32.4 Rolls

Rolls are made from the same kind of soft, enriched dough, then shaped in many ways. The basic roll dough holds eight ingredients.

• yeast
• warm water
• scalded milk
• shortening
• sugar
• salt
• egg
• all-purpose flour

Making the dough

• Soak the yeast in warm water, 46°C.
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• Mix the scalded milk with the shortening, sugar and salt. Beat in ½ cup of the flour, and let it cool to lukewarm if needed.
• Beat in the yeast and the egg.
• Stir in only as much flour as it takes to make a soft dough. Let it rest 5 minutes.
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• Knead for about 10 minutes on a floured board, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
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• Put it in a greased bowl, turn it so the top is greased too, and cover with a damp cloth. Let it rise somewhere warm (26°C to 32°C) for 30 minutes.
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• Punch it down and shape the rolls. Set them on a baking sheet and let them rise somewhere warm until nearly doubled.
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• Plain rolls need 10 to 12 minutes at 425°F, until golden brown. Bake sweet rolls at 375°F. Move the baked rolls from the pan to a rack to cool.

To knead by hand:

• Push the dough away from you with the heels of both hands so it stretches.
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• Fold it in half.
• Give it a quarter turn.
• Repeat.

Kneading takes 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the dough. It stretches the gluten so the dough can hold the gas a leavener makes, and so it can rise.

Scalding the milk means heating it to 180°F before it goes into the dough. Without it, the dough turns out sticky and slack, and the bread is coarse with little volume.

The first-risen dough can go into the refrigerator for up to 72 hours, punched down as needed. Let it stand at least 30 minutes at room temperature before shaping. Refrigerated food is kept at 4°C (39°F) or colder.

Fast-acting yeast, also called bread machine yeast, uses more active strains. It may also carry enzymes and other additives, and it cuts rising and proofing times by about half.

Other roll doughs

• Potato rolls add mashed potato, made from fresh or instant, and more sugar. Plain ones bake at 425°F for 10 to 12 minutes and sweet ones at 375°F for about 12 to 14 minutes.
• Bran rolls use unprocessed wheat bran with boiling water poured over it, then stirred together with the shortening, sugar and salt.
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• Whole wheat bread or rolls add the flour in turns, white then whole wheat, so the two end up in roughly equal amounts. A loaf goes in a greased 6 by 3¼ inch pan and bakes at 425°F for about 25 minutes.

Shaping rolls

Handle the dough with care and shape it without tearing. Bake on a sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. After shaping, every roll is covered and left to rise until doubled before it bakes. Many shapes start from the same strips: roll out a rectangle of dough ½ inch thick and about 9 inches long, cut it into strips 9 by ½ inches, and roll each strip under your hands to round the edges.

Braids, coffee cakes and sweet rolls

The same dough makes larger breads and sweet rolls.

• Braided bread. Divide the dough in three, roll strands about 10 inches long, and plait them. Bake 15 minutes at 375°F, add a topping, such as caraway seeds with Cheddar or Swiss cheese with paprika, and bake 15 minutes more.
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• Braided pineapple coffeecake. Spread a pineapple, toasted coconut, brown sugar and cinnamon filling down the middle third of an 8 by 12 inch piece of dough. Snip the long sides into strips at 1-inch intervals and fold them over the filling in turn, in a herringbone pattern. Brush with egg white, scatter almonds, and bake at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes.
• Rolled and sliced rolls. For cinnamon rolls, butterscotch rolls and orange swirls, brush a rectangle of dough with melted butter, scatter the filling, roll it up from the long side like a jelly roll, seal the seam, and slice. The slices go cut side down into a pan or muffin cups.
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• Butterscotch rolls sit on a brown sugar, butter and corn syrup topping heated in the pan first. A minute after baking, turn the pan upside down onto a plate and leave it about 5 minutes so the topping runs down over the rolls.
• Lemon-cinnamon twists are folded in half lengthwise, cut into 1-inch strips, and twisted by turning the two ends opposite ways. They bake at 375°F for 10 to 12 minutes.
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• Cream cheese pinwheels are 3-inch squares with a spoonful of sweetened cream cheese in the middle. Cut in from each corner toward the center, fold every other point in, and pinch them together. They bake at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Swedish tea ring is a rolled log of dough with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, bent into a ring. Snip it at 1-inch intervals, most of the way through, and turn each piece on its side. It bakes at 375°F for about 25 minutes and is iced while hot.

Pastries filled with meat, cheese or cream are among the potentially hazardous foods, which need temperature control. Potentially hazardous foods and the danger zone are explained in the food safety chapter. see chapter 2: Potentially hazardous foods

A standard roll

Good yeast rolls meet a standard on several counts.

• Size: all even and moderate.
• Outside: light golden brown.
• Inside: creamy and light.
• Grain: fairly fine and even.
• Crumb: springs back when pressed.
• Flavor: tender, mild and slightly nutty, lifted by whatever else went into the dough.