Buttermilk Rolls

Each year at Thanksgiving dinner I fill my plate with anticipation of all of the dishes I get to taste. Sage stuffing has been one of my favorites since I was little, but what I love the most at Thanksgiving are the buttery rolls.  Soft dinner rolls have a modest way of pulling a plate together.  I like eating one roll with my turkey, and another one with the fixings.  

My affection for rolls isn't just a Thanksgiving thing.  Whenever we visit a bakery I buy a half-dozen rolls and freeze them in packs of two for later; bread is our favorite souvenir.  

Throughout the year when we make special dinners, I like to bake bread to pair with what we are having.  We have great local bread in Seattle, but I think it adds such a nice touch to make our own; it is also much more cost effective. 

I have made these buttermilk rolls many times.  The first time was unceremonious; I had some buttermilk I needed to use.  While I do not recall what else I served that night, I do remember telling myself, “These rolls would be wonderful with turkey and gravy.”  I don’t always have them with turkey and gravy, but I do always have them with butter. 

For a softer, more voluptuous Thanksgiving-style roll bake all twelve in a 9-inch spring-form pan. For sandwiches, or any other occasion, you can bake them in two 9-inch cake pans, as I did in the images you see here.  When baked in the spring-form pan, they rise up together with no space in-between and as a result they retain more moisture in the baking process.  

The recipe was adapted from Saveur.

Ingredients:

¼ ounce active dry yeast

1 ¾ cups buttermilk

5 cups bread flour

½ teaspoon sugar

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

Unsalted butter or vegetable spray for greasing the pan(s)

1 egg

2 Tbsp poppy seeds

In the bowl of a kitchen-aid mixer combine the buttermilk, yeast, sugar, flour and salt on low speed.  If the dough feels dry, add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough is uniformly moist.  Mix on the medium-low speed (setting 2) until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 6 minutes.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to let the dough rise until it doubles in size, 2-3 hours.  

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a 9" cake pans or one spring-form pan with vegetable spray or butter.  Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each dough piece into a ball; transfer ball to pan; repeat with remaining dough. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set aside to let the dough rise for another hour. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg with one teaspoon of water. Uncover the dough and brush the egg mixture over the top of each roll; sprinkle rolls with poppy seeds. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Make sure you have plenty of soft butter on hand.  

Pear Bread

Every fall we anticipate pear season.  Ariel's parents have pear trees in their backyard, and sometimes we get to bring some home with us.  On a recent visit to their house we were handed a heavy paper bag of the much-anticipated fruit.  When we arrived home, we devoted an entire shelf in the refrigerator to the fruit, and our pear experimentation began.

A number of soups, salads, and crisps later we were ready to eat the last few when I was hit with an epiphany: chop them up and put them into a bread for French toast!

For a number of years I have been loving Jim Lahey's dutch oven, no-knead bread baking method. It is ideal for a home oven, especially if you're like us: cursed with electric heat.  The dutch oven creates an oven within an oven, which helps produce a thick, crunchy crust with an airy, spongy center. Many people tell me my bread tastes better than what they find in local bakeries, and I agree: this method produces incredible loaves.

What I didn't know is what would happen if I added fruit to the mix?  Ready to find out, I peeled and diced two cups of pears.

Let's say adding the pears was a great choice; one worth sharing.  The French toast also worked out great.  Unfortunately it was not feeling very photogenic, so I was unable to include a shot here. Take my word for it: bake this bread and make French toast; you will be happy you did.  

Ingredients:

3 cups or 400 grams bread flour

1 1/4 tsp or 8 grams kosher salt

1/4 tsp or 1 gram active dry yeast

1 1/3 cups or 300 grams cool water

cornmeal and flour for dusting

2 pears peeled and diced

In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to stir together the water, yeast, flour, pears, and salt.  If there are any dry patches in the dough add another tablespoon or two of water, assuring the dough is uniformly sticky to the touch.  Cover the bowl with a tea-towel or plastic wrap, and let sit for 12-18 hours.  

