Monday, February 23, 2015

Make Ahead Raspberry-Swirl Yeast Rolls


Does anyone else find that some magazines and cookbooks have recipes that work for you? Recipes that you know will work? Others, er, not so much? I won't mention those, I'll just say that there are some places offering recipes that sound wonderful but in the end, they just aren't my taste. One of my favorite sites is Food and Wine. And I can take it one step further. I find I gravitate to recipes by Chef Grace Parisi. I don't know her. Would walk by her on the street. But I love her recipes! Evidently she creates recipes for Food and Wine. What can I say? I'm a fan!

So when I saw that this interesting recipe that could be made ahead of time was the creation of Chef Grace Parisi, I knew it would be a winner. Until I started making it. When I mixed the dough, I almost added more flour. What a mess. That couldn't become a dough. Oy. Had I miscounted? Had I omitted flour?

Still, I had faith in my favorite chef. I forged ahead and let the mixer do the work. And sure enough, after ten minutes of mixing, a beautiful supple dough turned out of the mixing bowl. So, the moral of this story is don't panic when it doesn't look like dough right away. The mixer does the kneading (most of it) for you but it takes a while for it to come together.

I love the fact that this can be prepared a day ahead of time and served fresh from the oven to guests the next morning. A very Sophie Winston thing to do.

I love that it uses frozen raspberries, too. Some recipes along these lines use jam, but this is so easy and just as readily available in our freezers. Chef Parisi recommend using IQF. Do you know what that is? I didn't! It stands for "individually quick frozen." Instead of packing fruit into a big frozen clump, it's frozen as individual berries, then bagged. I had noticed that some fruit comes that way but didn't realize that I should be looking for it specifically. While the bag of organic raspberries I used didn't specify that it was IQF, I could tell that it was because each raspberry was intact by itself.

Now, when I made these, it was bitterly cold outside. Minus 100, I think. Ice was slamming against the windows. And everything that had been shoveled a couple of days before had refilled with snow. Which is a long way of saying that I was stuck with what I had in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. So I swapped vanilla for the lemon zest.

The other thing that was new to me was covering the rising dough with plastic wrap. I have always simply covered dough with a clean kitchen towel. I'm not sure that it made much difference, though plastic wrap would seem to hold in the warmth better. Because it was so cold and I was concerned about drafts, all the rising took place in an unheated oven in my kitchen.


Raspberry-Swirl Sweet Rolls
by Chef Grace Parisi



Dough

1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 stick unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (or 1 teaspoon of vanilla)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)

Filling

One 10-ounce package IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) raspberries, not thawed
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Glaze

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream

Heat one cup of milk to 95 degrees. Pour into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and yeast. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes until foamy. If it's very cold in your kitchen, let stand in an unheated oven or other warm spot.

Add the butter, eggs, lemon (or vanilla), and salt. Stir together. Add the flour and mix on low for three minutes. Turn the speed up to medium high and mix for 10 minutes. Turn the dough (scrape the sides, too) out onto a flour dusted board. Knead two to three times and shape into a ball. Grease a bowl with butter, add the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size.

Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper and allow the ends of the paper to stick out. Butter the parchment paper. Mix the raspberries with the sugar and cornstarch.  Roll the dough out into a 10-inch by 24-inch rectangle. (I cut the dough in half and made two 10-inch by 12-inch rectangles because 24 inches is really long.) Scatter the raspberries over the dough and roll into a tight log. Cut the log in quarters and slice each quarter into four pieces. (If you made two smaller logs, cut each in half and slice the halves into four pieces.) Place them in the baking dish. There's not a specific way to line them up and there will be extra room because they need to rise again.

Cover (I used a kitchen towel) and let rise for two hours. **At this point, you can refrigerate it (I covered mine with aluminum foil) and bake the next day.

Preheat the oven to 425. Bake about 25 minutes. The tops should be golden. Cool on a rack for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the glaze in a small bowl. You don't need a mixer for this. Just whisk the ingredients together. The recipe calls for turning the rolls out onto the rack, then turning them over onto a plate, which would be a very pretty presentation. I lifted them out of the pan with the ends of the parchment paper, which worked fine, too.

Using a spoon, dot the top with the glaze, then spread it over the rolls.

Don't panic when the dough looks like it won't work. Beat for 10 minutes!
It comes together into a lovely dough.

Mix the berries with the sugar and cornstarch.

Spread them over the dough.
Pop them into the prepared pan and let them rise again.
Make the glaze.
Spoon it onto the top after they bake.
Spread over the rolls.





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19 comments:

  1. Oh boy Krista--that is exactly what Sophie would have sitting around in her fridge! beautiful...I want one now....

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    1. It is the kind of thing Sophie would have on hand. Maybe I can come up with a Sophie version of it.

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  2. I love raspberries - seeds and all!!! Must make. I have been watching a British baking show on PBS and I want to try something challenging. I noticed from your pics that you used your mixing paddle rather than your kneading paddle. Did it still move through the dough easily?

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    1. You know, it wasn't until I took the dough out that I realized I should have used the dough hook. On of those "duh" moments. But it worked just fine. Hmm, you're looking for something challenging? I love making cakes with lots of steps. Well, when I have the time to do it!

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  3. Lovely. I imagine the lemon zest would add a nice counterpoint to the raspberries. But vanilla always works, doesn't it?
    And for those of us without a stand mixer, keep stirring and then knead it, using a bench scrapper (if you have one) to fold it over again and again.

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    1. I love vanilla. I always have to think of Granny (of the Beverly Hillbillies) dabbing it behind her ears as perfume! I'm surprised no one has made it into a perfume.

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  4. I used to make a dough recipe that I refrigerated and then baked fresh the next morning. I will have to try this. Yum!

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    1. Was it similar to this one or for something else, Elaine?

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    2. It's been so long I don't remember for sure. But it was a very good yeast dough and after I had the rolls all in pans, I covered the pans and put them in the refrigerator over night. I would get up at 5:30 and put them in the oven and smell the wonderful smell of them. Then my husband would take them to the office for his coworkers and I wouldn't be tempted to eat them all...

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  5. These look so delicious! I am going to try these for Easter breakfast instead of the usual coffee cake.

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  6. One of my "reliable sources" just went through a major editorial revamp, and I'm crossing my fingers that the recipes stay just as trustworthy. Glad to know of another good source. (I'm hungry and trying to not eat the screen!)

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    1. Uh oh. I hope it remains a favorite, Leslie. Food and Wine is fabulous.

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  7. That looks wonderful, Krista! Must try it soon. I'm also a big fan of Grace Parisi's recipes, so I'm sure if you liked it we will too!

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    1. Lynn, how interesting that you're a fan of Grace Parisi, too. I bet she doesn't even know that she has fans!

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