Bread Up

Wife has always baked bread, a fact that has added a lot of pleasure to our lives over the years.  But until recently I wouldn't say that she was into it as a hobby as say I am about cooking.  About a year ago I put on my list of things that I might want to get into if I ever get a chance to retire is baking.  Somehow this has tweaked a competitive gene in Wife and slowly but surely she has upped her baking game.

She has been on a quest to make a Kaiser Roll that she will find acceptable.  The ones in our local stores are just of very poor quality and the Kaiser Roll is Wife's preferred bread for a sandwich.  So she's been trying various techniques.  The latest attempt didn't make a very good Kaiser Roll but made a helluva good European Dinner Roll.

Recognize these?

If you've ever been to Europe and gone to the ubiquitous breakfast buffet at a hotel, these small hard rolls are de riguer.  The recipe calls for making a starter that sits over night, adding more flour and water, three rising/punch downs, forming rolls and letting them rest in the refrigerator.  Then my favorite instruction you, "make one decisive cut through the center of the roll."

They came out great.  We may not have our Kaiser Rolls yet but the breakfast buffet just to a step up.