Red onion and green olive rolls

[Dan Lepard]

er........Dan, were the onions supposed to come out blue?

Tzinti.

Very good question , yes they turn blue, and I was so annoyed at the time I thought about changing it to white onions. But with the benefit of time I realized you just need to put a splash of vinegar in with the onions to set the colour. When you take the cooked flour mixture off the boil beat in a tablespoon vinegar (use a red one if you can, but it shouldn't matter). This should brighten the colour of the onions.

Dan

[iLikePie]

OK wow... these are really good!



I followed the instructions pretty much exactly (including adding the vinegar) but i used fresh yeast instead of instant - i used about 3.5 tsp yeast because i read somewhere you have to double it for fresh... the dough rose very quickly during bulk ferment, but didn't taste overly yeasty at the end.

My onions still turned a bit bluer, ended up a kind of purple color, but i didn't mind it at all.
Really good... they've been around for just over 24 hours and are still so fresh tasting. I will be making double or triple batches and freezing these i think!

I also think the dough is easier to work with than most other ones with more water in them. I have had limited success in the past with plain white breads, and especially rolls (think flat hockey pucks), but this was soft and delicious. I think it would work well for making savoury scrolls or filled breads.

so very good!

Is there anything I could do to get a slightly denser crumb with this recipe? increasing flour slightly? using a bit of wholemeal or rye?
the green olive toscano bread i mentioned a few posts ago is quite solid (though still moist) and i don't know how to manipulate a dough to have smaller holes, or a denser feel (which is funny because i'm always searching for a fluffier, lighter bread when doing plain white loaves!!).

[Dan Lepard]

ilikepie, they look excellent. And "red" red onion too. Try reducing the yeast to begin with to 1 tsp, that will firm them up. Reduce the water to 325ml will make the dough tighter and that will make for a dense crumb.
Dan

[sakkarin]

They look very good, ILikePie, but completely different to mine!

If you're looking for a denser texture, I would suspect halfway in between the two.... but then as we both followed the same recipe in the first place, I've no idea what that would entail!

[iLikePie]

yeah, yours looked a bit more like what i was hoping for (and therefore expecting after seeing yours).

I'm not too fussed because they were still delicious and i am definitely making them again ,but i will try the suggestions from Dan and post back about what happened.

I wonder if the vinegar does anything for the texture apart from making the onions stay red.

[sakkarin]

I don't know if it has a bearing on it, I really cooked the onions thoroughly first - so even before I made the "sauce", they looked more cooked than yours do... and then I really cooked the sauce out too, so I ended up with a white sauce that you could have served as a sauce... the floppiness of the onions worried me, they almost disappeared in the bread by the time it was cooked, but they suited the texture of the bread.

I guess truth is anybody would be pleased to be served either roll, they both look tasty!

[bethesdabakers]

Been meaning to give this a try for weeks because it sounded so good.

Rendered into sourdough so it goes:

Strong White 440g 100%
Water 290g 66%
Starter 120g 27.3%
Salt 7g 1.6%
Butter 50g 11.4%
Red Onions 200g 45.5%
Green Olives 100g 22.7%

40g of the flour goes into the onions with the water.

Did it as little baguettes scaled at just over 200g:



Was even better than I anticipated. I can’t really describe the texture of the crust – it was crisp but soft – granular is the only word that comes to mind.

Lovely stuff, Dan.

Mick

[iLikePie]

Mick, those look great!! I can't quite imagine how I would eat it as a baguette but I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult with just a bit of dipping oil

Alrighty, round 2 from me!
(although, it's quite a diversion from the original...)

When i made the original recipe, I was especially impressed with the texture of the dough and its lastability, and thought it would work well as savoury scrolls. So today I decided to give that a go...

I mixed up a batch of the dough without the onion or olive (but still doing the boiled 'roux') and instead of shaping into rolls, i spread it out thinly and made two varieties : cheese & relish/chutney (my mum's relish, delicious!), and the other type was green pesto, fresh basil, parmesan and sundried tomatoes.

Both turned out well, i like the relish ones better but the other is good too, would work well with some spinach and feta i think, and needed a bit more salt with the pesto.

The dough was still great to work with. I think i accidentally reduced the water a little, it felt firmer at first.

[Akiko]

Hello,

I tried this recipe, and loved it, so did my husband.
It is amazing that this cream source (as I'd call it) makes bread so moist.

And iLikePie's arrenge looks delicious. Yes, I can imagine the texture of the bread is suitable filling like this,
since I like vegetable filling rather than something sweet.

I was also stunned to see Mick's Baguette shape of this dough.
But I like the idea.

Akiko

[Jacqueline]

Those scrolls look fantastic. I'm going to have to try a vegemite and cheese version!