Sourdough Pull-apart Rolls…an Easy Tray Bread.

Pull-apart Rolls are a stepping stone to pizza dough. Properly balled pizza dough is one of the most important steps to having dough that is cooperative in the shaping process of the pizza when the time comes. Pull-aparts are great for family dinner because everyone can grab a couple of individual rolls. They are just fun. They are easy too. They are a tray bread. There is no special equipment needed. No proofing baskets or loaf pans. This is a simple bread variation that travels well. I have made Pull-apart Rolls while on vacation in Hawaii. Yes, I brought my Starter on vacation;) 

Here is a quick recap of where we are:

500g of Bread Flour (100%)

75% Water (500g x .75 = 375g Water) ***use whatever hydration you are comfortable with 65-75% is a good range.

20% Starter (500g x .20 = 100g Starter)

2% Salt (500g x .02 = 10g Salt)

Day 1

9:00pm Feed your Starter.

Day 2

7:00am-7:15am Mix and Measure the dough.

7:45am First Stretch/Fold then rest the dough for 30-45 minutes

8:15-8:30 Second Stretch/Fold then rest the dough for 30-45 minutes

9:00-9:10am Third Stretch/Fold then rest the dough for 30-45 minutes

9:45-10:00am Forth (Final) Stretch/Fold

12:00-1:00pm Bulk Fermentation (2-3 hours depending on your environment). The dough should 1.5x to 2x in volume before shaping.

12:00pm-1:00pm Portion and ball the dough. Organize the dough balls on the sheet tray in rows.

12:00pm or 1:00pm to 4:00 or 5:00pm Allow the dough balls to Final Proof. They will double in volume and expand into each other. 

4:00pm-5:00pm Preheat the oven to 425. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate 180 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes. Cool the tray on a rack for at least 1 hour before serving. 

Shaping

It doesn’t matter if you have done a single batch in a Tupperware or a double batch in a 8qt stainless steel bowl. However, if you made a 500g batch of dough it will produce 12 each 80g-ish dough balls. These will fit nicely on a half sheet tray. If you doubled up and did 1000g you will get 24 ea 80g dough balls and they will fit perfectly on a half sheet tray. 

Flour the surface of the dough with bread flour. This will be our presentation side of the dough, so do your best to keep this side smooth. Spread the flour over the smooth top of the dough and to the edges of where the dough meets the container. You are going to use gravity to remove the dough from the container. Ripping it out is not recommended, we are trying to keep that presentation side pretty even though we will divide the dough into many small balls.  You are trying to get it to come out with as little help as possible. We want to preserve the gasses that have developed in the dough.

Tip the container on a 45-degree angle-ish. You are going to unload the dough onto your work surface so the presentation side is down. Use a bowl scraper, or your fingertips, to help release the dough from one side and then as it starts to release you can give it a little more encouragement from your scraper/fingertips. Rotate the bowl/container as the dough begins to release on that side and work your way around until the dough plops out of the container onto your work surface. 

Now the side of your dough that was face up in the container is now face down on the work surface. The dough should be a similar shape to that of the bowl/container. The bottom side of the dough is now facing up and it should look sticky. Do Not flour this side. We need this stickiness to help shape the dough balls. We will use as little flour as possible to shape the dough. Too much flour and we won’t have any grip to roll the dough balls. 

Zero out your scale.

If it is a 500g batch of dough, you know we are going to get 12 portions. So, cut the dough into equal thirds and you will get four portions from each strip. Obviously this is just a guideline, but cutting into these strips will help preserve some of that smooth presentation-side that is face down right now. If you were to just start cutting portions away from the whole mass of dough you would end up making lots of adjustments to get the 80g portions. The fewer pieces that make up an 80g portion the better. This is not super important for our Pull-apart bread, but it is for pizza dough. This is just good practice. Cut away 80g portions as if you are trying to hit 80g on the dot in one shot with no adjustments. If you go over or under a couple of grams, don’t worry about it. As you portion them, move them out of your way on the work surface, but leave them with their smooth side down. 

Once you have weighed all of the dough out to 80g-ish portions, bring a portion in front of you. It should be smooth-side down. When I say smooth side, I know that they have been cut and portioned, but on that bottom side there should be some remaining smooth-side. There will be some rough corners. Bring the most obvious corner to the middle of the little dough ball. Gather another corner or edge to the middle. Bring all of the edges and corners to the middle and bundle them together like a little cloth sack. Pinch these corners and edges together. Flip the rough shaped dough ball over onto its seam-side down and set it aside on your work surface. Go through all of the portions and roughly bundle them into dough balls. 

