Quinoa, Onion & Rosemary Rolls for BBBs

It’s that time again! Time to reveal the monthly bread for the Bread Baking Babes (BBBs). The host for this month’s bake is Karen of Bake My Day and she chose the Wild Rice and Onion Bread from Peter Reinhart’s book Artisan Bread Every Day.

 

Instead of following the recipe as presented, I took a different approach. I went to the back of the book, got the baker’s percentages, and worked from there.

I have several of Peter Reinhart’s books, including this one, and I really enjoy making breads from them. One of the things I like about this book is that he includes baker’s percentages for every recipe so you can easily customize all of the breads.

Of course, you can make every bread in the book without using baker’s percentages, but the percentages come in handy when you want to adjust the ingredients up or down or add in additional components. You can do this without a formula, but the percentages are really easy once you get the hang of it. I fought this concept, you know the whole math thing, but now that I’ve jumped in, the water is fine. 

 

Using the BreadStorm™ iPad app helped get me over the learning curve with baker’s math.  You just plug the percentages (or weight by grams or kilograms) into the tool and voila! It calculates the other percentages for you.  I just love apps, but at some point, you really do need to know how to do it by hand.

All you do is decide how much flour you want to use and that becomes the 100%.  All the other percentages are based off of the flour %.  I wanted to make rolls so I reduced the amount of flour to 500 grams. The original recipe uses 765 grams of flour which is enough to make two loaves of bread.  I didn’t want that many rolls. My adjustments made 12 rolls and that was plenty. I was able to enjoy some now and freeze some for later.

I didn’t have any wild rice so I used quinoa. I added in some rosemary because I thought the flavor would go well with the quinoa and dried onions. Well, really it’s because I just got a new rosemary plant, and I don’t want it to go to waste.

You can also use brown rice in this recipe, but the quinoa gives it a unique texture. I used kefir milk, but feel free to use any kind of milk in this bread. I’ve been maintaining some kefir grains so I need to continue to find creative ways to use the milk. The kefir worked really well in this recipe.

 

 

 

Quinoa, Onion & Rosemary Rolls

Adapted from: Artisan Bread Every Day by Peter Reinhart

Yield: 12-18 Rolls (depending on how big you shape them)

Original Formula (percentages):

• 100% unbleached bread flour
• 2% salt
• 2.4% yeast
• 7.4% brown sugar
• 44.5% water
• 15% Buttermilk or any other milk
• 3.7% dried minces or chopped onions or
• 30% diced fresh onions

Adapted Formula (percentages):

• 100% unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2% salt
• 2% yeast
• 7.5% brown sugar
• 44.5% water
• 15% Kefir milk
• 3.7% minced onions
• 22% cooked Quinoa
• Chopped fresh Rosemary

Formula by weight:

• 500g all-purpose flour
• 10g salt
• 10g instant yeast
• 37g brown sugar
• 225g water
• 75g Kefir milk
• 18g minced onions
• 110g cooked Quinoa
• 2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
• Melted butter for brushing *

* You can use an egg wash if you want the rolls to be shiny, but I wanted to soften them up so I brushed them with the melted butter right after removing them from the oven.

 

Do Ahead (the day before or a few days earlier):

Combine all of the ingredients, except the melted butter, in a large mixing bowl.  Stir for a minute using a wooden spoon or a Danish dough whisk. The dough will be sticky and shaggy.  Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Continue mixing, adjusting the flour or water as necessary to form a dough ball. At this point, the dough should be soft and supple and slightly sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board and knead for a couple of minutes. Add more flour if necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to the work surface. The dough will still be soft and slightly sticky, but it should hold together in a ball.

Place the dough in a clean bowl (lightly oiled if preferred), then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it immediately.  Let it rest in the refrigerator overnight or up to 4 days.

 

On Baking Day:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 hours before you plan to bake the rolls. Sprinkle a little flour on the work surface to keep the dough from sticking. Divide the dough into 12 (or 18) equal pieces and shape each piece into a round ball. Place the rolls on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Cover the pans loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the rolls rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until increased to about 1 1/2 times their original size.

I used a roll stamper to add a unique imprint in the dough. However, the imprint sprung back so it just barely shows up on the baked rolls. 

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. about 15 minutes before it’s time to bake. Slide the baking sheets into the oven on the middle and bottom racks and let the rolls bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Rotate the pans for even baking and let the rolls bake another 10 minutes until they have a rich golden color. The total bake time should be about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the rolls to a wire rack to cool.  Brush with the melted butter (if desired) and allow the rolls to cool for at least 20 minutes (if you can).

 

I’ve been enjoying these rolls all week. I froze half of them and the rest I’ve been eating (one per day) for a snack. They taste great warm with butter. However, I’ve decided that adding some cheese to the dough would enhance them even further.

Thanks to Karen of Bake My Day for choosing this delicious and easy bread for our bake this month.

I’m also sharing these rolls with YEASTSPOTTING and BYOB!

