Recipe: Sandwich Rolls (Guest Post from Fearless Grill)

Recipe Source (Dough): Reinhart, Peter, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. 10 Speed Press, Berkeley, 2001 pp. 266-267

For a recent Sunday open house, I was going to the supermarket to pick up the ingredients for something I was going to make, when Jess asked me to pick up a bunch of sandwich rolls to go with a spread she was planning to serve. Buying 24 rolls would be kind of expensive, and I realized I hadn't made any bread in a while, so I offered to just make some instead. I looked through some of my books for a good recipe, and was surprised to find that few of my bread books included a recipe for something simple like a hamburger bun. I finally found a bread recipe in Peter Reinhart's book that included instructions for baking rolls instead of full bread loaves. I had received this book for my birthday earlier this summer but hadn't had a chance to make anything from it, so I was excited to give it a try.

I prepared the recipe as written, except I made two batches to get to the 24 rolls we needed. I used

my Cuisinart stand mixer to prepare the bread, rather than kneading by hand. This also gave me the chance to test out a cool feature of our new-ish BlueStar range. Despite being a 30" model (previous owner of our house built a really pretty kitchen, but never actually cooked – we couldn't fit anything bigger without trashing the cabinets and counters), it fits a full commercial sized baking sheet, and we happened to have picked one of those up at the Williams Sonoma outlet store a few weeks earlier. Sure enough, the 24 rolls all fit on the single sheet, which fit perfectly into the oven. Yea!

The rolls came out really tasty. We determined this because we each ate 2 or three of them while they were cooling. We were originally going to split one, but that thought lasted for about 30 seconds. Turns out Jess never got around to making the spread, so we just served the rolls plain, and they were a hit with our guests too. I've already made this recipe again, and will continue to use this one in the future. It's really good.

Equipment:

• Stand mixer (optional)

4 3/4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup powdered milk

3 1/4 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 large egg, slightly beaten, at room temperature

3 1/4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature

Sea salt for garnish (optional)

1. Stir together the dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, stir in the egg, butter, and water until all the flour is absorbed, and the dough forms a ball. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 6-8 minutes. The dough should just stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough comes off the bottom, add a bit of water. If it is too wet, add a bit of flour.
2. Let the dough rise at room temperature in a covered, oiled bowl for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.
3. Remove the dough from the bowl, and shape it as desired. I split mine into 12 3 oz. pieces to make sandwich – sized rolls. The recipe says you can get 2 one pound loaves, or 18 2 oz. dinner-sized rolls out of this recipe instead.
4. Place the rolls on oiled baking sheets, leaving a little space between each one. Mist the dough lightly with spray oil, and cover. Allow to rest for about 20 minutes
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (350 if you are making full loaves). If desired sprinkle sea salt or some other garnish on the rolls, and place in the oven.
6. Bake the rolls for 15 minutes, or until they are golden-brown. If you make full loaves, cook for 35-45 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Comments

[Joanne]

I've always wanted to just be able to whip up some rolls when necessary instead of having to go to the bakery and spend exorbitant amounts of money on them. Thanks for this recipe! The rolls look quite impressive, I can see why you gobbled up 2 (or 3) of them.

[Natasha - 5 Star Foodie]

I would eat a whole bunch of these scrumptious rolls!

[Sophie]

I love these rolls,...looking so tasty & good!!!!

[Fearless Kitchen]

Sophie - Thanks! They were really irresistible.

Natasha - Oh, we did. We actually had to leave the house to avoid eating more of them!

Joanne - Thank you!