BREAD OF THE MONTH - FEBRUARY

I'm a member of a Facebook group, the Artisan Bread Bakers. Each month they post a recipe for the Bread of the Month. This month's bread is Breadrolls Hybride from Ralph Neiboer. 

Ingredients are: 

1000g Bread flour 
650 g water
22g salt
200g sourdough starter 100% hydration
10g fresh yeast 

For the sourdough starter I used 100g flour, 100g water and 10g Forkish levain. Overnight ferment in my Brod & Taylor proofing box at 78^oF. As I did not have fresh yeast I used 4g of instant yeast.

Dough with about 90% water added

The dough was first mixed in a mixer with a dough hook. Starting with 60% of the water the dough is then kneaded at a slow speed for 10 minutes while slowly adding the rest of the water in increments. The result is a fairly shaggy dough.

Next step was to mix at speed 1 on my Kenwood for 10 minutes or until the dough comes loose from the bowl. After about 8 minutes I stopped the mixer as I could smell the motor overheating!

Dough after final mix

I split the dough into two separate containers for the bulk ferment. One half will have olives, the other half will have dried tomatoes. The olives came from a jar, but the tomatoes are Roma from our garden, carefully oven dried. Two stretch and folds are called for during the bulk ferment of 2 hours.The olives and tomatoes went in with the second stretch and fold.

Here they are shaped and beginning the final rise.

Each roll weighs about 75g (3oz) and is shaped with pointy ends. Not so sure about my shaping but will see after the final rise of about 45 minutes.

Tops were slashed just before putting in the oven. Bake temperature was 475^oF for 5 minutes then reduced to 450^oF for the last 15 minutes. The recipe does not say anything about steam, so I sprayed the buns and put a handful of ice cubes in the dish at the bottom of the oven.

Here they are just out of the oven. Gave them an extra five minutes to try and get a better color. A little disappointed with the final color but good crumb and a nice crunch to the crust.

Finished rolls

Crumb