Dinner Rolls: Dark and Soft
These tasty dinner rolls are an attempt to replicate the soft, kind of sweet, deep chocolate-colored rolls served at various chain restaurants (particularly steakhouses) in the USA.
| Ingredients |
| Dough |
| 1 1/3 cups (10 5/8 ounces) warm water |
| 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) butter, softened |
| 1/2 cup (6 ounces) honey |
2 3/4 cups (12 1/2 ounces)
King Arthur Unbleached Special Bread Flour |
1 3/4 cups (7 3/4 ounces)
King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour |
| 2 teaspoons salt |
1 tablespoon D.D. Williamson
Caramel Color Powder
(without it, the rolls will lack their distinctive color) |
| 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast. |
| Topping |
| yellow cornmeal |
Directions:
- Combine all of the dough ingredients in the bucket of a bread machine, or in an electric mixer. Mix and knead until you’ve formed a smooth, slightly sticky dough.
- If you’re using a bread machine, program it for the dough or manual cycle. If you’re using a mixer, start with the flat beater, then switch to the dough hook when the dough starts to form a ball and come away from the sides of the bowl.
- Note: You may also prepare this dough by hand; it’s very sticky and a bit messy at first, but just keep at it, flouring your hands and trying not to add too much additional flour to the dough; eventually it’ll smooth out.
- Let the dough rise in the bowl (or bucket of the bread machine) for 1 hour. It won’t have doubled in size, but should be just a bit puffy. Divide the dough into 10 even pieces (about 4 ounces each), and shape the pieces into 6 x 2-inch oval rolls. Coat each roll, top and bottom, with some yellow cornmeal. Place them on a lightly greased baking sheet, and allow them to rise, covered, in a warm place, for 90 minutes to 2 hours. They won’t have doubled in size, but will appear puffy; when you gently press your finger into one, the indentation will rebound quite slowly.
- Bake the rolls in a preheated 350°F Oven for 24 minutes, until the bottoms appear slightly browned (you’ll have to carefully pick one up to look), or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a roll reads about 200°F. Remove the rolls from the oven, and cool them on a rack.
-
Yield:
10 rolls
This recipe reprinted from The Baking Sheet® (Vol. XII, No. 3, Early Spring 2001 issue). The Baking Sheet is a newsletter published six times a year by The Baker’s Catalogue®, P.O. Box 876, Norwich, Vermont 05055. (The Baking Sheet and The Baker’s Catalogue are both registered tradmarks of The Baker’s Catalogue, Inc.)