It is supposed to be the first day of spring tomorrow, isn’t it? As I work on spring menu ideas, it rains, it snows and sleets and there is *still* about 6 inches of snow on the ground. I still can’t see the Christmas floodlights I put out in the front yard back in the beginning of December! Not exactly the greatest of inspiring days. It’s almost mud season here. Off-highway travel is somewhat limited due to the restriction to travel on class iv and vi roads. Wait out the two months and then the traveling can start.
I decided I’d be better off baking some sandwich rolls for my son’s lunches today. I’ve been making these for him for awhile now. They’re loosely based on a parker house roll, just tweaked it a little bit to give it some more texture and “meat” to it.
My son is five now, and seems to like spending time cooking with me. Whether it’s pancakes on a Sunday morning, pizza on a Friday night or bread for lunches (and munches), he’s always eager to get his hands in it.
This leads me to something he said to me the other day, kind of unexpected for me. My wife thinks it’s perfectly natural for him to say it though.
He says: “Dad, I want to be a chef.” Really out of the blue. I thought about it for a little while and said ” Jacob, do you know what a Chef is?”…… “no”…..
“Well, a Chef is someone who runs the kitchen in a restaurant. The Chef and his cooks make the dinners for people who come in the restaurant.” I then tell him he knows someone who’s a Chef. He didn’t put two and two together…. ” It’s me Jacob. That’s what I do for a job. I help people get their restaurants running, and come up with things for their customers to eat when they come in for dinner.”
“Still want to be a Chef?” He thinks again, “Yes, Daddy.”
Of course, the next day he says he wants to be an artist. They’re almost the same, right?
Jacob’s sandwich rolls
82g warm water, not over 100 degrees
90g sugar
20g yeast
232g unsalted butter
2c milk
600g bread flour
10g sea salt
600g AP flour
Warm the butter and milk together to just melt the butter. Try not to get it over 100 degrees.
Add the warm water, yeast and some of the sugar to your mixer bowl. Allow the yeast to become active. It will start foaming as it feeds and releases CO2. Start mixing on the dough hook, adding the bread flour in. Add the warmed milk and butter mixture. Mix until combined. Add the salt and the AP flour. Knead on the hook for 10 minutes.
Turn out into an oiled bowl and allow to double. Once doubled, remove from the bowl and portion into 2.2 oz portions. You’ll get approx. 35 pieces out of this batch. Form into rolls and placed on oiled sheet pan. Place them in rows of 7 x 5. Allow just enough room so that when the proof they’ll just start touching each other. Cover loosely and allow to proof until doubled.
Once doubled, slit tops for decor, and place into a 350 degree convection oven. Bake, turning once until done.
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