Holiday Cheesy Flaky Rolls
Have you heard of Tartine Bakery? No? Maybe Chad Robertson? As fast as you can, go out and buy one of Chad Robertson’s books!
Really, GO NOW!
I have Tartine Bread and it has transformed how I bake bread! Tartine’s owner Chad Robertson is all about leaven, all about poolish, all about wonderfully pre-fermenting steps that make anything you bake amazing!
I have made the Country Bread several times and that was worth buying the book alone but recently I experimented with his Croissant Recipe and by accident created a flaky roll perfect for the Holidays. I served mine at Thanksgiving and will be making them again for Christmas for sure! This book is so great and has such good instructions and pictures I would be doing it an injustice by trying to explain it here plus I REALLY feel like you need this book. I am just going to share with you the adaptations I did to the recipe to make these rolls. Chad Robertson has two other books; Tartine and the soon to be released Tartine Book No. 3. I have peeked at both of them but I still think Tartine Bread is the best one.
So, you’ve bought the book and you have created the dough. You have even folded in your butter and turned the dough twice. Now you are at the step where Chad tells you to freeze the dough before the final turn and baking of the rolls!
Trust me, when Chad says “Freeze” he means it.
Me, in all of my infinite baking wisdom thought, “Why do I have to freeze (it’s 10 PM) and I’m going to get up early and bake it?”
Guess what? You need to freeze it because if you don’t, the once flat rectangle of dough looks like this when you open the fridge the next morning…
Just to give you an idea of how versatile and flexible this dough is, in my slight panic attack, I threw it in the freezer for another 8 hours because I didn’t want it to rise anymore. I mischeduled my day and didn’t have time to bake it in the morning after all.
That night I took it out of the freezer (it had deflated a bit), let it thaw for about 40 minutes and then cut the dough into about 24 sections with a bench knife. Then I threw the still very cold dough in the panettone baking cups (on a baking sheet) from King Arthur Flour. I made an egg wash with a little Italian seasoning thrown in and brushed that on. Then I tossed some grated Grana Padano cheese on and put a dab more egg wash on top for color. I baked at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until done enough and golden enough for my liking.
I shared these rolls with many people and every person was speechless as they stuffed in each flaky bite. So if you want to serve a truly amazing roll this Holiday season, give these a try! You can skip adding the cheese, bake them up and use the leftover rolls for french toast the next morning too!
December 5, 2013
This entry was posted in baking, breads, breakfast, brunch, holidays and tagged butter, Chad Robertson, holidays, rolls, Tartine Bakery, Tartine Bread.
