FRENCH-STYLE ROLLS

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Avert your eyes, bread baker purists! The dough for this bread is made in a food processor, and takes about 5 minutes to prepare, from measuring the ingredients to setting the dough to rise. The recipe comes from Pam Anderson’s “The Perfect Recipe“, and I’ve made it many times in my pre-sourdough starter days. I still make it, when I want homemade bread but don’t feel like slaving over the preparation. Simple, straightforward, quick, and best of all: works every time!

BASIC FRENCH BREAD
(from Pam Anderson)

1/2 cup warm water
1 envelope ( 2 + 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 cup cold water
4 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt

Sprinkle yeast over the warm water, let stand while you measure the other ingredients.

Add the flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor and process a few seconds to mix.

Add the cold water to the yeast mixture, and with the motor running, pour it into the processor, allowing it to mix until it starts to form a ball. Adjust with water or flour if it feels too dry or too sticky. Process for 30 seconds.

The dough should look like this at the end of processing…

Remove it from the processor, knead it a few times by hand, and place it in a warm spot to rise until doubled in size (1 to 3 hours, depending on the type of yeast and temperature of your kitchen – mine doubled in only 55 minutes).

The dough makes enough for 2 loaves or 12 rolls. Shape them whichever way you like, I made half the recipe as rolls, and formed a loaf with the rest of the dough. Set them to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until almost doubled in size.

Make a deep cross-cut on top of the rolls using scissors; slash the loaves with a blade or very sharp knife. Bake the breads in a 450F oven: rolls for 20 minutes, loaves for 40 minutes. I bake my breads covered by a roasting pan for 3/4 of the baking time, then remove the cover to get a nice dark golden crust.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

I am submitting this post to Susan’s Yeastspotting… Make sure you drop by to enjoy the weekly collection of breads she offers every Friday.

receita em portugues na pagina seguinte….
Continue reading →

8Feb2010

BBA #40: WHITE BREAD

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge brings us to White Bread, offered in three variations – I picked number 2, just because I like even numbers (they are never lonely…)

It is a very simple dough to prepare: buttermilk, flour, yeast, oil, one egg. I halved the recipe (our freezer is already overflowing with bread), and folded the dough instead of kneading it. You can shape the bread in many ways, take a look at the gorgeous dinner rolls made by Oggi (click here . ) I opted to make hamburger-style buns, brushing them with egg wash and sprinkling sesame seeds on top.

They turned out pretty nice, and tasted delicious!

Coming up next: Whole Wheat… I am looking forward to making it and comparing with my favorite sandwich bread, Light Whole Wheat, number 18. Stay tuned…

6Sep2009

BBA#16: KAISER ROLLS

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

A Kaiser roll….

is the beginning of a great sandwich!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves… Back to this tasty bread…

Once more I switched from kneading the dough to folding it, and the results couldn’t have been better. For those following along the “challenge”, here’s a heads up: the recipe uses only half the amount of the pate fermentee shown on page 105. If you make the full amount, remember to only use half of it. 😉

After incorporating the pate fermentee into the flour, egg, oil, malt, and yeast, I folded the dough at 30, 60, and 90 minutes. At the 2 hour mark the dough was bubbly and airy as expected, so I cut it into 6 pieces and formed the rolls using the knot method. They rose for almost 1.5 hours (see the before and after pictures, the two photos at the bottom of this gallery).