Friday, May 13, 2011

Tapenade Fan Rolls


I ordered this cool cutting board here after hearing about it from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen

Bread-baking bears more than a passing resemblance to magic. I never tire of watching the yeast in action as it enlivens the dough - no matter how many times I've seen it I'm always a little surprised at the sight of the dough rising. Then there's the little miracle when just a few twists, turns, or cuts in the bread dough produce an amazingly beautiful loaf or roll.

Rolls are particularly rewarding. I've enjoyed making knots and twists and ovals, and really wanted to try my hand at fantail rolls. I chose Dan Lepard's Tapenade Fan Rolls.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find Dan Lepard's recipe for these rolls here.

- The recipe gives directions for homemade olive tapenade (not very difficult really) but I had a jar of prepared tapenade in my cupboard, so I went ahead and used it.

- Fantail rolls look really festive, but are surprisingly easy to make. It's just a question of rolling your dough in a square, cutting it into 3 rectangles, layering them with tapenade then cutting logs of the layers, pressing them in the center with a pencil or a chopstick, and putting each roll into the well of a muffin tin. Using silicone muffin pans ensured that I didn't need to worry about the rolls sticking to the pan. I knew that they'd release perfectly after their time in the oven.



the verdict:

These tender flavorful rolls are a perfect dinner accompaniment. The savory tapenade taste was quite pronounced, so if you are a fan of tapenade and you think you'd like rolls with tapenade, you will love these. If they don't sound good to you, you'll probably not like them! I served the tapenade rolls alongside some plain dinner rolls made from Dan Lepard's Simple Milk Loaf recipe, so diners had a choice of plain or fancy.

Because of its distinctive olive flavor, this is not a roll I'd want to eat every day. But I loved the method of making fantail rolls and would like to try it with other flavorings, like pesto, or Parmesan cheese, or even plain old rolls.

I'm submitting these rolls to Yeastspotting, a weekly roundup of all things bready.