This morning’s Pain Au Chocolat required a couple of hours in the fridge before baking. We needed another batch of hoagie, or sub or grinder rolls after finishing what we had with steak sandwiches last night, and I had time. I also had time for another loaf of honey white bread. Busy morning!!

These are outstanding rolls and I am lucky to have stumbled across the recipe a month or so ago. I wrapped them for freezing before taking a picture so decided to photograph them as wrapped for the freezer. I double wrap them, then give them a couple of hours to thaw before using. After a month, or more, in the freezer, after thawing, they are as fresh as just baked.

Hoagie Rolls

INGREDIENTS
• 448-512g (3½ – 4) c. bread flour
• 308-355 g (1¼ cups plus 2 Tbl – 1½ c.) warm water (110-115F
degrees)
• 2 Tbl sugar
• 2¼ tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 4 Tbl cold butter, cubed
METHOD

1. Using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix 2 cups of flour, water, sugar, and instant yeast on low for 4 minutes.
2. Add the salt and 1 cup at a time of the remaining flour and mix for 5-6 minutes until the dough is slack. (Slack dough is fluid but not liquid. Poured onto a board it could not be shaped. It would flow and not hold a shape.)
3. At this point, your mixer should be at medium speed. If your dough, after 5-6 minutes is not slack add in a bit more water (2-4 Tbl). The additional water will fully depend on how humidyour room is.
4. Add the butter 1 Tbl at a time and mix until almost fully blended before adding the next Tbl. In total, mix for 1-3 minutes or until the dough comes back together. Remove from bowl and transfer to a greased, covered bowl until doubled in size. ~1 hour.
5. Punch the dough down and place on a very lightly floured board. Divide into 4-8 pieces and shape. I would advise using as little flour as possible when shaping these. The more flour you add, the tougher the hoagies will be. (Hoagie rolls: 125 g, Hamburger rolls: 75g)
6. When you divide the dough, with your fingers, gently pat into a 4:3 rectangle where the dough is about 1/4″ thick.
7. Envelope fold the short end of the rectangle towards the center and press gently to seal.
8. Rotate the dough 180 degrees and repeat the above folding using your hand to seal the dough.
9. The dough should be shaped like a log/snake. Gently cup your hand over the center of the dough and, without applying pressure/pressing down, gently roll the dough back and forth to reinforce the seal and roll it out into a log.
10. Carefully pull the ends of the log outwards to stretch out dough (just an inch or so – again dependent on how long you want your rolls).
11. To help round out the ends, cup each hand at the end of the roll and move them in opposite directions with a back and forth motion to roll the ends and then tuck underneath the roll.
12. Transfer to a parchment lined tray and cover with lightly sprayed plastic wrap. Allow to rise again until almost doubled. ~30-45 minutes. Do NOT overproof them otherwise they will fall flat.
13. Preheat oven to 375 F. If you want to slash your bread, using a lame, make your slashes. If desired, brush with coating of choice and bake for 16-23 minutes or until golden brown. To ensure doneness, test the internal bread temp. It should be at 200F.