These were the other batch of rolls I made to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. You can’t go wrong combining cranberries with pecans, walnuts and potatoes. Well at least in my opinion :).
I soaked the dried cranberries in water for several hours and after draining the cranberries I used the remaining water as indicated in the main dough. I also added some cherry juice to the levain but if you have cranberry juice you can use that instead or just omit it and use all water.
The butter and purple roasted and mashed sweet potatoes added some nice softness to the rolls. These came out really nice and tasted amazing. If you don’t like nuts you can easily leave them out and just use cranberries and maybe even some orange zest.
The freshly milled durum and whole wheat were both milled and sifted with a #30 drum sieve, re-milled at the finest setting on my Mockmill 200 and sifted with a #40 sieve.
Formula
Levain Directions
Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature for around 5-8 hours or until the starter has doubled. I usually do this the night before.
Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.
Main Dough Procedure
Mix the starter with about 90% of the water holding some back for after the autolyze. Next add the flour, and mix for a minute until roughly incorporated. Let the dough autolyze for an hour. After an hour add the salt, purple sweet potato and softened butter and additional water as needed. If using an Ankarsrum mix on medium low for 15 – 20 minutes until you have a well developed dough. If using another mixer you can mix as needed until you have a well developed dough. Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds. Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then laminate the dough and add in the nuts (chopped into small pieces) and cranberries. After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours. (Note: I use my proofer set at 80 F, so if you are leaving the dough out at room temperature you may want to let it proof for longer. The goal is not to have the dough double but maybe rise about 1/3 at most and it will do the rest in the refrigerator.
When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1 hour. Remove the dough and shape into rolls around 100 grams each for dinner rolls. Cover the rolls with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap Sprayed with cooking spray and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 at around 80 degrees. The rolls should be nice and puffy and increase in size about 30-40%
Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees F. and prepare it for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf. I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.
Right you are ready to put them in the oven, apply an egg wash if desired. Next add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.
After 1 minute lower the temperature to 425 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes or until the rolls are nice and brown.
Take the rolls out of the oven when done and let them cool on a bakers rack for as long as you can resist.
