The Best Rolls I Have Ever Baked
I am really very good at baking bread. I learned when I was a little girl - I had to kneel on a kitchen chair to reach the table top to knead the dough. My mother and my aunt, both excellent bakers, taught me. And as I became an adult, I read a lot of books on breadmaking, and watched videos, and tried out various techniques.
But recently I made a batch of rolls that tasted better than any other bread I have made, or any other bread I've tasted. I made myself a sandwich with some extremely ordinary supermarket cold-cuts, and it was utterly delicious. The good-tasting bread elevated the entire sandwich to a different level of flavor.
In a large mixing bowl (if you're lucky enough to own a Kitchen Aid mixer) combine 4 cups of King Arthur all-purpose white flour. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of Vital Wheat Gluten, as well as 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast (not the stuff sold in little paper packets as "active dry yeast"). Whisk this all together so the ingredients are evenly combined. Add 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water (baby's-bath temperature) and start the mixer. Let it mix the dough until you have a "shaggy mass" in the bowl. Let this stand in the bowl for 10 minutes - this is called "autolyse", which is French for "dissolves itself" and gives the flour a chance to absorb the water, which improves the texture of the bread. Once the ten minutes have passed, start to mix the dough again on a medium speed, using the dough hook. Add more flour or more water as needed to adjust the consistency of the dough. Mix and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is stretchy.
Scrape all the dough into the middle of the bottom of the bowl. Spray it or otherwise coat it with oil or shortening. Cover it with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic against the oiled dough in order to keep the surface from drying out. Cover the bowl tightly with more plastic wrap. Place bowl in refrigerator and let it stay there overnight, or for at least 24 to 36 hours (The longer a yeast dough rises, the more the enzymes in the yeast coax flavorful molecules out of the starch in the flour. This may be the real magic secret of why these came out so good.)
When the dough has risen, scrape it onto a floured surface. Get a large cookie sheet and grease it thoroughly with oil, shortening, or even butter. Sprinkle this with cornmeal, shaking and tapping the pan in order to distribute the cornmeal in an even layer (which makes the bottoms nice and crunchy). Cut the dough into eight equal-sized pieces, and shape each into a round or oval roll. Place the rolls on the prepared cookie sheet. With a sharp blade, make one slash lenthwise on the top of each roll (This allows it to expand symmetrically when it's baked.) Fill a "mist" sprayer with cold water, and spray the tops of the rolls. Set them in a warm place until they have risen to double their original size. Preheat your oven to 350°F. When the oven is hot, bake the rolls until they are browned to your taste.
Remove them to a cooling rack and allow them to cool to room temperature. Seal each roll into a small zipper-lock bag, and use a straw to suck the air out of the bag. The rolls can be frozen when they're stored like this. Reheat one roll in the microwave until it's warm in the center. Then heat it in a 350° oven to make the crust crisp. Your sandwiches and burgers will please everyone who tastes them.
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