 

Check out what the other creative Babes made this month:

The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy? Just make the Wild Rice and Onion Bread (of course you may adapt) - and then send Karen your link  (refer to the info in her announcement post).  Submissions are due by May 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along.

I hope you will join us!

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Making Sourdough Pumpkin Crescent Rolls & Being Thankful

My extended family got together this past weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving.

My family enjoys pumpkin crescent rolls, but I wanted to bring something different this year. Not wanting to rock the apple cart too much, I decided to bring something different, yet the same.

I took my pumpkin crescent roll recipe, converted it to baker’s percentage and then converted it to sourdough. I created a new family favorite.  It’s my Thanksgiving sourdough surprise. These beauties are made completely by hand.

 

During the Thanksgiving Season in the U.S., we take the opportunity to reflect on all the blessings in our lives. I try to be thankful all year round, but I don’t always hit the mark so during the Holidays, it’s time to get grounded again and cultivate an attitude of thankfulness.

I’m thankful for a lot of things; my creator, my family, my friends, my community and my life. I’m also thankful for all of the visitors to this blog. I appreciate you and your encouraging words.

I’m also thankful for my bread-baking buddies and for finally learning how to use baker’s percentages. I had a mental block or something, but now I’m loving these percentages.

What are you thankful for?

 

These rolls taste best warm. They reheat really well. Just wrap them in foil and heat in the oven for about 10 minutes or so.

Sourdough Pumpkin Crescent Rolls

Makes: 16 Rolls, depending on how you slice them.

Ingredient:	Weight:	Volume:
Sourdough Starter, 100% hydration	225 g	1 cup
All purpose flour	400 g	3 cups
Brown sugar, packed	45 g	1/4 cup
Salt	7 g	1 tsp
Pumpkin Pie Spice	6 g	2 1/2 tsp
Water*	60 g	1/4 cup
Pumpkin puree	100 g	1/2 cup
Egg	45 g	1 large
Butter, cold, cut into small pieces	56 g	4 T
Butter, melted	14	1 T

* I didn’t use any water. I had a couple of tablespoons of roasted pumpkin puree left in the container so I used that instead of adding any additional water. The only water I used was what was in the sourdough starter.

 

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Add the pumpkin puree and egg to the flour mixture. Mix with a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon until the flour is thoroughly incorporated.

Mix in the sourdough using a Danish dough whisk. You’ll probably have to use your hands once the dough gets to thick for the whisk to handle.

Add in 4 tablespoons butter a little at a time and thoroughly incorporate it into the dough by squishing it between your fingers. This takes a little while, but it’s fun.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough a few minutes until it is smooth and springy.

 

Place dough in large bowl greased with oil, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover and let it sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours or overnight. I made the dough before work on Friday and let it sit all day (about 10 hours) at room temperature (about 65 degrees F.), on my kitchen counter then I baked the rolls that evening.

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead a few times. Shape dough into a ball, then flatten.

Roll the dough out into 15-inch circle. Spread with remaining 1 tablespoon butter.

 

Cut into 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge, starting at wide end.

 

On ungreased cookie sheet, place rolls with points underneath and curve slightly.

Cover and let rise in warm place 30 minutes to an hour or until double in size.

Baking Tip: At this point, you can let the rolls rise, and bake them right away, or if you want to bake them the next day, place the shaped rolls in the refrigerator overnight, and let them warm up to room temperature before baking.

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake uncovered 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the rolls from the oven to a wire rack and brush with melted butter. Serve immediately or save them for later like I did.

 

Preparing these rolls is a two day process, but the timing worked out well.  I baked them Friday night and then warmed them up on Saturday at the get together. 

The family gathering wasn’t at my house so I didn’t want to transport the unbaked rolls on a baking sheet in my car. I’ve tried that before and if I don’t have someone to hold the baking sheet, the rolls have a tendency to slide off the baking sheet and onto the floor. Not this time! I learned my lesson on that one.

I’m sharing these loaves with:

BYOB - Il Cestino del Pane

Yeastspotting

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Shaping Different Types of Rolls

Rolls are very versatile and can be made into a variety of shapes to suit your fancy. I made several different type of rolls for Thanksgiving last year so I decided to make a separate post on how to shape them. I hope you’ll find this information useful.

It’s really fun to shape rolls!  In the photo tutorial below, you’ll learn how to shape three different types of dinner rolls: Single Knot Rolls, Crescent Rolls and Butterfly Rolls.

I made these dinner rolls using Pumpkin Yeast Roll dough, but you could use any yeast roll recipe. Once you make the dough, just follow the steps below to shape them into the desired shape.

The main thing to remember when shaping rolls is to have fun. Don’t let the dough intimidate you. It will work with you if you relax and just enjoy the process. Even if you don’t get the shape exactly right the first time (or the fifth time), the rolls will still be unique and taste good. My rolls never seem to last long enough for the recipient to complain about the shape.

