Hoagie Rolls

These rolls or bread make a total and complete sandwich for a barbeque. This is an adaptation and variation of the Bread Baker's Apprentice... written by Peter Rinehart... recipe for Italian bread. It’s a combination of the Italian bread recipe, which includes Paté Fermentée in lieu of the biga(*). It yields a delightful hoagie roll with a soft, golden topped crust. These rolls go very well with just about anything you want to put on them like roast beef, turkey, char-broiled Italian sausage, BLT, BBQ beef or pork, or ham and cheese.

Dough Ingredients by Volume:

2 ½ cups Unbleached, high gluten bread flour
1 2/3 tsp non-iodized salt
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp diastatic barley malt powder
1 TBS olive oil
7-8 Ounces milk
1 Egg yolk
8 Oz Pate fermentee
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting
Stick butter

Instructions:

Paté Fermentée should be at room temperature.

With a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast and barley malt powder in your largest mixer bowl. Add the olive oil, egg yolk, and milk. Mix until it forms a ball, adding flour and/or water according to need. Mix on medium speed with dough hooks until you get a dough that passes the ‘windowpane’ test, is slightly tacky and soft, but not too stiff. The dough should clear the sides and bottom of the bowl

Knead for 10-minutes on floured counter, or 6-minutes in mixer bowl with dough hooks. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Roll the dough in the bowl several times so it is coated with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it ferment/rise until double in size. Because of the small amount of yeast used, the rising will take about 3-4 hours. DO NOT increase the amount of yeast.

Once doubled in size, add the 8-Oz of Paté Fermentée. Knead the Paté Fermentée into the raised dough, adding flour as necessary to get a silky, yet fairly stiff, flexible dough. Lightly dust with flour and return to bowl and let rise to double once again. This rising should take no more than 45-minutes.

Divide into either four or six equal pieces, depending on how large you want the rolls. Let the pieces rest for 10 minutes. Roll and shape into hoagie shaped rolls - about 8” long by 4” wide by 3 inches thick (for 4-roll.) The roll ends should be blunted, not pointed so you have a rectangular shaped creation.

Place the shaped rolls on a sheet pan that is lined with parchment paper, lightly oiled, and dusted with semolina flour (preferred) or cornmeal. Spray tops of rolls lightly with olive oil. Cover loosely with dry waxed paper and let rise to one and one half the original size.

Turn on oven and set to 500F. making sure there is an empty steam pan in the oven. Score the rolls with two horizontal slashes. Pour several cups of water in the steam pan, and spray the walls of the oven with water. Place the rolls in the oven. After 30 seconds, spray the oven walls again and quickly close the oven door. Repeat spraying again after another 30 seconds. After the final spray, lower the oven temperature to 400, and rotate the pan 180 degrees. It should take about 15 - 20 minutes for rolls to complete baking.

When rolls are golden and cooked through, remove them from the oven to a cooling rack and rub the tops of the rolls with a stick of butter for a soft, golden crust.

Paté Fermentée(*)

Paté Fermentée translates into fermented bread. It is NOT a sourdough, but rather a process that many bakeries use for either French bread, or Italian bread. The Italian version is called biga, and another French version is called poolish. Each version is different in consistency and has different uses depending on what kind of bread you are making. Each one is a key in breadmaking; a little bit from each batch is held over to the next day to make another batch, etc. the following day. I might add, that a frozen then thawed batch of the Paté Fermentée seems to have better bread rising qualities than the original.

This recipe yields approximately 16 ounces. Use only 8 Ounces for the roll recipe, and freeze the remaining 8 ounces in an air-tight freezer bag. It will last about 3-months. Lightly oil the inside of the freezer bag before you put in the Paté Fermentée.

Paté Fermentée Ingredients

1 1/8 Cups of unbleached high gluten bread flour
1 1/8 Cups of All Purpose flour
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp instant yeast
6-7 ounces of bottled water at room temperature


With a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast in your largest mixer bowl. Add the water. Mix until it forms a course ball, adding flour and/or water according to need. Mix on medium speed with dough hooks until you get a dough that is neither too sticky nor too stiff.

Knead for 4 to 6 minutes by hand, or 4 minutes in the mixer with the dough hooks. Dough should be soft and pliable and tacky, but not sticky.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Roll the dough in the bowl several times so it is coated with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it ferment/rise until 1 ½ times the original size.

Remove the dough from the bowl, knead it lightly to de-gas, and return it to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in the refrigerator over night. You can keep this in the refrigerator for up to three days, or freeze in an airtight plastic bag for up to three months.

A P.S. here - always use bottled or spring water at room temperature. Chlorinated water and the yeasties don't always get along, and it can change the taste and texture of the bread.

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