Easy Dinner Rolls

Media has been full of suggestions for things to make for Thanksgiving but I suspect that most of us have already nailed down the menu and have even purchased most of the groceries and drinks needed. The turkey is probably already thawing in the fridge, if it was frozen, since it takes a few days for thawing. You may even have done some of the prep like cutting up the bread for the stuffing or chopping carrots and celery and onions or maybe you made cranberry sauce from scratch this year and it's already in the fridge melding flavors.

So this recipe could be added to your Thanksgiving menu since you can make the dough ahead and because it bakes pretty quickly, not taking up too much of the precious oven time and space on the big day. It could also be baked up as slider rolls the day after. Imagine small fluffy rolls stuffed with some leftover turkey, a bit of cranberry sauce, and a touch of gravy...sounds like a nice snack or easy meal to me.

This dough can be made up as long as a week before it's baked. The longer you leave it in the cold, the more flavorful it becomes, but you do need to punch it down once a day. When you are ready to bake a few rolls, cut off a chunk and shape the rolls while still cold, then let the dough warm up while it rises. Mine had quite a bit of oven spring and, since they were simple balls,  right before baking I cut a slit about an inch and a half long on the top of each one to make sure they didn't pop out to the side, after I had brushed them  with some milk.

An added benefit of baking these...your house will smell delightfully of freshly baked bread...all warm and yeasty!

Refrigerator Rolls

From The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham

1 cup milk, warmed ( I used soy milk)

2 packages dry yeast

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted (I used non-dairy margarine)

1 egg, beaten

3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

 Stir the warm milk and yeast together in a large mixing bowl and let stand for a couple of minutes to dissolve. Add the sugar, salt, butter, egg, and 2 cups of the flour. Beat to mix well, then add enough more flour to make a manageable dough. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, knead for about 2 minutes, then let rest for 10 minutes.

 Resume kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes, sprinkling on just enough additional flour to keep it from being too sticky. Place in a large greased bowl, cover, and let rise until double in bulk.

Punch down the dough, and place it in a greased bowl or a large plastic food-storage bag. Cover the bowl tightly, and refrigerate. If you use the plastic bag, seal it loosely around the dough  to allow room for the dough to expand. Come back sometime within 3 – 4 hours and punch the chilled dough down – until it is thoroughly cold, it will rise as usual. Check the dough once a day from then on, and if it has begun to rise, punch it down.

To make rolls, simply pull off as much of the dough as you think you’ll need, and shape in into rolls, such as crescent, Parker House, cloverleaf or fantan shapes. Let rise for about 20 minutes while the oven preheats to 400 degrees F. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the pans and cool on a rack.

 This recipe makes about 30 rolls, depending on size. Can be stored in the fridge for about a week, ready to use whenever you need it. Just cut off enough for a few rolls, shape and bake as described above.

Tuber Based Dinner Rolls

I was looking back at all the posts I've done in November and discovered that I never did share the recipe with you for the dinner rolls I made that were based on tubers I bought from the local farm stand. They looked like garnet yams, but turned out to be white starchy tubers, more like a very starchy Idaho potato than a yam. The flesh went from very white to a sort of dirty tan color as soon as they were peeled, so I wasn't sure how the rolls would look, but I guess there was enough flour to lighten them up.

These dinner rolls were based on a recipe from Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups that she gave as a challenge years and years ago when the Daring Bakers were just starting. It happens to also be the first post I wrote telling a tale in the Land of St. Honore'. At that point I think there were around 100 Daring Bakers and it seemed that many visited most of the posts that the other members put up. Part of the reason that I ventured into fiction was to make my post just a bit different from the others, in hopes that it would provide a nice break to those who were visiting lots and lots of sites. I guess I had gotten bored with my own posts and wanted to lighten up my offering. You may want to read the story if you have time.

The dinner rolls were made from a nice potato bread dough...nice, but sticky! I rolled it out thinly enough that I could slather it with butter and sprinkle lots of freshly chopped Italian parsley on top of the butter, then roll it up jelly-roll fashion and cut the rolls as you do for cinnamon rolls...with a length of dental floss, crossed. Then I put about 8 or 9 rolls in each greased cake pan and let them rise. I baked them in a 350 degree F oven until light golden brown. They were a big hit at a luncheon the next day. Still in the pan I refrigerated them overnight, then baked them another 10 minutes before lunch to finish baking and to warm them and crisp up the crust. If you serve them the same day as the original baking, bake longer until deep golden brown, then turn out of the pans and serve hot.

