This Week's Bread: School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls (Third Try's the Charm)
I finally nailed down what I was getting wrong and it was a lot:
Scaling down to 15g carbs per roll was too small, and left me with yeast pebbles.
I've been activating my yeast in 95 degree water. That's great for some yeast, but I'm using Active Dry Yeast. I didn't realize there was a difference and that active dry yeast needed to be activated at 105 degrees. And boy did it activate. Hopefully this will translate to my constantly dense struan bread.
Finally, I let the dough rise in a warm oven each time and oh, boy, did it rise.
But finally, school cafeteria rolls like I remember!
# School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls
Plain Chicken
24 rolls
2.5 Tbsp yeast
0.75 cup warm water
6.5 cups bread flour
11.0 Tbsp instant non-fat dry milk powder
6.5 Tbsp sugar
1.0 Tbsp salt
6.5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1.25 cups water
1 - In a small bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Set aside.
2 - In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, and dry milk powder.
3 - Add vegetable oil and water. Mix on low for 3 minutes.
4 - Add yeast mixture and knead on medium speed for 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5 - Loosely cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 45 minutes.
6 - Punch dough down.
7 - Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
8 - Divide the dough into balls and place in the prepared baking dish.
9 - Loosely cover the dish and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 30 minutes.
10 - Preheat oven to 400ºF.
11 - Bake rolls for 15 to 20 minutes.
12 - Brush baked rolls with melted butter and enjoy!
