Jam & Bread - Part V

Part V - Bread

Once you have made Refrigerator Roll Dough, it doesn't take much to get fresh baked rolls.  This dough is meant to be kept in the fridge for up to a week so you can use a bit here and there to have fresh bread all week. 

I'm still working on making my rolls as good as Grandma's.  My next dough improvement is to substitute potato water for some or all of the water (I'll have to consult grandma Shirley to see just how much).  I've also got some ideas on rolling out the dough. 

Before forming the rolls, I set the dough out for about an hour to let it come up to room temperature.  I've skipped this step before, and usually I end up putting them in the oven before they have doubled in size because it takes a while for them to raise when they start cold.

While dividing the rolls, I used a bit of oil on my knife, on my hands, and on the lid of my bowl to use as a work surface.  When making the dough, I tried not to add too much flour.  I used the same theory with the oil, trying not to work in too much oil. I tend to make that mistake, then have a hard time forming the rolls because the dough will not stick to itself.

Another problem I usually have is that the rolls vary in size quite a bit.  I'm really not a good judge of size or portions.  My first step was to divide the dough approximately into fourths.  I didn't measure for this division, but I wish I would have just to see how much dough it really made in total.  I did use a scale to portion the individual rolls. 

For my first quarter, it weighed 12 ounces and since I wanted 12 rolls, I weighed them out to be approximately one ounce each.  In hindsight, I wish I had divided the dough into thirds to make three pans of rolls each with one and a third ounce rolls.  Even though I felt that the rolls raised fully, they were quite small.  As I mentioned above, I also want to try potato water which is said to create more volume.  Maybe I'll stick with an ounce one more time in hopes that they rise more with the potato water. 

After the dough is divided into pieces, the next step is to make the rolls pretty.  The goal is to get a nice rounded top by pulling the top tight and tucking the extra dough into the middle on the bottom of the roll.  This is where too much oil isn't good or the ends or flaps won't stick into the center.  My attempts at showing this in pictures didn't go very well.  I'll have to try to think of a better description. 

Before forming the rolls, spray a pan well with cooking spray.  You can use oil, but I have had better luck getting the rolls out of the pan with cooking spray.  Grandma uses oil and never seems to have a problem, so I'm doing something wrong there too.  Before putting each roll in the pan, dip the top in a little puddle of oil.  This keeps them moist when they are raising and keeps the tea towel from sticking to the tops while they are raising.

I prefer square pans or round pans; eight inch or nine inch work well.  I also tend to prefer glass to metal, but Grandma makes both work just fine.  Once the rolls are in the pan, cover them with a thin towel, like a tea towel and leave them in a warm place.  Grandma's recommendation on that was to put them in the oven with the light on.  I think oven lights might be a little more efficient these days, because my oven doesn't exactly seem to get warm just from the light.  When I get ready to form the rolls, I preheat my oven to the lowest possible temp, which doesn't take long, then turn the oven off and crack the door.  Once I'm finished forming the rolls, it is warm, but not too hot.

If the dough is at room temperature when you start and the oven is slightly warm, you can expect about two hours for the rolls to raise.  You want them to at least double in size. To bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees (making sure you remove the rolls and towel from the oven first).  If I'm baking a lot of rolls, the stove top becomes a nice warm place for the rolls to rise, especially close to the vent on top.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.  For the one ounce rolls, 12 minutes was plenty.  If you use a different size, the time will change a bit.

The dinner rolls turned out nice and most people would say they were good.  My family approved.  I still think they can be better, so the next batch will have potato water.  In my opinion they went stale way too soon.  Also the texture was still a bit dense.  I'm questioning my strainer and whisk method of sifting the flour. I wonder if it was still a bit more densely packed than it would have been with a real strainer.  Warming them in the microwave made them soft again and they were really great with grape jelly.  I'm hoping that using potato water will take them to the next level.  . 

 

Don't be afraid to give this recipe a try.  Even though I am a little critical of the results, they were still better than most that I could buy, especially when they were warm out of the oven.  I also think this is a good bread recipe to experiment with.  The results are always good and I'm hoping with some minor adjustments, they can be consistently great.
 

Part I – Grape Juice

Part II – Grape Jelly
Part III – Jelly Update

Part IV – Refrigerator Roll Dough

Part VI - Butter
Part VII - Bread Update (Potato Water)