Hoagie rolls

[msmofet]

Originally Posted by Addie

On real Italian bread you should be able to knock on the crust and not have it break or crack. And the inside is soft for dippiing. Wiping up that gravy after all the pasta is gone. Dipping into a dish of olive oil with parm cheese. And Italians do not put butter on their bread.

Don't need to preach to me. I am Italian. LOL Mom would be at the door of the Italian bakery at 4 AM to get hot loaves right out of the ovens. YUMMY

[Addie]

Originally Posted by msmofet

Don't need to preach to me. I am Italian. LOL Mom would be at the door of the Italian bakery at 4 AM to get hot loaves right out of the ovens. YUMMY

Been there, done that with a clean dish towel to wrap the loaf in.

[msmofet]

Originally Posted by addie

been there, done that with a clean dish towel to wrap the loaf in.

yummy

[PrincessFiona60]

Originally Posted by msmofet

Don't need to preach to me. I am Italian. LOL Mom would be at the door of the Italian bakery at 4 AM to get hot loaves right out of the ovens. YUMMY

Originally Posted by Addie

Been there, done that with a clean dish towel to wrap the loaf in.

And to think...I used to be on the other side of that door to hand it off.

[Addie]

Originally Posted by PrincessFiona60

And to think...I used to be on the other side of that door to hand it off.

You silly girl. You have no idea what you were missing. If you can't be Italian, then live in an Italian neigborhood. Your equator would be twice as wide.

[PrincessFiona60]

Originally Posted by Addie

You silly girl. You have no idea what you were missing. If you can't be Italian, then live in an Italian neigborhood. Your equator would be twice as wide.

I loved working in the bakery. I ran the lunch counter, making scratch soups and Sandwiches with all that fresh bread. And all the customers coming in and being able to make their day with fresh pastries, breads and chocolates.

The baker was never able to teach me the art of cake decorating...

[Addie]

I am pastry bag impaired myself. I can frost a cake so pretty. But put the frosting in the pastry bag, and I can't do anything with it. Some day I need to bite the bullet and practice, practice, practice. I know what my hangup is, I just can't get past it.

[niquejim]

Originally Posted by HistoricFoodie

How slack is slack, niquejim? And what's your reasoning?

Baguettes typically run 80-83% moisture, which is, indeed, a very slack dough. Which is why they're done in those special pans; the dough is too slack to be free standing. Faccacia runs about the same, and I'd like to see anybody make a free-standing bread from a Faccacia dough.

I make some pretty good hoagie buns with the Pain de Campagn dough, which runs 63%. Generic "French" bread typically runs in the 65% area, and Italian is even stiffer, at only 57-59%. Both these dough types are used to make hoagie buns as well, by commercial bakers as well as those working at home. See, for instance, Addie's comments above.

Slack doughs are especially useful for breads that have a very open crumb, with large and small holes randomly occurring. That, along with the crust, is pretty much what defines baguettes. But hoagie buns are, at base, sandwich bread. And for those you want a tighter, more consistent crumb.

I would say, too, that great tasting bread is less a function of moisture content, per se, and more a result of using things like preferments and retarded fermentation.

I'm not saying that moisture levels are unimportant. But to state that you must have a very slack dough to produce great rolls overstates the case at best.

Well said. I guess I like my hoagie rolls to be more like demi-baggettes than soft hot dog buns. So you are correct that if you want a softer roll use less water and add a bit of sugar or oil (not much2-4%) if you want the rolls to be soft for more than 1 day.