Rye and Raisin Sandwich Rolls

These are a fairly quick recipe, made to be eaten the same day as they are started.  They are delicious! 

Rye and Raisin Roll Ingredients 
Have all ingredients at room temperature

1 ½ c. water

2 tbsp. molasses

1 level tbsp. yeast

3 c. bread flour

2 c. dark rye flour

1 ½ - 2 tsp. fennel or caraway (I prefer fennel)

1 tsp. salt with 1 stick unsalted butter (or no salt with 1 stick salted butter)

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

¾ c. raisins, preferably about half yellow and brown

½ c. additional bread flour for kneading at end and dusting pan.

Baking spray

Method:

Mix water, molasses and yeast together inside the bowl of a large electric mixer for convenience.  Proof about 10 minutes or so until yeast is clearly active.  Then slowly start adding other ingredients while mixing with dough hook on lowest speed.  When all ingredients are added, increase speed of dough hook and mix for five minutes more.  Dough will be wet and gloppy.  Remove dough hook.  Cover bowl with greased wax paper, not plastic wrap because dough will rise to top of bowl and stick to it!  

Let rise about 45 minutes.

Punch down, re-cover with wax paper and let rise another 45 minutes.

When the dough has again doubled in size, sprinkle about half a cup of bread flour on the counter and place the dough on the counter.  Knead it as best as you can, using a sharp spatula or a specialized French bread tool just for the purpose of scraping sticky dough up off a counter, to help you.  Give it a good 3-5 minutes effort, though.  It should start out nice and elastic right after you add the flour and end up a little stringy and sticky – about the opposite of what you would expect.  Do not add so much flour that you make the dough as dry as the counter!  Rye dough needs to be a little sticky or it becomes tough.

Grease pizza stones and sprinkle cornmeal on them.  By pizza stones, I mean the ceramic baking stones that are either round or rectangular and can be heated up to 500 degrees safely.  If you do not have these, baking sheets for cookies will do if they have more than one layer, generally.  The thin type baking sheet you find in the grocery stores tend to scorch.  Another idea is cast iron skillets, but you will need three of those!

Break the dough up into 12-16 even sized rolls depending on your use and try to spread them out so after they double in size they will almost touch.  Otherwise, they will not brown well.  Look at my picture – I have only one ceramic stone, so I crammed all my rolls onto it.  

In order to get a nice, crispy, crunchy crust on them, after 25 minutes, I had to take the three brownest ones out, spread the rest apart and put them back in!  It wasn’t a tragedy, no, but I could have saved myself the trouble with one more pan.

Note also that the rolls will be sticky and won’t make nice, even balls.  Don’t worry about it because they will rise and smooth out somewhat.  Just try to make them all about the same size so they will cook evenly.  If any of them happen to be larger, put them in the corners of the pan, which get hotter.  Put smaller ones in the middle, which will be cooler. 

Cover the rolls with more greased wax paper and let rise another 35 minutes or so.  Then turn the oven on to 400 degrees.   By the time the oven has preheated, the rolls should have doubled in size.  Remove the wax paper and place the pans of rolls in the oven.

Check rolls at 35 minutes.  They should nicely browned, with the outer ones heading towards darkness in the centers.  Pull the pan out of the oven and remove the rolls with a spatula.  Tap them on the bottom and see if they feel firm and crispy.  If so, place them on a rack to cool.  Do not open them up.  If the rolls are not crispy on the bottom, place them back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how undone they are. 

Let rolls cool at least 8 minutes to improve their texture before eating.  Allow any rolls that escape your appetite to cool thoroughly before storing in wax paper (secured with tape or rubber bands) or waxed paper bags rather than in plastic, which will ruin your crispy crust.

I took a bag of these on a trip with my mother to a week-long art class in Newport.  (Her art class.  I'm dog sitting and wandering on the beach.)  We arrived late after a three hour drive, tired and hungry.  We ate them with hummus, red pepper and eggplant dip and snow peas I brought from home.  In the morning we had to leave before the hotel's breakfast bar was open.  These rye rolls, delicious but filling, served us well, two meals in a row.

Hope you enjoy them, too.