The countdown to Thanksgiving Day has begun. I’ve purchased all of the ingredients I need to make the perfect Thanksgiving Day dinner. The frozen turkey is defrosting in its package on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator. The rustic Italian loaf I will be using for my double herb sausage stuffing/dressing is diced into large cubes, packed into a storage bag, and stored in the freezer. The only other preparations I will need to make before turkey day are preparing multiple batches of pie dough, removing the diced bread from the freezer, and brining the turkey in the refrigerator. In exactly three days, the madness and excitement will begin. Kevin and I will do one final cleaning on Wednesday night before my parents arrive over the holiday weekend. In the last few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving week, I’ve been baking up a variety of breads, rolls, and sweet treats in my professional baking class. The techniques I’ve learned in class coupled with the treats I’ve baked over the last few weeks have reignited my passion for developing new recipes in the kitchen. This weekend, I made a batch of the most fluffy, tasty sweet and savory rolls using my sweet roll dough recipe. My sweet roll dough recipe came about when I was testing different ratios to make the perfect cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls are one of those treats where I only indulge in once in a while because I find it overly sweet. About two years ago, I finally decided to recreate a less sweet version of cinnamon rolls. My testing and tweaking helped me come up with my version of cinnamon rolls, which I’ve been serving up to friends and family ever since. The base of my cinnamon rolls is a sweet roll dough I’ve been using to make versions of rolls ever since. Growing up in Brooklyn, I always had a soft spot for the delightful rolls being baked in Chinese bakeries throughout the borough. The rolls came in many varieties, were sweet and savory, and were cheap. Each roll costs anywhere from 50 cents to a few dollars and made for the perfect breakfast, snack, or lunch treat to pick up on my way to school and sometimes even on my way home. I’ve been trying to recreate some of those flavors and textures for quite some time now. When I decided to play around with the sweet roll dough over the weekend, I ended up creating the fluffiest and tastiest sweet and savory rolls. I started by preparing a batch of sweet roll dough, and letting it sit undisturbed for an hour. I then divided the dough into four portions and used each of the portions to make a different type of roll. Three of the rolls were sweet versions and one of the rolls was a savory version. I filled the rolls with lemon cream cheese and fig jam, raisins and fig jam, raisins, and scallions. For two of the rolls, I used the ladder method I learned from my professional baking class to make the design for the rolls. For the other two rolls, I braided the rolls. All of the rolls are brushed with an egg wash and then baked until a beautiful deep brown color. These rolls are best served warm or at room temperature. Kevin and I couldn’t help ourselves and dug right into the rolls straight out of the oven. We were careful though and didn’t burn our tongues. The sweet and savory rolls were just perfect and came just in time for the week leading up to Thanksgiving Day. I can’t wait to cook and bake up some treats for my parents when they visit.
For the sweet and savory rolls:
For the dough:
· 3½ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling out dough
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 cup milk, lukewarm
· 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
· 1 large egg, room temperature
For the filling:
· 2 ounces lemon cream cheese (2 ounces cream cheese, 1 tablespoon sugar, zest of a small lemon)
· 4 tablespoons fig jam, divided
· 2 ounces raisins, divided
· 1 stalk scallion, thinly sliced
For the egg wash:
· 1 large egg
· 1 tablespoon water
Directions:
1) In a large bowl, combine the flour and kosher salt. Set aside.
2) In another bowl, combine the milk, active dry yeast, and sugar. Stir to combine. Let the mixture sit for five minutes to allow the yeast to activate.
3) Combine the milk, yeast, and sugar mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Add the melted butter, and large egg. Knead the dough in the bowl for 5 minutes. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the bowl. Let the dough rest in the bowl for at least one hour.
4) While the dough is resting, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
5) After an hour has passed, the dough should have risen in size. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Divide the dough into four portions.
6) To make the braided raisin roll, divide one of the portions of dough into three portions. Roll out each of the three portions into long flat strips. Top the strips with about ½ ounce of raisins. Pinch to close each of the strips. Roll each of the pinched strips into logs. Top the logs with another ½ ounce of raisins. Lay the three logs next to one another about ½ inch apart. Begin braiding the logs starting with the leftmost log. Bring it over the center log and the leftmost log will become the center log. Bring the rightmost log over the center log (formerly the leftmost log). The rightmost log will now become the center log. Continue the process of braiding until a braided roll is formed. Pinch the two ends to seal the edges. Transfer the roll to the parchment lined baking sheet.
7) To make the braided scallion roll, follow the instructions in step 6 and replace the raisins with thinly sliced scallion.
8) To make the ladder rolls, roll portions of the dough into flat rectangles. Draw two slightly indented lines using a bench scraper with each about one-third of the way across the dough. Starting at an angle on one side, use a bench scraper to cut into the dough leaving about 2-3 centimeters from the indented line. Make another cut about ½ inch above the angled cut. Continue making cuts all the way up one of the sides. Repeat on the other side. Spread two tablespoons of fig jam down the center of the dough. Top with two ounces of lemon cream cheese. Trim off the two top ends of the ladder roll. Fold the top piece with the trimmed off ends down about ½ inch from the top. Tuck in the trimmed edges. Begin with one of the strips on the left side and fold at an angle towards the line on the right. Bring one of the strips on the right side and fold at an angle towards the line on the left. Continue the process until you get to the last two strips on each of the sides. Trim off the bottom most strips on the right and left side. Fold the bottom piece with the trimmed off ends up about ½ inch from the bottom. Tuck in the trimmed edges. Fold the two remaining strips following the same pattern as the previous strips to finish the ladder roll. Transfer the roll to the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat the same process for the final roll with the other two tablespoons of fig jam and the remaining ounce of raisins.
9) When all of the rolls are folded into your desired design, make the egg wash by whisking together the large egg and water. Brush the egg wash all over the rolls.
10) Place the rolls into the oven and let the rolls bake for 20-25 minutes, until a deep golden brown color is formed. When the rolls are done baking, let them rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Takeaways: When proofing the rolls (or letting the rolls rise undisturbed), I typically let the rolls rise from anywhere from one to two hours. Letting the rolls rise for too long may result in yeasty rolls. These rolls are very versatile and can be filled with any fruit jams, dried fruits, or savory toppings of your choice.