THESE ROLLS ROCK
Crust so crisp it practically shatters when you dig in
European-style dinner rolls are different from their rich, tender North American cousins.
The dough for these rustic rolls is lean and the crumb is open, with a yeasty, savoury flavour. But the best part might be their crust — so crisp it practically shatters when you bite into it, yet chewy enough to offer satisfying resistance.
It is this crust that keeps European-style dinner rolls in the domain of professionals, who use steam-injected ovens to expose the developing crust to moisture. We wanted a reliable recipe for rolls as good as any from a European bakery.
Unfortunately, when we tasted our first batch, we found a dense, bland crumb beneath a leathery crust.
The flavour was easy enough to improve: We added wholewheat flour for earthiness and honey for sweetness. Extra yeast opened the crumb slightly, but it wasn’t enough.
The crumb structure of artisan-style loaves is achieved with a wet dough, so we ultimately found success when we upped the hydration of our roll dough.
The water created steam during baking, opening up the crumb and making it airier.
For an ultracrisp crust, we came up with a two-step process that mimicked a steam-injected oven: First, we misted the rolls with water before starting them in a cake pan at a high temperature to help set their shape (since the dough was soft, individually baked rolls turned out squat).
Next, we lowered the temperature, pulled the rolls apart, and returned them to the oven on a baking sheet until they were golden on all sides.
We do not recommend mixing this dough by hand.