SOS bread making specialists... a novice Q

[urmaniac13]

I have always made our breads on our electric breadmaker, but I was feeling a little adventurous, as we have a potent new oven now I decided to do some rolls manually yesterday, well, with a help of the electric mixer/kneader.
The result was quite impressive, looked great as shown below, and tasted very nice as well.



However, the only hic up was the forming of the yeast dough. The recipe said to form a croissant like shape, there were also pictures of a smiling chef stretching and shaping the dough into a perfect triangle, then neatly rolling them with perfect ease.
In reality I was faced with a wayward dough flatly refusing to make a nice triangle shape, whatever I would do it would reform itself to something else right away
In the end I resorted to make small balls with a X slit at the top, more classic shape. The result was just as good so it shouldn't be such a huge deal but it was rather annoying not being able to make some nice interesting shapes out of a bouncy yeast dough.
So, I would like to ask some of you with bread making experience, is there a certain technique in forming a yeast dough into certain shapes? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Lizannd]

stretch partially and let rest 5 minutes then stretch the rest of the way.

[Fisher's Mom]

Absolutely gorgeous, maniac!!! I swear, I can almost smell them.

[ChefJune]

Those rolls look delicious. I wouldn't worry about crescents!

For Crescents, you will need to rest your dough, and then roll it out into a large circle -- probably after dividing into at least two portions. After you have rolled out the large circle, then you can cut it into sections like a pie, brush them with butter (or whatever you want to roll up inside) and roll up your triangles, from large end in. That's the way I first learned to make dinner rolls when I was barely tall enough to reach the table.

[sparrowgrass]

Stretching the dough, letting it rest for a few minutes, and then stretching it again will really help with making pretty shapes, like Lizann said.

You can make ropes, too, and knot them or braid them for pretty.

[urmaniac13]

Thanks peeps for the advice as well as compliments!!
Sounds like a wee more patience is the way to go... I will try flattening out in circles as Chefjune suggested next time... also would like to try the knots too that looks lovely too!!

They came out actually even better than the breads out of the machine, so I think I will be doing this many times over when I have a full afternoon at my disposal!!

[VeraBlue]

Originally Posted by ChefJune

Those rolls look delicious. I wouldn't worry about crescents!

For Crescents, you will need to rest your dough, and then roll it out into a large circle -- probably after dividing into at least two portions. After you have rolled out the large circle, then you can cut it into sections like a pie, brush them with butter (or whatever you want to roll up inside) and roll up your triangles, from large end in. That's the way I first learned to make dinner rolls when I was barely tall enough to reach the table.

Yeah, what she said...

[bethzaring]

nice job licia

good advice on the resting suggestion. Also, I use a baker's bench knife to cut the dough into the individual roll shapes. I have hand problems and use the bench knife to expediate the roll making process