Honey Wheat Pull-Out Rolls

This hearty, nutty and wholesome rolls would make a perfect mini sandwich for picnics and parties. The rolls are light and soft with a slight sweet bite from the honey. Usually, breads with higher whole wheat content tends be denser, but in this recipe the dough is highly hydrated with excess liquid ingredients. The stand mixer has to used for kneading such a hydrated stickier dough, else you will end up using more flour resulting in a dry bread. So go ahead and enjoy the pull-out rolls. And here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup All purpose flour

1 3/4 cups + 1 tbsp lukewarm Milk (i use 2%)

6 tbsp liquid Honey

4 tbsp Coconut oil (or Butter)

1 large Egg

1 tbsp Active dry Yeast

2 1/4 tsp Salt

How to (Stand-mixer Method):

• Grease a 13x9 baking dish and a large bowl and keep it aside.

• Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk and keep aside until foamy. (If using instant 0r rapid-rise yeast, you can add it straight to the flour. And add the milk to the honey, coconut oil (or butter) and egg mixture.)

• Mix together the honey, coconut oil (or butter) and egg.

• Mix the milk and yeast mixture to the honey and egg mixture.

• Using the stand-mixer fitted with dough hook, mix the flours, yeast and salt together.

• Slowly add the milk mixture to the flours and mix until dough comes together for a min.

• Increase the speed to a medium and knead until the dough is smooth and satiny, for 8 mins. (Don't panic, the dough will be really sticky. Do remember, 'the stickier the dough, the softer the bread'.)

• Use an oil-sprayed spatula to transfer the dough from the mixer to a greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.

• Let it rest for 45 mins in a warm place until doubles in volume.

• Punch the dough on a lightly floured surface and make it to a rough square.

• With a bench scraper or pizza wheel, cut'em into quarters and cut each quarter into 4 equal parts. (Now you have a total of 16 equal dough pieces.)

• Smooth each piece by pulling the edges and pinch sealing'em at the bottom. 
• Place the smooth dough rolls into the baking dish arranging in 3 rows. (Arrange in a way that it has 6 rolls in the middle and 5 rolls in the top and bottom rows.)

• Let the rolls rest for 20 mins covering with a plastic wrap.

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and brush the rolls with the remaining 1 tbsp milk with a pastry brush.

• Bake the rolls for 18-20 mins or until golden brown, rotating half-way through baking.

•  Let it cool on a wire rack for 10 mins and serve warm.

• Store it in a dry and cool place.

No-Knead Brioche Rolls

Brioche is a highly enriched French bread, with a rich tender crumb. The eggs and butter makes it light and gives the rolls its fluffiness with a golden brown flaky crust. Brioche is generally eaten as a breakfast or as a snack with coffee. This recipe uses a no-knead technique which is a non-traditional way of making it. As the dough sits in the fridge for a longer time, it forms the gluten slowly without the need of mixer. The traditional way is a long and painstaking process. So there you go, a simplified brioche recipe to try for yourself. And here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups Bread Flour

2 1/4 tsp Instant Yeast

7 Eggs (1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt)

1/2 cup Water (room temperature)

1/3 cup Sugar

16 tbsp melted Butter

1 1/2 tsp Salt

How to:

• In a bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt. 

• In another large bowl, whisk together 6 whole eggs, water and sugar, until the sugar is all dissolved. Whisk the butter until smooth.

• Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. (It is going to be a sticky dough, so don't panic.)

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 mins.
• Holding the edge of the dough and fold the dough over itself to the middle. Turn over 45 degrees and fold the dough 6 more times (a total of 8 folds).

• Cover and let rise for 30 mins. Repeat folding and rising every 30 mins, 3 more times. After 4th set folds, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 16 hrs or up to 48 hrs.
• Transfer the dough to a floured counter and divide into 2 pieces. Now remove golf balls-size pieces (approx 6) and gently apply pressure in circular motions to make the dough smooth.

• Lightly dust the dough balls with flour if it sticks to your hand. Now cover the dough loosely with plastic and let rest for 5 mins.

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the rolls leaving space in-between the rolls.
• Cover and let rise at room temperature for 2 hrs or until doubled in size. Half-an-hr before baking, adjust the oven rack to the middle position, place baking stone on rack and heat oven to 350 degrees.

• Remove plastic and brush the rolls with 1 egg beaten with salt. Bake until golden brown for 15 to 20 mins, rotating and switching sheets halfway through.

• Transfer the rolls to a wire rack and serve warm.

 Tips:

• Make sure you wrap the dough tightly with plastic before keeping it in the fridge.
• Do no add more flour to the dough if it sticks, rather lightly dust your hands with flour and apply gentle pressure and smoothen the rolls.

