25% Stoneground Whole Wheat Butternut Squash Hokkaido Sourdough Milk Bread Rolls

We are having Christmas dinner with my side of the family this evening and I offered to bring bread, of course.  My partner and I often make a meal out of roasted vegetables and butternut squash is in the rotation.  Some of these squashes are huge and more than we can eat at a sitting so we have leftovers.  Incorporating some of this into a bread seemed a good way of using up some leftover squash so I decided to make these rolls.

8 buns in 9” round pan

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 45g bread flour 

• 20g water 

• 15g light brown sugar 

• 15g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 85g milk 

• 15g Whole Wheat flour   

Roasted Mashed Butternut Squash

• 70 g

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• 212g bread flour

      · 91 g whole wheat        

• 34g sugar

• 5.88g salt 

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 125g milk 

• 50g egg beaten (about 1 large egg)

• 56g butter melted. 

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1 Tbsp butter

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth.

Press down to create a uniform surface and to push out air. This reduces drying and allows you to see actual CO2 aeration over time.

At 76ºF, it typically takes 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk, egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into smaller pieces.  Next add the flours.   Mix on low speed and drizzle in the melted butter.  Once incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium.  Mix at medium until the gluten is moderately well developed, approximately 10-15 mins.  Next add the mashed butternut squash gradually mixing until we’ll incorporated and the gluten well developed. You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran and squash will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.

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Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 4-6 hours at 82ºF. 

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours or overnight, this makes rolling the dough easier, remember if you do so they final proof will take longer.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or lining them with parchment paper. You can make 8 rolls in a 9" round pan as.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. There is no need for more than a tiny amount of flour.  Divide into 8 equal portions the. Shape tightly into boules. 

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Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  I proof until the dough fills the pan and passes the poke test. 

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Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the rolls uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your rolls get brown early in the baking process.

Remove the bread from the oven but not the pans, brush the tops with butter while hot, and then let cool for 10 minutes before pulling the bread from the pans. You may need to slide a butter knife down the sides of the pan to loosen the bread, but I have found parchment paper to be unnecessary.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel if you wish after brushing with butter. 

After the bread is completely cooled, store it in a plastic bag at room temp for a week or longer.