Saturday, August 11, 2007

Experiments with Brioche: Dinner Rolls

The premise behind my experiments is that I try to do something different with brioche dough. The amount of dough I give here, in this recipe, was the same dough I used for all three recipes.
These dinner rolls are a buttery wonder. They are rich and crispy, really rather nice.
Ingredients: Basic Brioche Dough
2 packets of active dry yeast
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch milk
3.75 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
3 eggs at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature (but still slightly firm) cut into 2 Tbs pieces
Method
1. Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved.
2. Add the flour and salt, and fit the mixer with a dough hook.
3. Put a tea towel over the mixer (to prevent the flour from covering everything when you mix it).
4. Turn the mixer on and off for a few short pulses, then remove the towel.
5. Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for 1 - 2mins, just until the flour is moistened.
6. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar.
7. Increase the speed to medium and beat for around 3 min, until the dough makes a ball.
8. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2 Tbs sized chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next piece. The dough will soft, and more like a batter then a conventional dough at this stage.
9. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl (around 10 min).
10. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place for 30-40min.
11. Pick the dough up from the sides, and let it fall back down into the bowl with a slap.
12. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Every 30min for the next 2 hours, slap the dough down in the bowl.
13. Leave the dough in the fridge overnight.
14. Use as you please.
Method: Dinner Rolls
1. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment.
2. Simply roll handfuls of the dough into balls, and place onto the baking sheet. Using a sharp knife cut a cross into the top of the rolls.
3. Preheat oven to 375F.
3. Allow to rise at room temperature for 30min.
4. Bake for 15-25 min (depending on the size of the rolls). They will be baked when they are a light brown color, and when tapped sound hollow.
5. Let cool on a cooling rack.
The basic recipe for brioche is taken from Dorie Greenspans Baking From My Home To Yours, pp. 48-50.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look great, found them on a google search! How many rolls do you think this recipe would make? Thanks!

rhid said...

sorry it has taken so long to reply! I'm thinking the original recipe would make around 12 decently sized rolls.