Pumpkin Shaped Bread Rolls
Crusty and fluffy rolls that are shaped like little pumpkins - perfect for Thanksgiving or any autumn occasion!
Ingredients
- 2 tsp instant yeast (2.25 tsp active dry yeast, 17.5g fresh yeast)
- 500 ml warm water
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 100 g whole wheat flour
- 500 g all-purpose or bread flour
Instructions
- Combine the yeast and the warm water in a large bowl. If using active dry or fresh yeast, add the sugar as well, then let the mixture sit for a bit (5-10 mins) until it starts to bubble up, then move on to step 2. If using instant yeast, you can move on to the next step without waiting.
- Add the sugar (unless you already added it to the active dry/fresh yeast), salt, whole wheat flour, and bread (or all-purpose) flour to the water and yeast mixture.
- Stir until you have a scraggly dough and have saturated most of the dry spots. If the dough is feeling wet at this point (if it saturated the flour quickly and is very sticky), be sure to add a few more tablespoons of flour! Alternatively, if the dough is very dry, add a tiny bit more water!
- Once the dough is ready, cover the bowl and let this rise somewhere warm for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, complete your first stretch-and-fold. Instead of kneading this bread, you are just going to do what is called a stretch-and-fold. Basically, with slightly damp hands (just run them under water briefly), you will pull up the dough by placing your hands under the left and right sides of the dough and stretching it up and out along the edge of the bowl farthest from you.
- Then, fold the dough over itself towards you, pressing it down towards the edge of the bowl closest to you. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees (either way), and repeat three more times, rotating each time (for a total of four folds). See this great blog post from The Clever Carrot for more help with this technique! Once you have completed this first set of stretching and folding, let the dough rise again (covered) for another 30 minutes.
- After the second 30 minutes, complete the second stretch and fold by repeating the same steps above. Let the dough rise again (covered) for 15 more minutes.
- While the dough rises, prepare the twine. Cut 3 12-inch pieces per roll (36 total), and soak them in some neutral oil.
- Now you are going to shape the rolls. Sprinkle some flour onto a countertop or work surface and tip out your dough onto the surface.
- Divide it into 12 equal pieces. You can use a scale to weigh the entire dough and then weigh each piece to get very even rolls, or you can just estimate.
- Lay out 3 pieces of twine so that they cross over each other and create 6 segments. Take a ball of dough and pull the sides into the middle gently, pinching them together. I like to pinch this seam together two to three times just to make sure I'm creating enough tension on the surface of the dough.
- Flip the roll over so the seam is facing down and place it on top of the arranged twine. Tie the 3 pieces of twine around the roll loosely, so that it holds its shape as a pumpkin, but the dough isn't constricted by the string (it will rise more and will expand in the oven too). Place this on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Repeat this with the other 11 pieces of dough. Cover with a towel or cling film and let them rise briefly while your oven preheats.
- Preheat your oven to 420 F (215 C) and place a metal or cast iron pan/tray on the bottom rack of the oven to heat up and start boiling some water (1-2 cups) in a kettle or on the stove.
- Once your oven is preheated, dust the tops of the rolls with some extra flour, using your hands to spread it evenly on the surface of the dough.
- Score each segment vertically with a bread lame, razor blade, sharp knife, or scissors.
- Place the tray in the oven, pouring the boiling water into the tray on the bottom of the oven. This creates steam to give the rolls a nice crust. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until nicely golden and hollow-sounding when you tap them.
- Let these cool until you can handle them, and then cut the twine to remove it. You'll be left with cute little pumpkin rolls!