Rustic Rolls

This recipe for rustic rolls comes from the latest October issue of Cooks Illustrated, an issue featuring foods suitable for the Thanksgiving table.

For me, rolls are just an afterthought at Thanksgiving, what with all those pies and scrumptious sides like dressing, sweet potato souffle, and cranberry sauce. Since so much time and love is concentrated on making the rest of the meal from scratch, Thanksgiving rolls are usually Pillsbury's croissants or the ready-to-bake tray of rolls from the bread aisle of the grocery store, or, at least, that's how it's always been at my house. Rolls, schmolls. Who cares when there's pecan pie. But on another day...

I made these dense, chewy rolls with a crusty crust on a bread whim, not as a trial run for Thanksgiving. Honestly, I think these hearty rolls are better suited for dipping in soup, stew, and chili. Save this recipe for a chilly chili weekend.

Rustic Rolls
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated
makes 16 rolls

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon water, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid rise yeast
2 teaspoons honey
3 cups plus 1 tablespoon bread flour
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• In a stand mixer bowl, whisk water, yeast, and honey. Add flours, and mix on low spead with a dough hook for about 3 minutes, or until a dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand for 30 minutes at room temperature.
• Sprinkle salt over dough, and knead on low spead for 5 minutes. Increase spead to medium and knead for about 1 minute more, until smooth and slightly tacky.
  
• Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let dough rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or doubled in size.
• Fold dough over itself, rotate bowl quarter turn, and fold again. Rotate again, and fold once more. (That's 3 folds total.) Cover and let rise 30 minutes.
• Repeat folding above, cover, and let rise another 30 minutes.
• Turn dough out on a floured work surface, and sprinkle flour on top of dough. With a bench scraper (chef's knife worked fine for me), cut dough in half, and roll each half into 16-inch long cylinders. Cut each cylinder into 8 equal pieces (16 pieces total), and dust tops of pieces with flour.
• Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. With floured hands, pick up each piece, rolling in hands, shaking off excess flour, and place cut side up in cake pan (in each pan, 1 in center and 7 surrounding). Cover cake pans and let rise for 30 minutes.
• 30 minutes before baking, move rack to center of oven, and heat oven to 500 degrees.
• Remove plastic wrap from pans and mist tops of rolls lightly with water, and place in oven. Bake 10 minutes, or until tops of rolls are brown, remove from oven and invert pans on a baking sheet. Reduce oven to 400 degrees.
• Pull rolls apart, and arrange right-side up on a baking sheet. Continue to bake 10-15 minutes, or until deep golden brown and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom; rotating sheet halfway through baking time.