Bread Quest Take 2: Hard Rolls

I needed to take a break from trying to create artisan sourdough bread because it is going to be a long road to perfection. So I thought crusty hard dinner rolls might give me the boost of confidence I needed. At least my optimism is still intact.

I started by making a poolish, a Polish starter. That was easy: Flour, water and instant yeast, let it sit for 12 to 16 hours. Then I hit my stride when making the dough. It rose as it should and looked really good. And I walked around grinning, thinking, “I can make dinner rolls.”

Friends, let me tell you, rolling the buns is not for sissies. It took a while to learn that in order to have the dough turn smooth and not mottled, the dough needs to be wetter than mine was. But I got them somewhere near where they should be. Too bad I timed it poorly. They were supposed to rise for close to 2 hours. It was 11 p.m. I was tired. So I struggled to stay awake for an hour, put them in the fridge and dreamed good thoughts of crusty dinner rolls tomorrow.

Biggest lesson learned from my mother—cut the slits in the dough before it rises. I learned that after the fact. After they deflated, they rose again but by the time I put egg wash on top, they were resembling mud pies not fluffy dinner rolls ready to be baked. I tossed some water in the oven to create steam, but I hit one of the rolls with the majority of the water. Deflated again—that particular roll and my ego.

Thirty minutes to wait. The light in the oven doesn’t work so it was hard to tell what was happening. In my dreams, I removed rolls that the best restaurants serve, with artful crusty tops and airy, moist insides. Not exactly, but kind of close. They turned out beautifully and smelled good. They were golden with accents of white—the crust was hard. I was grinning again.

The euphoria came to a quick halt when I saw my biggest error yet. I placed the dough on wax paper, instead of parchment. My beautiful rolls were glued to the wax paper. I frantically tried to pry them off. No luck. I spend the next 25 minutes hopelessly peeling wax paper off the bottom of the buns, refusing to lose them. One bottom came off completely, which gave me the perfect excuse to eat the bun. It may have looked like a mess but it was chewy, crusty and tasted like a delicious dinner roll should. I decided to bring them to my mother’s birthday dinner that same night. At least it was family—they wouldn’t mind eating a little paper with their rolls.-Denise Shoukas