Salad Rolls
1 cup milk 1/2 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup luke warm water 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup melted butter 3 cups sifted Gold Medal flour 1 egg white beaten Scald the milk; when lukewarm add the dissolved yeast and one-half the flour. Stir and beat the mixture until very smooth, cover and let stand at a temperature of 84 degree Fahr. until light; add the beaten egg white, sugar, salt and melted butter; work in slowly balance of flour, turn the dough onto a moulding board, knead until smooth and elastic to the touch; cover and let rise to double the bulk, pull off bits of dough, fold and knead them into balls. As they are shaped, set them on a board lightly dredged with flour, cover closely and let rise. With the handle of a wooden spoon, bring down, nearly through the center of each ball as though to divide it, brush with melted butter one of the cleft sides and press the roll together. Place rolls on buttered pan, brush outside of each roll with butter, let rise. Bake for twenty minutes in a hot oven. When nearly baked glaze with white of egg.
A straightforward enriched yeast dough shaped as folded pocketbook rolls. The only real translation needed is the yeast and the oven.
- YeastHalf a compressed yeast cake is roughly 1 teaspoon of active dry or instant yeast. Dissolve it in the 1/4 cup warm water as written; the sponge stage still works exactly as described.
- "Hot oven"Bake at 425F for the stated twenty minutes. Rolls this small want high heat so the crust colours before the crumb dries out.
- 84 degrees for the spongeAny spot from 75 to 85F is fine; the sponge is ready when domed and visibly bubbling rather than at a set time.
- Scalded milkScalding was held to neutralise something heat-sensitive in raw milk that slackened dough; with pasteurised milk it is generally considered unnecessary, though warming it to lukewarm is still the point. Do not add yeast until it has cooled.
- FlourThree cups sifted is about 10 to 11 oz / 300 g. Hold back the last quarter cup and add only what the dough needs; enriched doughs should stay slightly tacky.
- The egg whiteOne white goes into the dough and another is wanted for the glaze near the end of baking. Reserve a second egg, or split one white between the two uses.
- The shaping hingeThe wooden-spoon crease must be pressed nearly through, and only one cut face buttered before folding. Butter both faces and the roll splits open in the oven; butter neither and it seals shut and loses the pocketbook shape.
- YieldAround a dozen rolls. They are best within hours of baking and reheat well the next day.
Folded rolls of this kind appeared in American cookbooks under a shelf of names -- pocketbook rolls, Parker House rolls, and here "salad rolls," presumably the small hot bread sent to table with a salad course. The Gold Medal Flour books were promotional publications from Washburn-Crosby, the Minneapolis milling firm that later became General Mills, and their function was to sell flour by teaching bread technique: hence the exact fermentation temperature, the sponge-and-dough method, and the brand name written into the ingredient list.