Thursday, April 5, 2012

ABC: Buttery Pull-Apart Dinner Rolls



This month's ABC recipe is for buttery pull-apart dinner rolls, one of the yummy breads you can find in the Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge.  This was actually my second attempt at making this -- the first one (a chia seed variation) ended in disaster as my BM cooked the dough during its first rise instead of just proofing it LOL.  Good thing I only made half the recipe so at least not much was wasted.  For this second attempt though, I decided to make the full recipe.




We wanted our rolls somewhat large so I divided them to around 65 grams for each roll and ended up with only 14 rolls instead of the 16 stated in the recipe.  I also made a few changes to the recipe as enumerated below:

  • I only used half the butter (43 g) and replaced the other half with canola oil (42 g)
  • Used unbleached bread flour instead of all-purpose 
  • Used only 2 egg yolks then added 1 tablespoon lecithin granules
  • Lessened the yeast to about scant 2 teaspoons of instant yeast (I know now that I still should have used much less than this as the rolls were a little yeasty)
  • Used whole milk instead of half-n-half
  • Made the sugar only about 2 tablespoons
  • brushed the rolls with egg whites for added shine and for the sesame seeds to stick to the crust




Abby wasn't kidding when she said that this dough is easy-to-handle but I still did things differently with the kneading -- only kneaded the dough in the BM for about 15 minutes until moderate gluten development then did 2 folds during the first rise.  I found the oven temperature a little too hot as well as the rolls were browning too fast so I lowered the temperature to 325-350 F and covered the top loosely with aluminum foil.  I also rotated the pan half way though the baking time for even browning.  


So soft and fluffy!

These are indeed very professional-looking rolls and I'm quite curious to try out the other flavor variations.  I'm sure all of them are delicious!  I'm also glad that I lessened both the butter and sugar so they didn't taste overly rich and they paired really well with the pasta dish that I ate last night.  My only complaint is the yeastiness of the rolls so will have to significantly lessen the yeast the next time I make them (yup it's worth making again in the future!).

*Submitting this post to YeastSpotting*


If you would like to join ABC or just check the other posts of my fellow ABC bakers, head on over to the ABC blog!

7 comments:

  1. These rolls look beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing!!

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  2. ery pretty, you can see how light and fluffy they are. Great job!

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  3. Your rolls are wonderful, Janis! Really soft and fluffy! I agree, definitely making these again!

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  4. They look very pretty, Janis. I like egg white glaze (perfect "glue" for the sesame seeds). I'm glad yours turned out light and fluffy too. I'm with you on the yeast amount (forgot to mention that in my blog, I think). One of the other ABC-ers had already reduced the yeast to 5 gr with great success (I should have gone back to that email - I remembered it wrong and thought she said 7 gr which is what I think I communicated to you). I'm thinking even 1 tsp would be enough (~4 gr).
    And yes, these will definitely be made again (and again). With the reduced fat and sugar content you also won't feel (as) bad eating more than one :o) I actually had one for breakfast today (I froze the rest) and added a nice slice of cheese :o)

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  5. sesame seeds?they look like poppy seeds.

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  6. They were going brown rather quickly weren't they? They look great! I did follow the amount of yeast in the recipe this time, ususally I keep it at 1tsp for this amount of flour but I guess Abby had this much yeast because of the amount of butter and sugar in the dough, which makes them a little slower in rising.

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  7. Thanks for the lovely comments everyone!

    Hanaa -- Yes I think 1 teaspoon would be enough and maybe just lengthen the fermentation....but my boys still enjoyed them and I did too! Love the texture, the fluffiness makes them addicting.

    Baking Soda -- The fast browning was most probably due to the amount of milk and sugar in the dough but covering helped slow it down. I wonder if osmotolerant yeast (which I used) would alter the required yeast for the recipe.

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