Tender Potato Bread

(based on a recipe in Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition Around the World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Daring Bakers Challenge #13: November 2007

Makes 24 soft dinner rolls

Some additional notes about this recipe and the dough:

Potatoes and potato water give this bread wonderful flavor and texture. The dough is very soft and moist and might feel a little scary if you’ve never handled soft dough before. But don’t worry: Leaving it on parchment or wax paper to proof and to bake makes it easy to handle.

Once baked, the crumb is tender and airy, with tiny soft pieces of potato in it. The dinner rolls are soft and inviting.

Some Notes about Flour:
King Arthur Artisan Organic All-Purpose Flour is fairly new in the markets in the US now and is advertised to be best for making European-style hearth breads with a protein level of 11.3%

Conversion Chart for yeast:
1 oz/ 1 Tablespoon of fresh yeast = 0.4 oz/ 1.25 teaspoon active or instant dry yeast = 0.33 oz / 1 teaspoon instant or rapid rise (bread machine) yeast. Reference: Crust & Crumb by Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:

4 medium to large floury (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks. (Elle's Note: I used those red-skinned tubers that looked like yams on the outside and by shape. They worked just fine.)
Tanna Note: For the beginner bread baker I suggest no more than 8 ounces of potato; for the more advanced no more than 16 ounces. The variety of potatoes you might want to use would include Idaho, Russet & Yukon gold, there are others.

4 cups(950 ml) water, reserve cooking water
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 ½ cups to 8 ½ cups (1 kg to 1350g) unbleached all-purpose
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (130g) white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) salted butter, softened
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley

Making the Dough (Directions will be for making by hand):

Put the potatoes and 4 cups water in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and cook, half covered, until the potatoes are very tender.

Drain the potatoes, SAVE THE POTATO WATER, and mash the potatoes well.

Measure out 3 cups(750ml) of the reserved potato water. Add extra water if needed to make 3 cups. Place the water and mashed potatoes in the bowl you plan to mix the bread dough in. Let cool to lukewarm (70-80°F/21 - 29°C) – stir well before testing the temperature – it should feel barely warm to your hand. You should be able to submerge you hand in the mix and not be uncomfortable.

Add yeast to 2 cups all-purpose flour and whisk. Add yeast and flour to the cooled mashed potatoes & water and mix well. Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.

Note about Adding Yeast: If using Active Dry Yeast or Fresh yeast, mix & stir yeast into cooled water and mashed potatoes & water and let stand 5 minutes. Then add 2 cups of flour to the yeast mix and allow to rest several minutes. If using Instant Dry Yeast, add yeast to 2 cups all-purpose flour and whisk. Add yeast and flour to the cooled mashed potatoes & water and mix well. Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.

Sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon salt and the softened butter; mix well. Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, stir briefly.

Add 2 cups of the unbleached all-purpose flour and stir until all the flour has been incorporated.

Note: At this point you have used 4 cups of the possible 8 ½ cups suggested by the recipe.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, incorporating flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough will be very sticky to begin with, but as it takes up more flour from the kneading surface, it will become easier to handle; use a dough scraper to keep your surface clean. The kneaded dough will still be very soft. Place the dough in a large clean bowl or your rising container of choice, cover with plastic wrap or lid, and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead gently several minutes. It will be moist and a little sticky.

Forming the Rolls:
Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Place one piece to one side and cover loosely.

Butter a 13 x 9 inch sheet cake pan or two shallow cake pans. Cut the dough into 8-9 equal pieces. Roll one piece out on a lightly floured work surface to a rectangle about 16 x 10 inches. Spread 2 tablespoons salted butter over the rolled out dough, leaving a 1/2 inch unbuttered edge on one long side. Sprinkle with half the parsley.  Roll up jelly-roll fashion and use a crossed length of dental floss or a sharp knife to cut the log into 8-9 pieces.  Place each piece, cut side up, into a buttered cake pan or into the larger pan, leaving 1/2 inch between the pieces. Repeat with second piece of dough. filling the second cake pan or filling up the larger pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 35 minutes, until puffy and almost doubled.

Baking the rolls

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place a baking stone or tiles (if you have them) or a large baking sheet on the middle oven rack to preheat along with the oven.

Dust risen rolls with a little all-purpose flour or lightly brush the tops with a little melted butter or olive oil (the butter will give a golden/browned crust). Immediately place baking pan(s) with rolls on the stone, tiles or baking sheet in the oven. Place the rolls next to the loaf in the oven.

Bake rolls until golden, about 30 minutes.

Transfer the rolls to a rack when done to cool.  Note about cooling times: Rolls can be served warm or at room temperature.