Whole Wheat Rolls

I found a wonderful recipe for dinner rolls at
http://thestayathomechef.com/the-best-homemade-dinner-rolls-ever/

But dinner rolls are like candy - not much nutrition, and taste so good that it's easy to overeat.  I needed to modify the rolls to be heartier.  The first substitutions are red.  The second are purple.  If you make it, use either the original or make the red substitutions or make the purple substitutions.

The basic recipe calls for:

• 2 cups warm milk
• 2 tablespoons instant dry yeast
• ¼ cup white granulated sugar  substitute 1/4 cup molasses 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons salted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 6 cups all-purpose flour  substitute 4 cups bread flour and 2 cups whole wheat flour  2 stone ground whole wheat flour, 2 whole wheat pie and pastry flour, 2 bread flour
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

I made the following changes:
Substitute 1/4 cup molasses for the sugar.
Substitute 2 cups of medium stone-ground whole wheat flour.

First rise 90 minutes.  Shape.  Second rise 60 minutes.  Bake at 375º for 12-14 minutes.

The recipe makes 24 rolls.  Here they are on parchment, beginning to rise.

 After baking, they are brushed with butter.

Couldn't wait - had to cut them open and add more butter!!!

The rolls are really delicious!

I used blackstrap molasses, and we thought it was a bit bitter.  Will try regular molasses or brown sugar next.  The rolls were very light, so it may be possible to increase the whole-wheat flour.  I may try using 1/3 stone-ground, 1/3 pie and pastry white whole-wheat, and 1/3 bread flour.  Let me know if you are interested in the results of further experiments.

Nutrition info from:  https://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 64 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 169 Calories from Fat 40

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 4.5g 7%

Saturated Fat 2.5g 13%

Cholesterol 26mg 9%

Sodium 235mg 10%

Potassium 102mg 3%

Total Carbohydrates 27.4g 9%

Dietary Fiber 0.8g 3%

Sugars 2.9g

Protein 4.5g

Vitamin A 3% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 4% • Iron 9%

Nutrition Grade B

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Ciabatta

I'm ready for a chewy, crusty bread.  I found the recipe for ciabatta and that appealed to me.  The night before, I made the biga, allowing it to rest overnight.

Biga

4 ounce (1/2 cup) water
1/2 teaspoon active-dry yeast
5 ounce (1 cup) all-purpose flour

Here's what it looked like at night.

And here's the next morning.

 Ciabatta

17 ounces (2 cups + 2 tablespoons) water
1 teaspoon active-dry yeast
Biga
20 ounces (4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt

After adding the next ingredients and beating, it was obvious it was a very slack dough.

After 10 minutes with the stand mixer, I had a runny batter.  10 more minutes, still a runny batter.  I gave up and added three more ounces of flour.  It finally came together after 15 more minutes of beating.  But you can see how soft it is.

It is almost like trying to handle jello.

They were very well received.  I guess I'll try this again!

Sadly, one tray got burned on the bottom shelf of the oven before I caught it.  That meant I could not take it to the covered-dish lunch.  I'll have to trim off the dark places and eat them myself.

The recipe says 475º for 20-30 minutes.  Too hot, too long. . . 

Cinnamon Nut Wreath

I need another "Dish to Pass".  This bread looked so pretty in the recipe that I decided to try it.  I used my goto Challah bread recipe as the base.


After the first rise, I rolled it out into a rectangle.  Then dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar mix.  Added chopped cashews.  Rolled it into a log.  Pulled the log into a circle.

 Put a can in the middle to keep the center open.

 After it had risen a bit, I used kitchen shears to cut segments 2/3 of the way to the center and then twisted each segment.

 It was allowed to rise more, then baked at 350º.

It's not super sweet.

If you wanted a sweet filling, there should probably also be sugar or brown sugar in the filling.

It could also be served with strawberry butter or strawberry cream cheese.

Wouldn't that be nice!

Nutella Star Bread

I need to take a dish-to-pass.  We've been watching the Great British Bake Off, and the home bakers in the competition make interesting bakery items.  Once they were tasked with making a "Tear and Share."  Never heard of it, but have been looking around.  Lots of super videos on youtube.  This sounds good.

Nutella Star Bread ready to rise:

Ingredients:

450 g flour

70 g sugar (I think less would be better)

2 eggs

180 ml milk

2t yeast

salt

40 g butter

Nutella™

It would probably be best to watch a video on how to shape the bread.  Makes learning it easy.

After fully risen, there are fewer spaces between the arms.

Smells delicious.

Artistry is not quite there yet.

Not too bad for a first try.

~ ~ ~ 

Five Days Later

Second Try

One of the group does not like Nutella™.

The large star is made with Nutella.

The top left two are plain.

The other five are cinnamon buns.

I also reduced the sugar to 50 grams.

I like that better.

Ciabatta

It all started when the supermarket had a sale on mussels -
buy one, get two free. . .

Free is nice.

But now we needed a starch.
Hmmmmm.
I found a recipe for ciabatta that does not require super-long proofing.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread

Start with 475 g water.

500 g flour

1 t yeast

and into the mixer it goes.

at first it is really gloppy.
I let it rest for 10 minutes or so and then
continued beating until it pulled from the sides of the bowl.

Let rise for a couple of hours,
then shape onto floured parchment.

Preheat the oven to 500F.

Just before putting into the oven slash.
I learned a trick - use your super sharp knife, but wet the blade before each slash.

Looks good.

Smells great!

Very nice crumb.
Not as crunchy as no-knead bread.
I did not add any moisture to the oven

Serve with a seafood soup.

 

The soup is made of:
onion, garlic, celery, and lots of black pepper
shrimp, scallops, mussels.