This week I had more than the usual incentive for the cleaning up part. My dad came down from Pennsylvania for a few days. I wish he could have brought some of the cooler fall weather with him, but he was pretty happy with our warmer temperatures. He got to spend some time with the girls, even with B in school. I’m particularly glad he got to spend some one-on-one time with G, since she often gets overshadowed by her older sister. (Though Gillian certainly does her best to make her presence known.) Jamie and I even got to have dinner out by ourselves one night, while Dad took the girls to McDonald’s. Yay for grownup, uninterrupted conversations! =)
With Dad here, I didn’t do quite as much baking as I might have on my own, but that’s okay. The baking I did do was mostly for him. Gillian and I made crumb cake for breakfast yesterday, which is one of his favorites, and I packed some of it up for him to take for breakfast on the plane this morning. We also had to make chocolate chip cookies, which I knew he’d be more than happy to help us eat. (And a bunch of those got packed up for his carryon, too.) But the surprise hit of the week was some simple rolls that I made.
The dough was very easy to mix up--it’s a straight dough, so no preferments to worry about. And it used a generous amount of yeast (about 8 g according to the errata) which allowed the dough to rise fairly quickly despite the additions of butter, sugar and egg in the dough. The dough was mixed, then allowed to double. Then the recipe called for dividing the dough into very small portions. I went a little bigger. I made 5 oblong buns at 75 g each and then formed the remaining dough into round rolls of about 60 g each (yielding 9 rolls). The buns and rolls were placed relatively close together on a baking sheet so that once they were done rising and baking, they were touching each other, keeping the sides soft. Since several people commented that their rolls browned quickly, I baked mine for 13 minutes even though they were larger in size than the ones in the recipe.
If you’d like to try this recipe for yourself, you can find it on page 258 of Bread. Be sure to make note of the corrected yeast amount (should be .29 oz, or about 8 g). And to see what all the other Mellow Bakers thought of this recipe, check out the discussion board. For lots of other fun bread options, check out Yeastspotting!
Rolls look great. I need to make Hotdog rolls. Last ones were too soft for hotdogs.
ReplyDeleteGlad these were a hit at your house! Maybe I need to give them another try.
ReplyDeleteThe rolls are so perfectly shaped! I tried making hot dog rolls once - but the kids asked me not to try again because the rolls were so oddly shaped.
ReplyDeleteThey turned out perfectly! Beautiful buns.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of a good vacation (it's always a bonus around here if the house gets cleaned!) These rolls look great...I can't buy any sort of bread anymore so I'll keep these in mind for burgers and sloppy Joes.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should try them again and adjust the baking time. Glad you liked them.
ReplyDeleteHi Di - Great post - I love the way the dogs fit in the buns so perfectly. Thought I had left a comment but maybe it was on MB - have a good week!
ReplyDeleteThese look awesome!! I've gotten out of breadbaking mode, which makes me sad - I need to get back to it now that it's fall (even if it is still in the 90s - ugh!) Your gorgeous rolls are highly motivating. Glad they were a huge hit with your whole gang!!
ReplyDeleteOh, these look fabulous! I have to get back in the Mellow Baker frame of mind now that my pool is closed, it is getting cooler, and I am happy to fire up the ovens again. This is plenty of inspiration right here in this post.
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