Onion rolls

Toast
sam on 19 Dec 2012 at 17:27

Hello,

I decided to try making onion rolls, and of course the first thing I usually do when trying something new, is search TFL.   This isn't an exact replica but there are several wonderful onion roll recipes and ideas here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/normsonionrolls

All the flour I used was king arthur high gluten flour.  I did not have any malt syrup, I only had diatastic malt powder, so I used that instead.  I paid attention to the recommendation by others to re-use the infused onion water in the final dough.  I soaked the dried minced onions with an assortment of various types of seeds which I got from king arthur as well.  It has flax, toasted sesame, black caraway, midget sunflower, poppy, and anise.

Poolish:

Flour Weight: 177 grams
Water Weight: 177 grams
Yeast Weight: 0.35 grams

Final Dough:

All Poolish
Flour Weight: 529 grams
Water Weight: 273 grams (use the leftover onion-infused water)
Eggs Weight: 35 grams
Sugar Weight: 35 grams
Vegetable Oil Weight: 35 grams
Salt Weight: 14 grams
Malt Powder Weight: 7 grams (I only had diatastic malt on hand)
Yeast Weight: 14 grams

Procedure:

The night before the bake, mix poolish, and soak the dried minced onions + seed mixture.

Next morning, when the poolish is ripened,  drain the excess water from the onion-seed mixture but save the water and use it for the final dough.  

Bulk ferment 2 hrs, with stretch + fold half-way through.

Shape into little balls scaled to appx 100 grams. Let rest a few minutes to relax. To apply the onion-seed mixture, I used a flat clear pyrex plate, and smushed the balls flat into the mixture using the plate.  Using a hard surface to mush the balls into the onion mixture seemed to be effective because you can apply an even solid force.  You may need to grease the plate a bit.  Flip over the dough discs and place onto baking tray or bun-pan.

Bake with steam at 400F for 30 mins or until done.

Pictures:

First, the onion-seed mixture after being rehydrated.  Looks kinda like white rice.

 

 

Next, the flattened discs just at the beginning of the final ferment.  I decided to use my burger bun pans:

 

After a while of final fermenting, I had thought these were fully proved and ready to bake:

 

But I was wrong, as they did increase in size fairly well in the oven.  I guess I was too impatient.  No blowouts though.  

 

 

Happy baking!

 

caught them at exactly the right time to get a fine oven spring and have a rich brown color too.  They have to taste great! 

Nice baking!

Thanks dabrownman.   If you like I can take a crumb shot, but it is the typical soft bread roll type of crumb -- light and fluffy, but with the extra gluten of the high-gluten flour, there is a nice chew as well.  I think these will hold up well with a juicy burger without getting soggy.

As for taste -- omg -- clearly these are the best onion rolls I've ever had (not trying to sound arrogant or anything).  I credit the formulas on the Onion Roll thread, and particularly the recommendation for re-using the extra onion water in the final dough.  I think it really brings it up a level.  Many Thanks to everyone on the Onion TFL thread.   Really great stuff.

look awesome.   I'd like one with a burger please. 

I clicked through to your blog and just happened to find what I have been looking for - a 100% whole wheat sandwich bread which I'll try myself and then pass on to a friend who asked me to find her a recipe.  

Nice baking.  -Varda

Long time, thanks.  I've been lurking mostly for a few months but have seen some of your incredible breads you've posted.   

Do you mean my old post about 100% whole wheat from July 12, 2011?   I cringe sometimes looking back on some of my older posts. :)   That is ancient history!   Not to say I am any better now, but these days I would do a 100% whole wheat (for sandwiches) a lot differently than I did back then.   Mainly increasing the hydration, and using milk and butter too.  Especially if I was using a sandwich-pan, I would load up the hydration as much as possible.

For today's onion rolls, I targeted the hydration to be around 70%.  Just a bit on the sticky side (for white flour), intentionally because I wanted the dough balls to get a nice good stick with the onion-seed mix.  In the formula, I counted the hydration of the vegetable oil as 50% water.   I know some people don't count oils as a hydrating agent, and some people do.  I never baked with vegetable oil before, so for my first attempt I estimated it at 50%.   The dough came out perfectly actually -- workable with a minimal amount of bench flour and sticky enough to get a good bind on the topping.  Next time I may take some of the onion-seed mixture and add it to the dough itself instead of just a topping.

Thanks again.

Your March 25, 2012 post.   It does use milk and butter.   You were making rolls.    I was looking for 100% whole wheat and tasty bread for a friend who is good around the kitchen but not a big bread baker.   Yours looks great.    I must try your onion rolls as well!  -Varda

The first photo of the onions that looked like white rice came through and the rest of the pictures only showed an icon of a picture which was fractured...no photo