Best bread for steak sandwich

Hi, Sally.

You are in the right place. :-)

What do you want the steak sandwich roll to do? If you want it to absorb lots of juice and get a soggy crumb, ciabatta would be great. If you serve ciabatta right after baking or re-freshing in the oven, the crust will be crisp, otherwise it will be soft.

If you want a denser crumb that will absorb some juice but remain firm and have a crunchier crust, I would recommend the onion rolls I just made from Norm's (nbicomputers) recipe. Here is Eric's (ehanner) write up, which has good step-by-step instructions:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8903/norm039s-ny-style-onion-rollsomg-great

Please note that the onion roll dough is also used for Kaiser Rolls. See my recent blog entry:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/9021/norm039s-onion-rolls-amp-no-extra-charge-kaiser-rolls

Greenstein, in "Secrets of a Jewish Baker" recommends the same dough be used for hamburger buns. In fact, you could follow Eric's instructions and substitute any topping you please for the onion mixture, for example, sesame seeds. You could also shape the pieces into long rolls rather than round ones, depending on the shape of the steak portions you want to sandwich.

I used the Kaiser Rolls as hamburger buns for last night's dinner. My wife, who loves hamburgers but hates soggy buns, thought she was in heaven. I'm pretty sure we will never be buying sandwich rolls again.

Happy baking!

David