Home › Recipes › Albany Rolls. Vienna Rolls. Delavan Rolls
Albany Rolls. Vienna Rolls. Delavan Rolls
Make good roll dough with the finest flour and knead it well in layers as already directed for other varieties.
The milk bread dough is understood to be the proper article, but the hotels where milk can be had for bread-making must be very few, and no person not otherwise informed can tell the difference betwixt that and our French roll dough. 1. Mould out little balls as for split rolls. 2. Roll these out in shape of plates, and very thin. 3. Fold these by bringing over two opposite edges and making them meet in the middle, and then bring over the other two edges likewise, making a square piece of folded dough. 4. Roll this out a little flatter, brush over with melted butter or lard, and fold over like other split rolls. They are square ended instead of half moon shapes.
This is the slowest and most tedious of all shapes, but the rolls are almost as flaky as pie paste.
BRIOCHE AND RUSKS,
This is a shaping instruction rather than a full formula: the author assumes you already have his roll dough on the bench and are working through a chapter of shapes. What follows fills in what a bakeshop of the period took for granted.
- You need a dough firstNo quantities appear here because the book's basic roll dough is given elsewhere. Any lean enriched roll dough will behave correctly " flour, water or milk, yeast, salt, a little sugar and a modest amount of fat, mixed fairly stiff so it can be rolled thin without tearing.
- "Knead it well in layers"The phrase is ambiguous, but it most likely means folding the dough over on itself during kneading rather than laminating with butter as for puff paste. Whatever the kneading contributes, the recipe's own flakiness comes chiefly from the melted fat brushed on and the folding in steps 3 and 4, which is why the finished roll pulls apart in leaves.
- Milk bread doughThe aside suggests that milk in quantity for bread-making was scarce or costly in a commercial hotel bakeshop of the period. Whole milk, scalded and cooled, is easily had now and does give a softer crumb and better browning; use it if the base recipe allows.
- Butter or lardThe melted fat brushed on before the final fold is what chiefly keeps the layers from welding together. Butter tastes better; lard tends to give a slightly drier separation. Brush thinly and evenly.
- Rolling thin"In shape of plates, and very thin" gives no measurement; something in the region of 1/8 inch, about pie-dough thickness, is a reasonable reading. If the dough resists and springs back, rest it covered for ten minutes rather than forcing it, or the folded square will be lopsided.
- Proof and ovenNo baking directions are given here. Shaped rolls of this kind proof until nearly doubled and slightly puffy, then bake in a hot oven until the layers are set and well coloured; on a modern range, around 425F for 12 to 18 minutes depending on size.
- YieldThe recipe fixes no size, so the count per pound of dough is up to you. The author is right that the shape is tedious; work in batches and keep the waiting dough covered so it does not skin over.
Hotel names did the work of branding in nineteenth-century American baking, and all three titles here point at the same trade: the Delavan House was one of Albany's best-known hotels, and rolls carried its name, or simply the city's. "Vienna" rolls are generally traced to the Austrian steam-baked breads that drew attention at the international exhibitions of the 1860s and 70s, after which American and English bakers applied the word freely to any fine white roll with a thin, glossy crust. What survives in this entry is the working knowledge of a hotel bakeshop the same dough shaped a dozen ways, each under its own name together with the author's frank admission that a person not otherwise informed could not tell milk dough from French roll dough anyway.