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Sweet French Rolls
1 cup milk 1 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water Flour 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 egg Yolk one egg 1/8 teaspoon mace 1/4 cup melted butter Scald milk; when lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake and one and one-half cups flour; beat well, cover, and let rise until light. Add sugar, salt, eggs well beaten, mace, and butter, and enough more flour to knead; knead, let rise again, shape, and bake same as Salad Rolls, or roll in a long strip to one-fourth inch in thickness, spread with butter, roll up like jelly roll, and cut in one-inch pieces. Place pieces in pan close together, flat side down. A few gratings from the rind of a lemon or one-half teaspoon lemon extract may be substituted in place of mace.
A rich, lightly spiced sweet dough of the sort American cookbooks of the early 1900s used for breakfast rolls. The ingredient list runs the eggs together: it calls for one whole egg plus the yolk of a second.
- Yeast cakeOne compressed yeast cake of the period equals roughly one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry or instant yeast. Dissolve active dry in the quarter cup of lukewarm water as written; instant can simply be stirred into the first addition of flour.
- Total flourThe recipe gives 1 1/2 cups for the sponge and then "enough more flour to knead." Expect 1 1/2 to 2 cups more, for 3 to 3 1/2 cups in all. This is an enriched dough and should stay soft and slightly tacky; adding flour until it feels like bread dough will make the rolls dry.
- Scalding the milkScalding was traditionally done to deal with components in raw milk thought to weaken gluten. With pasteurized milk it is generally treated as optional, but the milk should still be cooled to lukewarm (about 105F) before the yeast goes in; hot milk will kill the yeast.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given because the book expects you to look at Salad Rolls. Small enriched rolls bake well at 400F for 15 to 20 minutes, until deep gold; the sugar and butter mean they color faster than plain bread.
- MaceMace is the outer covering of the nutmeg seed, warmer and less sweet than nutmeg itself. Ground mace loses its perfume quickly, so buy it in small quantities. The lemon rind or extract given as an alternative is not a like-for-like substitute in flavor, only in role.
- The rolled-up versionRolling the dough thin, buttering, rolling like a jelly roll and cutting into one-inch pieces gives what would now be called a butter pinwheel or, with cinnamon sugar added, a rudimentary sweet roll. Set the pieces cut-side down and touching so they rise into each other and stay tender at the sides.
- Rising times"Until light" means roughly doubled: about an hour for the sponge and an hour to an hour and a half for the kneaded dough, longer in a cool kitchen. Shaped rolls need a further 30 to 45 minutes before baking.
- YieldAbout 18 to 24 rolls, depending on shaping. They are best the day they are baked and freeze well once cooled.