White Bread: Cloverleaf Rolls

Can you tell that I am dragging out the end of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?  As you plainly see, I baked these rolls for Easter, and I am just now writing about them.  Shame on me!

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice gives three variations for white bread, and each one can make sandwich bread, rolls, or burger/hot dog buns.  I made variation 1 into these cloverleaf rolls (some sprinkled with sea salt flakes, and some with sesame seeds), version 2 into burger buns, and I’ve yet to make version 3.  The difference is mainly in the type of milk and shortening used in each one.  These rolls were made with powdered milk and butter.

Unlike most of the breads in the challenge, this bread can be started and finished all in the same day.  It’s easy, and versatile, and definitely one of the best white breads I’ve ever made.  The burger buns, made with buttermilk, disappeared so fast that I couldn’t even get a picture of them.  Soft, but with more texture and flavor than store-bought, the dough is perfectly good.

The only trouble is this: I now have awfully ridiculously high expectations for bread.  Baking through the book in a year has given me an enhanced appreciation of complexity where yeast and flour are concerned.  I crave the depth of flavor that a pre-ferment gives dough.  Never a big plain-old-white-bread lover in the first place, I’m even less so now.  Bring on the multi-grain breads, the chewy Kaiser rolls, the egg-laden Challah bread.  Give me Ciabatta, French, Pain à l’Ancienne, Pugliese, and I’m happy.  However, friends and family truly love this bread.  And like that outfit you can throw on in a flash and always look good, everyone should have a great white bread recipe at hand.  I just happen to have three, so if I’m out of buttermilk, I can use the powdered milk variation.  I know I’ll make them again and again.  Besides, I still haven’t tried version 3, which uses a 1 hour sponge.  I’m curious to find out if that little bit of extra fermentation extracts more flavor from the flour.

If you’d like to try your hand at the rolls or loaves, you can find the recipe here.  To make 18 cloverleaf rolls: after the first rise, divide the dough into 18 equal pieces (it helps if you have a scale).  Mist the dough lightly with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Grease standard muffin tins.  Divide each of the 18 pieces into 3 tiny balls of dough, and place 3 of the dough-balls into each muffin cup.  Mist the tops again with spray oil, and cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Proof for 60 to 90 minutes, or until nearly doubled in size.  Brush with an egg wash ( 1 egg whisked with 1 teaspoon water until frothy), and garnish, if desired with sesame or poppy seeds.  Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven until  golden brown – approximately 15 minutes.  Remove from the muffin tins and cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes.

Tagged as: BBA Challenge, cloverleaf rolls, white bread