Flour a work surface and using a bowl scraper or rubber spatula turn the dough out onto the floured surface.  Working around the edges of the dough, bring the edges inward, making the dough into a ball.  Put cornmeal down on the work surface and place the ball of dough on the cornmeal.  Flour the surface of the dough and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap.  Let the dough sit for about two hours.  When there is 30 minutes left, preheat the oven to 475 and place a covered dutch oven on the center rack to preheat.  

Using potholders, carefully remove the pot from the oven and uncover it.  Quickly invert the dough into the pot with the seam side up.  Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes.  Use a heat-proof spatula to lift the bread out of the pot and onto a cooling rack.  Cool the bread thoroughly before slicing into it.  

Once the bread is cool, it can be wrapped in plastic overnight to retain freshness.  For French toast, age the bread a couple of days for the best results.   

Rustic Sandwich Rolls

Whenever we are about to have guests over for a meal, we go through a brainstorm process to decide what to make.  Even when we suggest something we both agree on, I wait for the ah-ha moment: the moment where I know that there could not possibly be a more perfect meal.  If it's summer the obvious choice is to grill something, and if it's winter we move toward soup or slow cooking.

After we got back from Paris we had a long list of people to see, and two of those people were Ariel's dads.  Ariel's dad, Jeff, is a chef.  Since the first day he and I met we have had long conversations about food and cooking.  I love cooking for Jeff because we have a similar style: rustic with delicious flavor pairings.  In fact, one of the last meals we ate before leaving for Euope was with Ariel's family, and Jeff made a shrimp and avocado salad that I daydreamed about the entire time we were away.

The meal we were going to make was for a 1pm Sunday lunch, a tricky time because it's past the time we wanted to serve eggs, but before the time we would cook Sunday dinner.  We continued to brainstorm, until I remembered these rolls...

I adapted them awhile back from one of my favorite bakers, Jim Lahey, who makes a long sandwich roll called a Stecca.  I loved the consistency of the dough: a wet glob with minimal structure, the perfect metaphor for baking in a tiny kitchen with an electric oven.

Our menu for the Sunday lunch would be grilled corn-on-the-cob, Ariel's potato salad, and beef burgers on the fresh rolls; topped with sweet pickle sauce, Romaine lettuce, and sliced Walla Walla onions.

Start these rolls the day before you want to serve them. The recipe will make six substantial rolls, or eight smaller. (We toasted our leftover rolls and filled them with a wonderful tuna salad.)



Combine in a large, stainless steel bowl:
1 1/2 cups or 350 grams cool water
1/4 tsp or 1 gram active dry yeast
3 cups or 400 grams bread flour
1/2 tsp or 3 grams sea salt

Stir, moving your hand clockwise (moving in one direction avoids breaking up the gluten) until all of the ingredients are combined. Add drops of water as needed if there are areas of the dough that do not appear wet, with dry patches of flour on them.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.

When you take the cover off of the dough, notice the great boozy smell: that's the fermentation process at work.

Flour the work surface and use a bowl scraper to bring the dough out of the bowl onto the floured area.



Like this...

Working your way around the periphery of the dough, fold the dough up onto itself.  Flip the dough seamside down, and then then dust the top with flour.  Cover the dough with a clean floursack towel or a piece of plastic wrap, and let it sit for 2 hours. 

After 1 1/2 hours preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and cover a 13-by-18-by-1-inch baking sheet with parchment; brush with oil.  

Using a bench scraper (pictured below) divide the dough into six or eight pieces.  Gently move each piece to the oiled pan; brush each roll with oil, and sprinkle with salt.

Try not to worry about how they look on the pan; each one will look unique, it's part of their charm.

Check the rolls at 15 minutes, and leave them in the oven for another minute or two, if needed.

Let the rolls cool on a rack, and image the possibilities.