Bread Machine (133 page)

SQUASH OR PUMPKIN CLOVERLEAF ROLLS
                  
Makes 16 cloverleaf dinner rolls

I
have a passion for the big, hard winter squash that comes in myriad sizes, shapes, and colors: the globular green buttercup, the pear-shaped tan butternut, the sugar pumpkin, bright orange turban, striped turban, bumpy acorn, or the dense oval Hubbard (which is sometimes substituted for pumpkin since it has a lower moisture content). Any variety of squash yields equally good results. If you are really in a hurry, you can certainly use canned pumpkin here with no loss of flavor. I give instructions for shaping each roll into a cloverleaf here, but you can use this dough to make any of the shapes described on
Technique: How to Shape and Bake Soft Dinner Rolls
.

1
¹
/
₂
- OR 2-POUND-LOAF MACHINES

1 winter squash (about 1
¹
/
₃
pounds), or 1 cup canned pumpkin puree

¹
/
₂
cup water

¹
/
₂
cup milk

¹
/
₃
cup butter, melted

4
¹
/
₂
cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

2 teaspoons salt

2
¹
/
₄
teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
³
/
₄
teaspoons bread machine yeast

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

If you are using winter squash, wash the squash and cut off the top with a sharp chef’s knife. Take care when cutting, because some varieties are very hard. Cut in half and scrape out the seeds and spongy fibers. Leave butternut squash or pumpkin in halves, or cut larger squash into large cubes leaving the skin intact. Place in a baking dish, flesh down, and add a half inch of water. Cover and bake for 1 to 1
¹
/
₂
hours, depending on the size of the pieces, or until the flesh is tender when pierced with a knife. Drain, cool, then scoop out the squash flesh and discard the skin. Puree the pulp until smooth in a food mill or food processor. You should have about 1 cup. Cool, cover, then refrigerate or freeze until needed. Warm slightly in the microwave before placing in the bread machine.

Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Program for the Dough cycle; press Start. (This recipe is not suitable for use with the Delay Timer.)

Grease 16 standard muffin cups (one full pan plus 4 cups in a second pan). When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, immediately remove the dough and place on a lightly floured work surface; divide into 4 equal portions. Divide each of those pieces into 4 equal portions. Divide each of the 16 portions into 3 portions and form these into small balls about the size of a walnut. You want them all about the same size; this is important or else the rolls will look funny after baking. Arrange 3 balls of dough touching each other in each of the muffin cups. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. Immediately remove the rolls from the pan. Let cool on racks or serve warm.

NOTE:

To prepare the rolls in advance and bake them later, brush the tops of the shaped dough with melted butter. Cover loosely with 2 layers of plastic wrap, leaving some room for expansion and taking care to tightly wrap all the edges. Immediately refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. When ready to bake, uncover and let stand at room temperature no more than 20 minutes. Bake as directed.

Technique: How to Shape and Bake Soft Dinner Rolls

Sure we love focaccia and fresh loaves of rustic bread for dinner. But American-style soft dinner rolls, shaped into a host of pretty, traditional shapes, never go out of style or favor. The bread machine makes the dough a snap. (You can even use a commercial bread machine mix if you like, but the rolls won’t be quite as good.) Piping hot with melted butter, dinner rolls need no embellishment. They are meant to melt in your mouth and to be a bit chewy at the same time. I was a lucky child—growing up, my mother kept all sorts of fancy dinner rolls in the freezer and brought some out every night for dinner. We had finger rolls with poppy seeds, crescent-shaped butterhorns, cloverleafs, or just plain round puffy rolls. I especially liked the fantans, which, like a deck of cards, could be pulled apart in tender stages.

Dinner roll dough is not the same as bread dough; it is a bit more delicate and soft. The doughs have butter or margarine, milk, and sometimes egg for richness. They don’t need to be worked hard like dough for a loaf, so dinner roll recipes call for all-purpose flour. Not as much gluten is needed. They have a fine crumb. While the hand shaping is not hard, there is a bit of precision involved or else they will look lopsided, even though little irregularities will disappear as the rolls puff in the oven. Look for the other dinner roll recipes in this book,
Virginia Light Rolls
, an all—white flour version, and
Soft Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
, for similar doughs that can also be baked in the beautiful shapes below. A basket of homemade dinner rolls with your lunch or supper of roast turkey, ham, pork loin, or chicken spells, well, you know, old-fashioned comfort and a grand day of baking.

Parker House Rolls

Makes 16 rolls