Potato-Rosemary Rolls

I am sure by now many of you are wondering if I secretly work for Peter Reinhardt… well, no. I just only own his baking book, and I am somewhat obsessed with trying to only eat breads made from whole wheat (good recipes for 100% whole wheat are rather difficult to find). So, I eagerly embarked on yet another adventure in delayed fermentation method bread making, this time finally attempting the Potato Rosemary bread that I have wanted to try for some time. Using Thanks Giving as my excuse, I ended up making 25 dinner rolls (all knotted up).

The dough itself was time consuming to make. First I had to boil a potato, which, though it doesn’t take much time still added a day to my planning. Then, on day two I simply made the soaker and biga as always (using the potato water from the night before). Unfortunately, I did not plan ahead properly and ran out of water, so I mixed some filtered water in to fill out the recipe. But that was only a minor logistical mistake; my forgetting to roast the garlic was a bit more of an annoyance. As a result, I ended up spending a lot more time than I anticipated roasting garlic (I chose the option of adding roasted garlic and pepper), cleaning rosemary and preparing the ingredients to be mixed. And then came day three, time to form the rolls. As I said, I ended up making 25 rolls, all knotted. To do so I had to roll a small section of dough into a rope, then tie that rope into a knot. Once risen, I brushed them with an egg white wash (I should have used more so the crust would have been glossier) and sprinkled sesame seeds over half of them.

The end result was definitely worth the labor. Fresh they were delicious, with enough flavors to merit eating without anything else. However, the subtle rosemary, garlic and pepper flavor and pillowy soft interior called for dipping in olive oil or soup (both of which paired perfectly with the rolls). I am even thinking of using them for burger rolls (doubling their size of the rolls of course) at some point in the future. And along side the turkey, stuffing and gravy at the Thanksgiving table (why I baked them in the first place)… the dinner rolls were perfectly at home. All in all this has been my favorite bread to date, even with the added labor and time.


Difficulty: Difficult

From: Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.

Tips:

1) Plan ahead to limit the time in the kitchen.
2) Use more water than is recommended when boiling the potatoes since some water will boil off.
3) I found it helpful to mash the roasted garlic into the potatoes – as if making garlic mash potatoes. It made incorporating the garlic into the dough a little easier.
4) Get parchment paper – well worth the expense for lining trays when baking rolls.