Rustic Dinner Rolls
Submitted by GinaG on April 14, 2012 at 10:43 pm

European style artisan rolls makes 16 I've posted the recipe both as written as well as the changes I've made.
Source: Inspired by Cook's Illustrated, December 2008 issue pages 14-15

This is my favorite recipe for dinner rolls. It comes from the December 2008 issue of Cook's Illustrated and is a perfect recipe for those times you'd prefer an artisan-style bread with your dinner or even to use for finger sandwiches and sliders. They keep surprisingly well and can be refreshed in a moderately heated oven the next day.

I sub no less than 1/2 beer for the water, (sometimes all of it) I add 1T of white vinegar and a bit more wheat flour than the 1 oz. called for in the recipe.

I also will often just bake one pan the same day and retard the second pan for the next day. It's always better after retarding overnight, but it's still very impressive the same day.

1 1/2 Cups plus 1 T. water (12.5 ounces), room temperature.
1 1/2 t. instant yeast (flavor will be better with ADY)
2 t. honey
3 C + 1T bread flour (16.5 ounces)plus extra for forming rolls
3 T whole wheat flour (about 1 ounce)
1 1/2 t. table salt

1. Whisk water, yeast, honey (and beer, if you're using it) in bowl of standing mixer until well combined, making sure no honey sticks to the bottom of the bowl. Add flours and mix on low speed with a dough hook until cohesive dough is formed, about three minutes. Personally, I mix it by hand with a spoon until it looks shaggy and the flour has absorbed all the liquid. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to sit or 30 minutes.

2. Remove plastic wrap and evenly sprinkle salt over dough. Knead on low speed (speed 2 on KA) 5 minutes. If dough creeps up attachment, stop mixer and scrape down using well-floured hands or greased spatula. Actually, I use wet or oiled hands with better results than adding flour. Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is very sticky, add 1 to 2 T of flour and continue mixing 1 minute. Lightly spray 2 quart bowl with non-stick cooking spray; transfer dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Fold dough over itself; rotate bowl quarter turn and fold again. Rotate bowl again and fold once more. Cover w/ plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Repeat folding; replace plastic wrap, let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Spray 2 9" round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

4. Transfer dough to floured work surface, sprinkle top with more flour. Using bench scraper, cut dough in half and gently stretch each half into 16-inch cylinders. Divide each cylinder into quarters, then each quarter into 2 pieces. You should have 16 pieces total, and dust top of each piece with more flour. With floured hands, gently pick up each piece and roll in palms to coat with flour, shaking off excess, and place in prepared cake pan. Arrange 8 pieces in each cake pan, placing one piece in the middle and others around it, with long side of each piece running from center of pan to edge and making sure cut-side faces up. Loosely cover cake pans with plastic wrap and let rolls rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. (Dough is ready when it springs back slowly when pressed lightly with a finger). Thirty minutes before baking, adjust rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees.
5. Remove plastic wrap from cake pans, spray rolls lightly with water and place in oven. Bake 10 minutes or until tops of rolls are nicely browned, remove from oven.

Reduce oven temp to 400 degrees, using kitchen towels or oven mitts, invert rolls from both cake pans onto rimmed baking sheet. When rolls are cool enough to handle, turn right-side up, pull apart and space evenly on baking sheet. Continue to bake until rolls develop deep golden brown crust and sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 10-15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Transfer rolls to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

It bears mentioning that the purpose of separating the rolls and finishing baking on the baking sheets is to crisp up the perimeter of the rolls. If you like softer edges, leave them to fully bake in the pans and wait to separate after baking and cooling. I personally prefer to do most of the baking in the pans until they're well browned, then they only need a few minutes to crisp up the edges and no rotating pans is even necessary.

These rolls look really cool arranged in a square pan, or by arranging them in a round pan in the shape of a flower w/o a center. I weigh my rolls so they come out uniform, but trust me, no one else cares!

comments

Submitted by GinaG on Mon, 2013-01-21 03:04.
If you have anything left over, make bread crumbs with a roll or two and reserve them for the next batch. Replace a few ounces of flour with the breadcrumbs. This extends the shelf-life by a couple of days longer. If you know you'll be making the rolls again a few days later, reserve a piece of dough from one batch to add to the next. This elevates the already excellent rolls way up to the heights of nirvana bliss: To die for.