I don't get a chance to get in the kitchen too much, but I enjoy it when I do. This year we are heading to my in-laws' house, so I wanted to bring something to contribute to the meal. I decided on doing James Beard's Parker House Rolls recipe.
It seemed like a pretty straightforward recipe for a beginner like myself. My understanding is that bread can be tough to do well; no matter how long you've been doing it, there's a lot that can go wrong. The proofing, the rising, the kneading, and the baking all have to come together in just the right way. The more I thought about it, the more I started to intimidate myself, so I thought it best to just took up my sleeves and get to it.
I realized after I was done that I forgot to take any pictures along the way. The process went pretty much like I expected, with no real surprises. I've seen enough baking shows to kind of know what things should look like. Per the instructions in the recipe, I mixed everything with a wooden spoon. Were I to do it over again, I would use the stand mixer with a dough hook. But for this first try, I wanted to do everything by the book.
After the 2nd rise, the dough punched down just about exactly right, but it was still a bit wet. I added a bit more flour, and it seemed just about perfect. It was elastic, it sprung back, and I could knead it pretty easily. I might have kneaded it a bit too much, because the 3rd rise, after I formed the rolls, didn't rise as much as I would have liked. I decided to deviate from the recipe a bit in the shaping, and instead of folding over the top, I took a cue from Bobby Flay's Parker House Rolls recipe and formed them into mini loaves.
In the end, this is what I got:
For my first time making bread I'm really pleased with how they turned out. My family all shared one to sample, and reviews were positive. They are a bit more dense than I would have liked, and I think they need more salt, but overall it's a good first effort.