Buttery Croissant (from scratch)

Croissant is a flaky buttery bread roll made from yeast-leavened dough and they are a staple in French bakeries. Well, making croissants are a bit time consuming but well worth it eod. As the dough has to be rolled and folded several times, it takes around 10 hrs from start to finish including refrigeration and freezing time. So i divided the process by laminating the first day and shaping the next day. Also make sure you have a measuring ruler and not tape, this way you can shape the rectangles with straight edges. Measuring as you roll is the key to perfect croissants so go ahead sink your teeth into these flaky rolls. Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

4 1/4 cups All purpose flour
3 tbsp + 24 tbsp Unsalted Butter, very cold
1 3/4 cups Milk
4 tsp Rapid rise/Instant yeast (or 5 tsp Active dry yeast)
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tsp Salt

1 large Egg
1 tsp cold Water

How to:

• Melt 3 tbsp of butter in a saucepan over low heat, remove and immediately stir in the milk. Whisk in yeast and transfer the mixture to a bowl of stand mixer, add the flour, sugar and salt.

• Using dough hook in a stand mixer, knead on low speed for 2-3 mins or until dough starts to come together. Increase speed to medium-low and knead for a min. Wrap the bowl and let sit for 30 mins.

• Transfer dough to parchment paper–lined rimmed baking sheet and shape into 10 by 7-inch rectangle about 1 inch thick.

• Wrap tightly with plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Making Butter block:

• While dough chills, fold 24-inch length of parchment in half to create 12-inch rectangle. Fold over 3 open sides of rectangle to form 8-inch square with enclosed sides. Crease folds firmly. 

• Place 24 tablespoons cold butter directly on counter or the parchment and beat with rolling pin for about 60 seconds until butter is just pliable but not warm, then fold butter in on itself using bench scraper. Beat into rough 6-inch square.

• Unfold parchment envelope and transfer butter to center of parchment, refolding at creases to enclose. 

• Turn packet over so that flaps are underneath and gently roll until butter fills parchment square, taking care to achieve even thickness. 

• Refrigerate the rolled butter for at least 45 minutes.

Laminating the dough:

• Transfer dough to freezer. After 30 minutes, transfer to lightly floured counter and roll into 17 by 8-inch rectangle with long side parallel to edge of counter.

• Unwrap butter and place in center of dough. Fold sides of dough over butter so they meet in center. Press seam together with fingertips. With rolling pin, press firmly on each open end of packet. 

• Roll out lengthwise into 24 by 8-inch rectangle. Starting at bottom of dough, fold into thirds like business letter into 8-inch square. Turn dough 90 degrees counterclockwise. Roll out lengthwise again into 24 by 8-inch rectangle and fold into thirds.

• Place dough on sheet, wrap tightly with plastic, and return to freezer for 30 minutes.

• Transfer dough to lightly floured counter so that top flap opens on right. Roll out dough lengthwise into 24 by 8-inch rectangle and fold into thirds. Place dough on sheet, wrap tightly with plastic, and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 24 hours. (I refrigerated overnight.)

Shaping the dough:

• Transfer dough to freezer. After 30 minutes, transfer to lightly floured counter and roll into 18 by 16-inch rectangle with long side of rectangle parallel to edge of counter. 

• Fold upper half of dough over lower half. Using ruler, mark dough at 3-inch intervals along bottom edge with bench scraper (you should have 5 marks). 

• Move ruler to top edge of dough, measure in 11/2 inches from left, then use this mark to measure out 3-inch intervals (you should have 6 marks). 

• Starting at lower left corner, use sharp pizza wheel or knife to cut dough from mark to mark. You will have 12 triangles and 5 diamonds; discard scraps. (Actually i did not discard the scraps but rolled'em and baked for a lesser time. Yields 4 mini croissants.)

• Unfold diamonds and cut into 10 triangles (making 22 equal-size triangles in total).

• Position 1 triangle on counter. (Keep remaining triangles covered with plastic.) Cut 1/2-inch slit in center of short side of triangle.

• Grasp triangle by 2 corners on either side of slit and stretch gently, then stretch bottom point. Place triangle on counter so point is facing you. Fold down both sides of slit. Roll top of triangle partway toward point.

• Gently grasp point 1 hand and stretch again. Curve ends gently toward each other to create crescent. Repeat with the remaining triangles.

• Place 12 croissants on 2 parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets at least 21/2 inches apart. 

• Lightly wrap with plastic and let stand at room temperature until nearly double in size, 2 1/2 to 3 hrs.

(Shape the croissants ahead and refrigerate for up to 18 hours. Remove from refrigerator to rise and add at least 30 minutes to rising time.)

• After croissants have been rising for 2 hours, adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 425 degrees.
• In small bowl, whisk together egg, water, and pinch salt. 

• Brush croissants with egg wash. Place croissants in oven and reduce temperature to 400 degrees.
• Bake for 12 minutes, then switch and rotate baking sheets. Continue to bake until deep golden brown, 8 to 12 minutes longer.  (Every oven is different, i baked mine for a total of 16 mins rotating halfway.)

• Transfer to wire rack and cool about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tips (Make ahead): 

• After shaping, place 10 croissants 1 inch apart on parchment-lined sheet. Wrap with plastic and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

• Transfer to zipper-lock bag and you can freeze for up to 2 months. 

• Bake the croissants by allowing them to rise at room temperature for 3-3 1/2 hrs.