friendship baking
These oaten, lightly wheaty rolls—the little ones and the big ones—are, by design, the breads I make with and for friends and, by extension, serve as a friendly accompaniment to soup and such things.
The “friendship baking experience” all started many years ago—rather by happy accident—when a reunion of my nearest and dearest converged in the kitchen one cool day in early autumn to celebrate nothing more than the fact that time and circumstance brought us all together, despite the demands that crazy schedules tend to inflict. I happened to have had a yeast dough on the rise, and a little time after the guests arrived, it was ready to form—so I pressed them into service, teaching the art of hand-forming rolls. We ate the bread with a beef ragout that included a savory dried fruit compote. Ever since then, I think of this dough, which has undergone several delicate and not-so-delicate changes to polish it into the form you have here, as friendship bread.
The baking of bread is both a quiet, one-person act that you sneak in to your weekend (perhaps making the dough one day and baking it off into a loaf or batch of rolls the next) and the collective work of good friends assembled around a mixing bowl. This one is a casual kind of yeast-risen bread dough, nubby with oats, stepped up with whole wheat flour, and moistened with buttermilk. A modulated richness comes from butter and eggs. Initially, the recipe contained only oats and unbleached all-purpose flour, but I enlarged it to bring a kind of wintry depth to the bread. The buttermilk, butter, and eggs create a silky crumb usually uncharacteristic of earthier bread doughs. This is also a dough that takes nicely to swirling with sugar and spice, and along with it, expansively accepts additions such as raisins, dried tart (or sweet) cherries, diced dried apricots, or dried pluots in its rippling, sugar-filled eddies.
The dough itself is an amiable one, for it can be formed into small cloverleaf rolls, king-size cloverleaf rolls, or two small but plump loaves. If any bread says “friendship,” this one does.
a gift of bread
serving: 2 dozen standard-size cloverleaf rolls or 8 king-size individual cloverleaf breads
ahead: best on baking day; or freeze for 1 month, defrost, bundle in aluminum foil, and reheat in a preheated 325 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes
oaty, lightly wheaty yeast dough
11/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
11/2 cups “old-fashioned” rolled oats
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size chunks
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm (105 to 110 degrees F) water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
21/2 cups unsifted unbleached all-purpose flour, plus an additional 1/4 cup, as needed for kneading
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
For the dough, place the buttermilk and the 1/4 cup sugar in a medium-size saucepan, set over moderate heat, and let the buttermilk reach a moderately hot temperature, about 6 minutes (the sugar does not need to dissolve completely). Place the oats in a medium-size heatproof mixing bowl. Pour and scrape the buttermilk mixture over the oats, drop in the chunks of butter, and stir to mix. Let the oat mixture stand for 20 minutes.
Stir together the yeast, the 1/4 teaspoon sugar, and the warm water in a heatproof measuring cup. Allow the mixture to stand until swollen, 6 to 7 minutes.
Blend the eggs, baking soda, and the yeast mixture into the oat mixture. Combine 2 cups of the all-purpose flour, the whole wheat flour, and the salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the oat-yeast mixture and mix to combine, using a wooden spoon or flat wooden paddle. Work in the remaining 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Place the additional 1/4 cup flour on a work surface. Turn the dough out onto the surface and knead it, incorporating as much of the flour as needed to create a soft, resilient, but slightly sticky dough. Knead the dough for 6 minutes.
Turn the dough into a bowl heavily coated with softened unsalted butter, lightly turn to coat all sides in a film of butter, make several cuts in the dough with a pair of kitchen scissors, cover tightly with a sheet of food-safe plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.
Remove the plastic wrap. Lightly compress the dough with a rubber spatula, cover loosely with the plastic wrap, and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the plastic wrap.
In the meantime, film the inside of 24 muffin/cupcake cups (12 cups to a pan, each cup measuring 23/4 inches in diameter and 13/8 inches deep, with a capacity of 1/2 cup) with softened unsalted butter. Or, film the inside of 8 king-size muffin cups (6 cups to a pan, each cup measuring 31/2 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, with a capacity of 11/4 cups) with softened unsalted butter.
To form the standard-size rolls, divide the dough in half. Cut each half into 12 even-size pieces. Cut each of the 12 pieces into 3 even-size pieces. Roll the pieces into smooth balls. Place 3 balls in the bottom of each prepared muffin cup, forming a cloverleaf.
To form the king-size rolls, divide the dough into 8 even-size pieces. Cut each piece into 4 even-size pieces. Roll the pieces into smooth balls. For each roll, place 1 of the 4 balls in the bottom of the prepared cup as the base, press down lightly, then arrange the remaining 3 balls on top, forming a cloverleaf.
Cover each pan of rolls loosely with a sheet of food-safe plastic wrap. Let the standard-size rolls rise at room temperature for 45 minutes. Let the king-size rolls rise at room temperature for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. They should look puffy, but stable.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F in advance of baking.
Remove and discard the sheets of plastic wrap covering the rolls.
Bake the standard-size rolls in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until set and a medium brown color on top. Bake the king-size rolls in the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes, or until set and a medium brown color on top. Cool the standard-size rolls in the pans on cooling racks for 5 minutes and the king-size rolls for 10 minutes. Carefully release the rolls onto cooling racks and let stand for at least 30 minutes before serving.
notes
• king-size muffin cups, made by Wilton (see bakingSelectedSources), make great-looking and generously sized individual breads
• the rolls are arranged and baked in muffin tins; two 8 by 4 by 3-inch loaf pans may be substituted, creating 2 loaves (divide the dough in half, form into 2 loaves, assemble in the buttered pans, and let rise for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until doubled in bulk), increasing the baking time to a total of 40 minutes, or until set
a gift of bread