Jam Fantans for January

Hope you have had a chance to visit the blogs of the beautiful Babes who have bee good Babes and posted the January recipe. it's a good thing that Babes have no rules because I'm pretty late in posting considering I'm Kitchen of the Month. One of the things that means is that all the Babes got the recipe a while ago in early December. I baked my January version a couple of weeks ago. Will try to remember it all. The med-induced fuzz brain is clearing but still somewhat fuzzy.

I love whole grain and seedy savory breads and breads with savory fillings like pesto, but I do have a real sweet tooth, too.

Jam Fantans rolls are a great find for a sweet tooth because, well, there's jam!, and they are pretty to look at and single serving, too. You can freeze them for that day when you need just  a little sweet to go with you coffee or tea. I made two favors in January. My favorite is made with slightly tangy marmalade, all orange and sticky. Sweetie loved the ones with raspberry jam, which were also pretty with the pink layers. Not a big sweets fan? Go for savory! Pesto, butter and herbs, spicy tomato sauce can all stand in for the jam. No jam? To keep it sweet you can sub in Nutella, butter and cinnamon sugar, butter and a thick applesauce, butter and raisins or currants for the jam. Just be sure to leave that 1/6th space without jam, although the butter under the jam in the photo below did go over the whole dough rectangle.

The best advice I can offer is to have a good sized work surface ready, your dough at room temperature and a sharp a knife or bench scraper handy. The filling will squish out a little after the dough strips are stacked when you cut the strips into six pieces, but that's OK. There will still be plenty of filling. To be honest, I was drawn to this for the technique as much as for the dough, so feel free to substitute your favorite rich dough as long as you try the strips of dough stacked, cut and fanned in small baking container technique.

I do hope you will try this technique out, and be a Buddy. To be a Buddy, email me at plachman*at*sonic*dot*net with a photo of your Fantans and a short description of you experience with them. I'll send you your badge as soon as health allows. Last day to send is Jan. 29  & hope to have round up posted here a few days later. I know a lot of Buddies and great bakers are on out Facebook site, so will try to do a link there soon, as wheel as at round-up time. Bear with me, OK? Probably would have rewritten the recipe to clean it up if hospitilization had not gotten in the way, so hope you can do OK with what is below. Read all the way through first, OK?

Sweet Orange Marmalade Fantan Rolls

THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL SET OF INSTRUCTIONS AT THE END - PLEASE READ!

Makes 12 rolls

Equipment
stand mixer with hook attachment (or mixing bowl and wooden spoon)
large mixing bowl, lightly coated with cooking spray (or clean, if you prefer)
12 cup standard muffin tin, buttered
Ingredients
3-4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 cup whole wheat bread flour (see update)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup whole wheat sourdough starter OR 1 package of RapidRise yeast mixed with ¼ cup warm water (see update at end)
1 cup non fat evaporated milk
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
¼ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup egg substitute OR 1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided (see update)
2/3 cup marmalade (about), warmed

Preparation

Sift 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, the 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Set aside.

Placed evaporated milk, butter and maple syrup into a saucepan and heat until butter is nearly melted. Remove from heat. Stir a few minutes to help mixture cool. Let cool to 110 degrees F.

Add yeast (sourdough or fresher) mixture to milk mixture, then add milk mixture to flour mixture; beat well. Add egg and vanilla; stir until blended. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, stir until thoroughly incorporated. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that is rather sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 3 minutes or until dough is smooth and silky. (Add additional flour if needed while kneading, but only enough to keep it from sticking a lot.) Place in oiled (or clean if you are Elizabeth) bowl, turn dough to lightly coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Dust your work surface with flour. Punch down the dough, then halve it. Wrap one half in the plastic wrap and set aside. Roll the other half into a 12×12-inch (30.5×30.5 cm) square. You may have to roll slightly larger, and then trim the ends to even out the square. Brush dough with half the melted butter.


Spread the surface of the dough with about 1/2 the warmed marmalade, leaving 1/6 strip plain. This will allow you to have a plain side of dough on each side of the roll touching the muffin cup. Cut into 6 equal strips, then stack the strips on top of each other with the plain strip on top. Cut through the layers into 6 equal pieces, then place each into a buttered muffin cup, standing up so the layers are visible. Gently fan them open. Each will have six dough pieces with marmalade or other filling in between. Repeat with the remaining dough and the rest of the marmalade for the other six cups of the muffin tin.

Cover with a tea towel and let the rolls rise in a draft free spot at warm room temperature until the dough doubles, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. (Optional - I put a piece of plastic wrap between the rolls and the towel because of the sticky marmalade.)

Place the rack in the middle and preheat the oven to 375° F/190° C.

Remove the towel and bake the rolls until they are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan ten minutes, then transfer to a rack and allow to cool for about another 20 minutes before serving. If desired, drizzle a glaze of 1 teaspoon milk whisked together with enough confectioners' sugar (icing sugar) to make a drizzle that will not spread too much. Use the tines of a fork to drizzle it on. Let dry before serving the rolls.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
1) If you don't have sourdough starter, you can combine a packet of dry yeast, 1/2 cup of warm water and 1/2 cup flour and let the mixture sit uncovered. I let mine sit for 4 hours, then made the recipe pretty much as written, using an additional 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour plus a little more flour on the board while kneading, and a little more later when shaping.

2) The butter references are confusing. 4 oz (1/2 stick) of melted butter is used in the dough. The rest of the stick is melted later and brushed, about 2 oz each, on the two rolled out dough squares before the jam is added. A small amount of butter is used to grease the muffin cups.

3) This is an easy dough to make without a machine. The recipe has been edited for how to use the sourdough starter or yeast mixture. I started with the mixture in #1, then stirred in the melted butter, milk and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Then I stirred the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients although the recipe puts it the other way. Then I kneaded the dough which meant a little more flour was incorporated. It makes a nice, supple, soft, and silky dough...a pleasure to work with.

4) When shaping, I brushed the whole square of dough with the melted butter, but put the jam only on 5/6th of the dough so that one strip, which was placed on top of the stack, was buttered but had no jam.

5) Be careful to watch these at 20 minutes and until they are finished. Due to the high sugar jam they can burn easily. It's also a good idea to place a drip pan on the rack under the one with the muffin tin to catch any dripping jam.

Remember, YOU can be a Bread Baking Babes Buddy...just email by Jan. 29th. Sorry, some photos got lost in the fog, but can be found on other Babes blogs.