had a good oven spring,  and certainly the taste is pretty good,  soft and sweet and a little salty.  To read more:  here's the link.  

I don't know if it's my love for bread baking or my new camera that keeps me in the kitchen, but here's another attempt I just completed tonight.  The recipe is from Lory of Maine whose web site is:  http://kusinanimanang.blogspot.com/2008/01/potato-peasant-bread.html.  She says people can copy her recipes but she'd appreciate it if they would include a link to her web site.  So my thanks to Lory for sharing.  She's got over a hundred recipes there - goes to show what a dedicated wife and mother and foodie she is.

Since the recipe was for 2 loaves, I decided to make a loaf with one half of the dough and dinner rolls for the second half.  For the loaf, I added shredded cheese and green onions, then I rolled the loaf jelly-style and put it in a pan.  For the dinner rolls, I divided the dough into tiny balls and put three balls in each muffin cup. 

These were what came out of the oven:

When the loaf cooled, I sliced it.  Here's what it looked like:

And here's the final picture - a closer look at the slices:

Here's my question:

Can anyone tell me why that slice has a hole at the top, right below the crust?

Overall, I am happy with the recipe.  I probably shouldn't have spread the shredded cheese and green onions before rolling; maybe it would have been better if I incorporated the cheese and green onions into the mixture during the pre-kneading stage.

I must say though that the cheese and green onions spiked the taste a few notches up.  The loaf definitely had a sharper and more flavorful taste than the rolls.  And Lory did say that potatoes tend to make the bread soft and chewy inside and crisp and crusty on the outside.  I agree.  Those slices were really soft!  I left the potato skins on by the way - so they look like bacon bits but they're not.  A bacon loaf is next on the agenda, though!

I have been making these yeast rolls for some time now. Usually for the holidays. I thought I would share. They are very good and light.

Ingredients:

494 Grams Flour (bread)

5     Grams yeast (IDY)

65   Grams Sugar

5     Grams Salt

50   Grams of Egg (beaten)

195 Grams Milk

49   Grams Shortening

49   Grams Water

* Optional - I add about 3 tablespoons of day old mashed potatoes.

   Sometimes I add Sesame seeds

Combine all dry ingredients except salt and add water. Mix and set aside 20 minutes. Beat together egg, shortening and salt adding milk and knead for 10 to 12 minutes. Dough will be tacky. Place in oiled bowl and set aside covered.

Allow bulk ferment till double.

 Remove and scale and shape into 1.75 to 2 ounce rolls. They will expand a great deal. Place on baking sheet and cover. (I do an overnight refrigeration) Then allow 1 to 2 hours for final proof. You may not get much rise but you will get it in the oven. Keep an eye on them and when you press one with your finger and it doesn't completely return they are ready.

Place in preheated oven 375 degrees and bake approximately 10-12 minutes. Remove and brush with butter.

Allow to cool. What is leftover can be frozen.

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