establishing a tradition
This is my world: I am a homebody whose life revolves around orchestrating an environment that beckons and calms.
It is also a life that revolves around a mixing bowl or, more precisely, around a mixing bowl filled with dough or batter. Once in my own kitchen, and after a slew of life experiences tossed me about, I decided that certain traditions needed to be created for the purpose of grounding myself. The custom turned into baking a series of sweet and savory things (no surprise) to be served to invitees, or to have around just for me—for filling a cookie jar, an antique bread box, or one of my many cake keepers of various sizes and depths.
One of the first—and now permanent—customs was to bake rolls on the weekend. Simple rolls, tender and moist, that are assembled in a baking pan and placed closely enough so that they eventually kiss when risen and baked, became a fixture almost every time a chicken was sent into the oven to roast. The rolls were such a staple that I named the bread, quite affectionately, “roasted chicken” rolls. Once in a while, someone actually thought that roasted chicken was an ingredient in the dough, never quite making the leap from its place in the menu to the name. Eventually, there would be a few rolls called by that name, including sweet potato rolls, cheese rolls, oatmeal rolls, and so on, then each and every one of them was called a “roasted chicken” roll, even if the steamy bundle of them was served with roasted turkey, braised short ribs, you name it. (The never-ending questions “Are these the roasted chicken rolls?” followed by “May I have the recipe?” are answered below. Finally!)
The twenty rolls, plump and glossy with a last-minute brush of butter, routinely disappeared in short order, and once I was challenged by someone to turn this into a sweet breakfast roll. How bad could that be? The sweeter version may have been good, but my recipe (now considered the “classic”) never quite achieved the status of its plainer forerunner. (In short, and in my opinion, the two concepts never met.) I have them at hand right now, and I can assure you that they make a seamless transition to each season. The sweet potato version, with its pale golden crumb, is equally winning; the rolls are welcome on the table during fall and throughout the winter, for they pair pleasantly with any kind of soup or stew. The #1 rolls are a year-round basic bread.
Do you have a bedrock recipe that has become a baking tradition? If not, begin with this one, and consider adding “roasted chicken” rolls, #1 to the roster. And let me know if you’ve modified them somehow, changing the dough this way and that, thus making them a part of your own culinary history.
“roasted chicken” rolls, #1
serving: 20 rolls
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, then apply the butter and salt finish
fluffy dough
21/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm (105 to 110 degrees F) water
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size chunks
one 6-ounce russet potato (peeled, chunked, boiled, drained [reserving 1 tablespoon of the cooking water], and riced), to yield about 2/3 cup riced potato
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
butter and salt finish (optional)
about 3 tablespoons butter (preferably clarified butter), melted and still warm
coarse salt, for sprinkling
For the dough, 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.
Place the milk and the 3 tablespoons sugar in a small saucepan and set over moderate heat to warm the milk and begin to dissolve the sugar, about 5 minutes. Pour and scrape the milk mixture into a medium-size heatproof mixing bowl. Stir in the chunks of butter and the riced potato. Let stand until lukewarm, about 6 minutes. Add in the yeast mixture, the egg yolks, and the 1 tablespoon potato cooking water. Mix well.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour and the salt. Add the potato-yeast-milk mixture and stir to combine, using a wooden spoon or flat wooden paddle. The dough will be dry in sections and softer-moister in other patchy sections. Turn the mixture out onto a work surface and combine to create a cohesive dough. Knead the dough for 7 minutes, at which point it should be smooth, supple, and moderately soft.
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 cool room temperature for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.
Uncover the dough and discard the plastic wrap.
Film the inside of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with softened unsalted butter.
To form the rolls, place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough in half, then cut each half into 10 even-size pieces, creating 20 pieces in total. Smooth each piece into a plump ball by rolling it on the work surface briskly under the cupped palm of your hand. Place the balls of dough in the prepared baking pan, assembling them in five rows of 4 each.
Cover the pan of rolls loosely with a sheet of food-safe plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise at cool room temperature for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. The rolls will merge as they rise. At doubled in bulk, the rolls will rise to about 3/4 inch short of the rim of the baking pan (the dough rises into fine, light rolls and may collapse if over-risen—so take care to monitor the second rise).
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F in advance of baking.
Remove and discard the sheet of plastic wrap covering the rolls.
Bake the rolls in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until set and a medium golden color on top.
Place the pan on a cooling rack and let the rolls stand for 10 minutes. Carefully and gently (the rolls are fragile), invert the pan of rolls onto another cooling rack, then invert again to stand right side up. If you are using the butter and salt finish, brush the surface of the rolls with the melted butter and top with a few sprinklings of coarse salt. Serve the rolls warm or at room temperature, by detaching them at their natural seams. Store in an airtight container.
notes
• in this recipe, the emphasis is less on the potato (as opposed to the recipes in the zoom! essay, pages 401 through 406) than it is on the overall butter-milk-egg yolk fluffiness of the dough, as the riced potatoes become a “background” ingredient
“roasted chicken” rolls, #2
serving: 20 rolls
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
sweet potato dough
21/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm (105 to 110 degrees F) water
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size chunks
one 8-ounce sweet potato (peeled, chunked, boiled, drained, and riced), to yield about 3/4 cup riced potato
1 large egg
2 cups unsifted unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour, plus an additional 5 tablespoons, as needed for kneading
For the dough, 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.
Place the milk and the 1/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan and set over moderate heat to warm the milk and begin to dissolve the sugar, about 5 minutes. Pour and scrape the milk mixture into a medium-size heatproof mixing bowl. Stir in the chunks of butter and the riced potato. Let stand until lukewarm, about 6 minutes. Add the yeast mixture and the egg. Mix well.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the unbleached flour, salt, and 1 cup of the bleached flour. Add the potato-yeast-milk mixture and stir to combine, using a wooden spoon or flat wooden paddle. Let the mixture stand, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup bleached flour. The dough will have both dry and moist patches at this point. Turn the mixture onto a work surface and combine to create a cohesive dough. Sprinkle the additional 5 tablespoons bleached flour on the work surface and knead the dough for 5 to 7 minutes, using as much of the flour as necessary to create a moderately firm dough; most times, the dough will take all of the flour, but this will depend on the atmospheric conditions and absorption quality/age of the flour. The dough should be supple and bouncy after kneading.
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 cool room temperature for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.
Uncover the dough and discard the plastic wrap.
Film the inside of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with softened unsalted butter.
To form the rolls, place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough in half, then cut each half into 10 even-size pieces, creating 20 pieces in total. Smooth each piece into a plump ball by rolling it on the work surface briskly under the cupped palm of your hand. Place the balls of dough in the prepared baking pan, assembling them in five rows of 4 each.
Cover the pan of rolls loosely with a sheet of food-safe plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise at cool room temperature for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. The rolls will merge as they rise. At doubled in bulk, the rolls will rise to about 1/2 inch short of the rim of the baking pan.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F in advance of baking.
Remove and discard the sheet of plastic wrap covering the rolls.
Bake the rolls in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until set and a deep golden color on top.
Place the pan on a cooling rack and let the rolls stand for 10 minutes. Carefully invert the pan of rolls onto another cooling rack, then invert again to stand right side up. Serve the rolls warm or at room temperature, by detaching them at their natural seams. Store in an airtight container.
notes
• even when riced, the sweet potatoes will contain some threadlike filaments that will show up in the kneaded dough and finished rolls—very pretty
”roasted chicken” rolls, #2