ABC Bakers: Pull apart buttery rolls

ABC Bakers post for April is about bread, fluffy white dinner rolls. Or in our case lunch rolls for hungry teenagers that came in after a morning of playing soccer. They each had four….
The idea to make a series of rolls so close together that they become one is fun. The fact that they bake in a pan instead of a sheet make them go up instead of sideways.

I’m afraid I left the recipe and went with the idea of pull apart rolls, baked in a 9x13 pan. I really thought we didn’t need all that sugar and extra butter in rolls. What I did was adding some cooked couscous! I had some leftover from dinner and while mixing the dough thought that would be a nice addition…. Furthermore I subbed some rye for white flour and added black sesame seeds in the dough, and used all milk.

Those rolls were more filling than you would guess, although they rose quite high and their crumb was nice and airy. Brushed the domes with butter while hot. I love the shine and the resulting crust you get by doing that.

This is what I went with:

Pull apart rolls;

270 ml milk
40 gr butter
170 gr rye
300 gr bread flour
1 egg
2 tsp yeast
2 Tbs sugar
1.1/4 tsp salt
40 gr cooked cous cous
black sesame seeds (approx. 2 Tbs)

Knead a supple dough, first rise is fairly quick because of the amount of yeast in these, about 45 minutes. Turn dough out on a clean work surface (no need for any extra flour, if you don’t feel safe use a bit of oil on your counter). Deflate by pressing down gently and roll up tight. Then proceed by dividing the dough into 16 equal pieces. I like to use my bench scraper to do that.
Roll into balls by cupping your hand over the dough ball and lightly push the ball against the counter while making small rotating movements. This way you make use of the friction from the dough against the counter to make nice and tight rolls. Try it! You’ll be amazed how smooth and quick this goes. (If think this is hard try practicing with an orange).

Put the balls of dough in your buttered pan (9x13”)  cover with plastic wrap and let rise for the second time until they are nice and close together. This will probably take another 40 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven (375F or 190C) for about 20 minutes, until nice and golden. When finished brush the tops right away with some butter. There’s no need to melt the butter because the rolls are still hot.

Enjoy!