Recipe By: Karen: Karen’s Kitchen Stories
Yield: 8 rolls

Our lovely Kitchen of the Month for this toasty July was Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories.  Karen’s choice came from a very exciting new book “Bread on the Table by David Norman. I am very happy to have her introduce us to both this recipe and this book.

We loved eating these rolls. We loved the very untraditional use of BLT sandwiches I made with them. I will make these again. But for the life of me I could not bring myself to do that massive Wake Up Feed for Your Starter because then I would have no idea what to do with all that 500 grams of starter that didn’t go into the Final Feed. I did my 50, 50 feed and used 20 grams of that in the Final Feed.
For some reason this recipe reminded me of Julia Child’s line about “you’re not standing around holding hands with the dough” … I actually thought I was holding hands with this dough for a number of steps. All that stretch and fold, it’s worth it.

I very much liked the idea of adding some citrus to these and so I squeezed a lemon and used the juice to brush these after shaping and before slashing. I baked these in two batches in the oven. The second baking rose a little more and got darker indicating to me I rushed more than I should have baking the first batch. These are slow rising, give the wild yeast time to do their thing.

Wake Up Feed for Your Starter
200 grams (7 ounces) sourdough starter, because you will be feeding it twice, it doesn’t matter what hydration it is to begin with.
200 grams (1 1/2 cups) all-purposed flour
120 grams (1/2 cup) lukewarm water (90 degrees F)
Final Feed
20 grams (1 tablespoon) of the “wake up feed”
270 grams (2 cups plus 1 tablespoon) of all-purpose flour
175 grams (3/4 cup) Mexican lager beer (I used Sam Adams)
Final Dough
230 grams all-purpose flour, (total flours in cups = 3 1/3 cups) 
200 grams white whole wheat flour
20 grams (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon) granulated sugar, I omitted
18 grams (1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon) salt
All of the starter
212 grams (3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) water
Extra flour for dusting

Mix the “wake up feed” in a clean bowl with your fingers, cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel, and let ferment for 8 to 10 hours.

I refreshed my starter and skipped the above: Mix the final feed ingredients with your hand until well incorporated. Cover and let ferment at room temperature for 12 hours.

Whisk together the flour, and salt in a large bowl or dough rising bucket. Divide the starter into small pieces and add it to the dry ingredients. Add the water and blend everything together with your hands. “Stir, squeeze, and pinch” the dough ingredients together until the dough comes together. You can use your dough scraper to help incorporate everything. This process should take about 2 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and stretch, fold, and flip the dough about 5 times.

Form the dough into a rough ball and place it back into the bowl. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough, seam side up, onto the surface. Gently flatten the dough into a 2 inch thick circle. Stretch and fold the dough from all four “sides.”

Flip the dough over and form it into a ball, return it to the bowl, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Repeat the stretch-and-fold process three more times at 15 minute intervals.

After the final stretch and fold, place the dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, until doubled.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface with the smooth side down. Gently flatten until the dough is about 2 inches thick. Gently stretch and fold one side of the dough about half way over the dough. Turn the dough, and repeat from all four “sides.”

Flip the dough over, seam side down, and form the dough into a ball.

Return the ball to the bowl, seam side up, and cover until doubled, about an hour.

Lightly flour your work surface.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces, about 150 grams each. Form each piece into a ball. Press each ball into a rough rectangle and then fold fold each “side” over each other to create a cylinder. Using your hands, roll each cylinder back and forth until you have an eight inch long roll with tapered ends.

Heat your oven to 475 degrees F with a baking stone and steam pan.

Place the rolls, seam side up, side-by-side lengthwise, between the folds of a couche or flour dusted tea towel to proof. Cover with plastic wrap or another towel for about 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy and airy, but not doubled.

You will probably need to bake these in two batches unless you have two ovens.

Place the risen rolls onto parchment paper on top of a pizza peel, seam side down with space in between. Add 2 cups of boiling water to your steam pan and close the oven door to let it get steamy.

Score the rolls with a sharp knife or lame the length of the roll down the center with the blade at an angle.

Place the loaves on the stone, along with the parchment, and close the oven door. If you like, you can also spray the oven with more water to get it extra steamy.

Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes. They should be deep golden brown and hollow sounding.

Cool on a wire rack. Repeat with the rest of the rolls.
These are traditionally filled with pulled pork and lots of the au jus … not the kind of sandwich I needed for a boat ride. That’s why you see I made BLT’s. They were marvelous!!

If you bake along, just drop Karen an email(find her here) and she’ll put you in a roundup after the 1st of August. Please use BBB Buddy as the subject line.