 

Shaping Single Knot Rolls

 

After dividing the dough, roll each portion into a thick cylinder.	Cut each cylinder into eight equal pieces.
Round each piece by rotating your hand over it while gently pressing to form a sphere.
Gently roll rounded dough piece into a 9-inch strand.	Form strand into the shape of a “ 9.”
Thread the long end of the of the “9” under and through the loop to form a knot.	Place the knots 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

 

 

Shaping Butterfly Rolls

The Butterfly Rolls are in the front of this photo. I think using a bigger spoon might help keep the indention from closing up during the bake.

 

Roll half of the dough into a 10-inch square. I shaped it into a 10-inch oval.	Brush the square with two teaspoons melted butter or oil and roll up.
Place seam-side down.	Mark and cut into eight separate pieces.
Press each piece of dough firmly with the handle of a wooden spoon to form butterflies.	Place the butterfly rolls 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

 

 

Shaping Crescent Rolls

 

Roll the dough portion into a 12-inch disk.	Cut it into eight wedges.
Brush the disk lightly with melted butter or oil, roll up each section from the base of the wedge.
Curve into crescents.	Place the crescent rolls 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

 

 

I hope you enjoy this tutorial on shaping rolls.

If you’re looking for the recipe for the rolls featured in this tutorial, click here.

 

For more Roll Recipes, click here.

To learn how to shape additional types of rolls, click here.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Pumpkin Yeast Rolls and BBD #44

The theme for Bread Baking Day #44 is Autumn Flavors. Sarah of Winged Snail is the host for this month’s event and she empowered us to make breads with root vegetables, pumpkin, squash, cinnamon, nuts and any other flavors that remind us of autumn.

Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors for Fall so I’m submitting these Pumpkin Yeast Rolls. These rolls can be shaped in a variety of shapes. I increased the recipe so I had a bunch of rolls. I shaped some of the rolls into single knots, some as crescent rolls, and some as butterfly rolls. I took photos of the process so you can learn how to shape these rolls as well.

The Artisan Bread Bakers made Pumpkin Knot Yeast Rolls for the October BOM, but I decided to wait until November to make these rolls so I could bring them for our Thanksgiving meal. I brought Pumpkin Crescent Rolls to the family get together several years ago and my family loved them so I was pretty sure they would love these Pumpkin Yeast Rolls as well. Turns out, I was right. I made 32 rolls and they all disappeared.

  

Pumpkin Yeast Rolls Recipe

Makes: 24 Rolls

Use the Ingredient calculator to adjust the list of ingredients if you want to increase or decrease the amount of rolls.

Adapted from: Pumpkin Knot Yeast Rolls on Food.com

View a photo tutorial on shaping knotted rolls, crescent rolls and butterfly rolls

You might also enjoy viewing a tutorial on shaping other types of rolls

Ingredients:

Rolls:

• 1/2 ounce active dry yeast (2 .25 oz packets)
• 1 cup warm 2% low-fat milk (110-115 degrees F)
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling) I used roasted pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 1/2-6 cups flour, divided (I used all-purpose flour)

Egg Wash:

• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 egg

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Add butter, sugar, pumpkin, 2 eggs, salt, and 3 cups flour. Stir in enough of remaining flour to form a soft dough.

 

Turn onto a lightly floured surface----knead until smooth and elastic-like (should take about 5-7 minutes). Add additional flour as needed.

 

Place in a large greased bowl and turn once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel or paper towels and let rise in a warm place until doubled---takes about 1 hour. I placed the bowl in the refrigerator overnight.

 

The next day, I took the dough out of the refrigerator and divided the dough into 4 big balls. I covered the balls and let them warm up to room temperature before proceeding.

 

Once the balls had warmed to room temperature, I shaped each portion into 8 rolls using the shaping techniques described in my Tutorial on Shaping Different Types of Rolls. I made 16 knots, 8 crescent rolls and 8 butterfly rolls.

You can follow my tutorial to make three different types of rolls. Or, follow the process below to make Pumpkin Knot Yeast Rolls.

Punch dough down; turn onto lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each portion into 12 balls (so you'll have 24 balls total). Roll each ball into about a 10" rope; tie into a knot and tuck ends under. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled---takes about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together water and 1 remaining egg. When rolls are done doubling again, brush them with the egg wash.

 

Bake at 350 for about 15-16 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove and serve or place on wire racks to cool slightly.

Serve these rolls warm or cooled with butter or honey butter (or jam) if you like.

 

I served these Pumpkin Yeast Rolls for Thanksgiving Dinner. They were are big hit. You don’t even taste the pumpkin. In fact, if I hadn’t mentioned it, my family would never have known the rolls had pumpkin in them. They gobbled ‘em up.

 

 

 

Thanks to Sarah of Winged Snail for choosing Autumn Flavors as the theme for BBD (Bread Baking Day) #44.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks also to Phyl of the Artisan Bread Bakers for choosing these Pumpkin Yeast Rolls for the October BOM even though I didn’t make them until November.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy