These rolls make a beautiful compliment to anyone's Thanksgiving table. If timed properly, these can be baked right when the turkey is about to come out of the oven to provide a wonderful accent to the meal.
This recipe is inspired by the Buttermilk Cluster recipe in Country Breads of the World. I made a few minor modifications, such as including a little bit of honey, but in general it is the same thing.
Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Combine the warm water and yeast in a small cup and allow to proof for 10 minutes.
Pour the yeast, buttermilk, and honey into the flour mixture and mix well. If the dough is so dry that some of the flour won't stick, add a bit more buttermilk or water. If the dough is too sticky to knead, more like a batter, add more flour by the tablespoon until the correct consistency is achieved.
Knead by machine or hand for approximately 10 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp cloth, and set aside to rise until the dough has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
Divide the dough into 12 to 18 pieces. If you are a stickler you can scale them so that they are even, but I just cut them roughly the same size. Shape each piece into a neat ball and place in a round dish or spring-form pan close together.
When all of the rolls are in the pan, cover again with plastic or a damp towel and set aside to rise again for 45 minutes to an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425.
Uncover the rolls and brush gently with the egg wash. Sprinkle on the grain topping, if you like. I used cracked wheat.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the rolls are firm and spring back when tapped.
Unmold the rolls from the pan and serve warm.
This recipe is inspired by the Buttermilk Cluster recipe in Country Breads of the World. I made a few minor modifications, such as including a little bit of honey, but in general it is the same thing.
Buttermilk Cluster
Makes 12 to 18 rolls, depending on size
6 to 6 1/2 cups (750 grams) bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 envelope (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry or instant yeast, or 1 15 gram cake fresh yeast
1 tablespoon warm water
1 3/4 to 2 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon honey
Glaze:
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water
Topping:
1-2 tablespoons seeds (poppy, sesame) or grains (cracked wheat, rolled oats)
Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Combine the warm water and yeast in a small cup and allow to proof for 10 minutes.
Pour the yeast, buttermilk, and honey into the flour mixture and mix well. If the dough is so dry that some of the flour won't stick, add a bit more buttermilk or water. If the dough is too sticky to knead, more like a batter, add more flour by the tablespoon until the correct consistency is achieved.
Knead by machine or hand for approximately 10 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp cloth, and set aside to rise until the dough has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
Divide the dough into 12 to 18 pieces. If you are a stickler you can scale them so that they are even, but I just cut them roughly the same size. Shape each piece into a neat ball and place in a round dish or spring-form pan close together.
When all of the rolls are in the pan, cover again with plastic or a damp towel and set aside to rise again for 45 minutes to an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425.
Uncover the rolls and brush gently with the egg wash. Sprinkle on the grain topping, if you like. I used cracked wheat.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the rolls are firm and spring back when tapped.
Unmold the rolls from the pan and serve warm.
Comments
A few other folks have made similar remarks and it kind of leaves me scratching my head. What are you expecting it to taste like? Isn't plain old buttermilk bread always pretty... plain?
This merits of this one is that it makes an eye catching loaf that is great for mopping up cranberries or gravy and it is dead simple to make, but I'd never tout it as one of the more delicious breads on the site. But if you used it as a base and subbed in some whole wheat flour or mixed in some seeds or herbs or grains? I bet you could come up with something more interesting.
Happy baking!
Floyd
But I was thinking that it was time to make something with a good gravy...
I'm also thinking that just a teeny bit more salt would do the trick, or heck -- a whole lot of butter!
Absolutely, you could enrich it or sweeten it to come up with something a lot more flavourful.
I and probably many others made this for Thanksgiving this year. I also brought a couple pain au levain. Everyone made a beeline for the buttermilk rolls and skipped the bread. It was just exactly the right thing. It's not like turkey is the most flavorful meat in the world either, but yet you have to have it. So of course I appreciate you having posted this and also put it on the front page just in time for T-day. -Varda
Replaced the yeast in this recipe with one cup of sourdough starter and utilized the basic substitution process (added 2/3 of the amount of flour called for, then the liquid). Let it sit overnight; added the rest of the flour, honey, salt, etc; kneaded it into a ball and let it rise for about 6 hours the next day. The crumb was beautiful and shreddable and soft -- a real testament to the sometimes unorthodox sourdough substitution! It was a show stopper at my dinner party the next day. Thanks again.
we absolutely loved it!
and it baked with no problems in my small Breville oven...
I include a photo here, and for those interested in the full blog entry, here it is
http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2011/05/24/buttermilk-cluster/
I tried this, starting the process the day before yesterday and leaving the dough to rise in the fridge overnight. I went to bed late and got up early (only about 6 hours sleep - poor me!) and was amused to find the rampant dough making a bid for freedom over all sides of the large bowl it had barely half filled the night before. Still, I punched it down, kneeded for a second time and made my small rolls. I found I had to work quickly because they were not keeping their round shape while I was rolling the next, flattening slightly before my eyes. I only have a large flat sheet or two 8" loaf tins to chooses from, so I made two loaves out of a collection of small rolls, hoping to still get that lovely look on top. Using a sharp knife to slice of pieces I was delighted to see large irregular bubbles forming, and I tried to handle as little as possible. The first tin I used what I felt was just enough dough, then used the remainder in the second tin, which turned out to be a little over half. I skipped the egg wash... I'm sure I'm being silly but I always feel it's a waste of an egg. I usually use water, butter or a little olive oil... this time I went for the olive oil.
Then I had to go to work, so I popped them back in the fridge and left the house for another 6 hours before heading back to work from home. I found that the first loaf had risen nicely to fill the loaf tin, and the second (of course) had begun to ooze over the sides. I baked them anyway, allowing them to come to room temperature first.
I didn't get much spring, if any at all. I'm yet to discover where I'm going wrong with this as I don't think I've ever achieved it. Perhaps it's my oven. More likely it's my method.
The bread had a lovely flavour and texture, though it was a little denser than I had hoped. The crusts were great all round, and of course the monster second loaf was gripping the edge of it's tin with it's bulging crust. Slicing this one I find I have a brilliant mushroom shaped slice!
So, I still have the same old problems I always have; sticky dough (whatever recipe I follow I find the dough incredibly sticky to work with, and end up adding an enormous amount of flour during the kneeding process) and little or no spring. Are these related perhaps? If I can find a way to work with my dough without adding so much flour perhaps my bread will be lighter?
Finally, my fussy eating boyfriend loves this bread more than my last. Result. Thanks Floyd!
Not too shabby at all. Good idea to use the cast-iron pan!
-Elizabeth
Floyd, I had looked at these rolls with yearning for so long that I knew this year I was going to make them for Thanksgiving. I didn't read all the comments until I had already made my discovery that the dough was too dry. Thank you, LyndonDimont for the weight recipe!
Luckily, I am a very experienced baker, because here in DRY New Mexico, I knew to add a good deal more than an extra cup of buttermilk to 4 cups bread flour with 2 WW. The dough looks right now after kneading, which is smooth and soft.
Thank you, Floyd, for posting the recipe, and thanks to all who joined in about their experiences!
Patricia
I made these today, and they were delicious! Since my dutch oven is large enough to hold a 12" springform pan, I preheated it and started them under the lid. 15 minutes covered, and then 20 more uncovered, and they were beautifully springy with a tender crumb and a crust that was thin and light. Excellent! Will be made again for Christmas, even if it means taking my springform pan in my luggage. (Dutch oven will not be traveling with me, of course!)
These worked wonderfully for my contribution to the table on Thanksgiving. I doubled the recipe and it worked out terrifically. I would have taken pictures but I was too slow. Tasty and really easy to get together. I loved working with this dough. Thanks and I hope your Thanksgiving was as good as mine.
This looks awesome! I gotta try this one...Can I substitute regular milk for Buttermilk? Will it make a difference?
Just made this bad boy. We're having it for dinner with some fried chicken.
I have 2 toddlers so it's impossible to knead bread with them around. I threw all the ingredients into the breadmaker. And I had to use buttermilk substitute since it would've only been used for this bread. I had to add about 7tbsp of water while the machine was mixing the ingredients because of how dry the mix was.
It came out beautifully and I baked it for about 25mins. It sprung back but also it was turning too dark.
Had it for dinner and the kids inhaled it. It was great tasting but rather dense. We didn't have it warm since I had to make it around the morning and it was done by noon but maybe that affected the texture? What else could be done to make it less dense are very VERY light & fluffy.
Either way, I wanted it warm so I zapped a bun pull for 10-15 secs. and it was a big less hard and warm. Thanks for the recipe!
Please excuse the lateness of the reply. My guess is that your bread dough needed more liquid. Or less flour.
I'm not at all familiar with mixing dough in a bread machine (I make all our bread by hand) but I see from my notes about when I first made the buttermilk cluster using this recipe, I had to add a lot more water and buttermilk. SAVEUR magazine's kitchen featured this recipe in their magazine and they called for 5 cups of flour rather than the 6 – 6½ cups in the recipe here.
I used the full amount of flour and added about 1/2 cup more liquid to get lovely fluffy bread.
-Elizabeth
Had 1 cup of buttermilk to use up so halved this recipe. The dough was a heavy mass and having no more buttermilk to add in I added a 1/4 cup of sourdough starter. The rise was beautiful and the response was they were excellent. The question I have is was it o.k. to add the starter? Should I have substituted something else?
Especially considering the feedback you received. Just about any other water-based liquid could also have been used, whether milk or cream or almond/soy/rice milks or water or whey or ... Every one of those will have slightly different effects on the dough and the finished rolls but any of them would serve to add some more moisture to the dough when required. What none of them can do is add more leavening, which you got with the starter.
Good improvisation!
Paul
I was concerned I'd added to much leavening. I had the sourdough starter out to make some pizza dough so it was just handy to add. Again thank you for your response. I think I'll make the starter a permanent addition.
I made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner and just changed one thing - added 2 TBSP of butter. They were light and fluffy and delicious! Sorry I don't have pics but we ate them all! I placed the rolls in a 9 x 13 pan and made 15 rolls (3 across 5 down the sides of a buttered glass pan. Since I was using a glass baking dish I reduced the baking temperature by 25F and they were done exactly at the 30 minute mark. Excellent rolls that reminded my friend, Carol, of the ones her mom used to make. Thanks for the recipe.
Linda
I didn't make this recipe as written so I can't comment meaningfully on that, but just based on intuition and experience I added 4 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. sugar, and 1 tbsp. honey (2 total), and used the equivalent of two packages of yeast instead of one (1 1/2 tbsp.) to compensate for the extra sugar and fat. I used the egg wash to adhere seeds, then brushed with melted butter right out of the oven, and I lowered the baking temperature to 375 F, 425 is way too hot for dough with this level of enrichment. For me personally, I don't really agree with the set amount of flour and adjust the liquid philosophy with yeast breads (although it's fine for scones); I used the specified amount of liquid and then added as much flour as needed, which turned out to be about 4 cups. I did a 4x3 batch bake on a 1/2 sheet pan because I wanted something to use as burger buns for a barbecue, which worked really well, instead of a true "cluster".
I've been volunteered to make TG pies AND rolls! In the interest of streamlining preparation, has anyone made these delicious rolls bulk retarding the dough overnight rather than retarding the shaped rolls?
It is a totally delicious recipe and everyone loves them. Patsy