After you have bundled the portions into roughly shaped dough balls, start with the first ones and begin to ball them tighter and build some tension.

To do this you will bring a dough ball in front of you. Keep it seam-side down. Cup your dominant hand around the ball. Use the pinky edge of your finger and hand to circle the ball in a counter-clockwise motion (right handed). You are keeping the half moon shape in your hand and moving the dough in a circular motion. As you make circles, stay in exactly one spot. Apply some gentle downward pressure. You are trying to get the dough to gather underneath the dough ball and bring tension into the surface. Be gentle. It will only take 7-10 circles to get it to tighten up. If you go too far, the surface will tear open. Avoid going to that extreme. We are just looking to build tension and seal the bottom. Once the portion is tightly ball, place it on a parchment lined sheet tray. Do the next ball and land it next to the one on the try. Let them touch each other, but don’t squish them together. They will naturally expand as they proof, but give them a little space. 

Final Proofing 

Once the dough balls are shaped and organized on the tray, all you need to do is wait for them to expand. They will double in size and they will expand to fill in all of the gaps between each ball of dough. This may take 2-4 hours depending on your environment. Cover the tray with the plastic lid that is designed to fit on it. The lid will keep moisture inside the tray and this humidity will help the rolls have a nice crisp crust once they are baked. Place the tray of dough on a kitchen towel to protect it from the cold countertop. 

Alternatively…

Place the sheet tray of shaped dough balls in an oven that is turned OFF, in the middle of the oven. Maybe put a piece of masking tape across the door handle and label it “Do Not Turn ON”, just in case. The oven is a safe place to Final Proof your dough, but it is also a great place to create warmth and humidity to accelerate the Final Proofing phase. This is a great strategy in the winter time when your kitchen might be running a bit cold. I recommend leaving the dough in the oven for 2 hours to see how it is behaving. If after 2 hours it looks like it has made little effort to expand do the following. Bring 1” of water to boil in an 8” sautee pan. Place the pan of water at the very bottom of the oven. Make sure that your dough is in the middle of the oven so it has some space from the steam coming up from the pan. Turn the oven light ‘On’. Close the door and give the dough an hour to see what it does. After an hour I usually turn the light ‘Off’. The oven light can create way more heat than you would think and it can make the oven too hot. An hour is usually enough for me. Depending on how the dough is looking, it may be ready to bake after an hour of steam and heat. If not, leave it for another hour. The oven will still be warm and humid. Once the dough balls have doubled and expanded into each other it is time to bake them. 

Baking

If you Final Proofed your dough in the oven, remove the tray of dough from the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, with the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Bake the rolls for 15 minutes. Rotate the tray 180 degrees and continue baking for another 15 minutes. Feel free to go a bit longer if you want more color. At this point they are done. If you have timed them to come out of the oven an hour before serving then they will still be warm when it is time for dinner and there is nothing more to do than land them on the table. 

If you are baking ahead of time you can leave them a bit blond and know that you can get more color on them when you toast them up before serving. See below for instruction to reheat/toast the rolls for dinner. 

Cooling 

There is just no way around this. THE BREAD MUST COOL FOR AT LEAST 1 HOUR prior to cutting into it or eating it. 2 HOURS would BE BETTER. It is tempting to rip off a corner roll that just came out of the oven. But, I promise you that if you get  into it while it is hot you will absolutely ruin it. When bread is hot out of the oven it is full of steam. That steam needs to dissipate through the crust. Ripping into a roll now will not only let out all of that moisture and dry it out, but it will not be as digestible when it is this hot. It will still be warm in an hour, probably even 2 hours out of the oven it will be warm inside. Be patient, it is part of the process, enjoy the anticipation. 

Reheating Pull-apart rolls

If you can time your pull-apart rolls to come out of the oven an hour before dinner go for it. But, if you need the oven space sooner than that for the meal you are making or your environment is warm enough to get your dough moving fast you will end up baking earlier in the day. This is fine. To reheat the Pull-apart Rolls for dinner, preheat the oven to 375. Place the tray in the middle of the oven and toast them for 10-15 minutes. You want them to gain a little bit more color; get a bit crisper; and be warmed through. This can be done last minute while you are assembling other components of the meal e.g. slicing some steaks or dressing a salad. Serve the Pull-apart Rolls fresh from the oven.