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American Rolls
Place the desired amount of sifted flour in a deep bowl, make a hollow in the middle, and put in some lukewarm milk, a little butter dissolved in the milk, a little salt and sugar and two gills of yeast, mix in enough flour to make a firm, smooth batter, cover the bowl, and put it in a warm place until the batter is light and foamy, then mix in some more flour, knead the dough for five minutes, again cover it, and let it stand until twice its original size. When the dough is light, roll and cut into thick rounds, set two together, and bake in a quick oven until browned.
This is a formula rather than a recipe: Oscar gives the method and expects the cook to judge quantities. A workable starting point is 4 cups flour, 1 1/4 cups milk, 3 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.
- Two gills of yeastA gill is half a cup, so this is a cup of liquid yeast hed barm or a wet home-grown yeast, not dry granules. For a batch built on about 4 cups of flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant or active dry yeast does the same work; reduce the milk slightly to account for the liquid you are no longer adding.
- The sponge stageMixing only enough flour to make a firm batter and letting it go light and foamy is a sponge. It is the step that gives these rolls their flavour, and it should not be rushed hed 45 minutes to an hour and a half in a warm room, until the surface is domed and bubbling.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400 to 425F. Small enriched rolls want the high heat so the crust colours before the crumb dries out; 12 to 15 minutes is usually enough.
- Butter dissolved in the milkMelt the butter into the milk, then let the mixture cool to lukewarm, around 100F, before it meets the yeast. Milk much hotter than that will damage the yeast.
- "Set two together"Two rounds stacked or folded and baked as one, so the rolls split at the seam at table. Brushing the lower round with melted butter first helps keep the two halves from fusing.
- Kneading timeFive minutes by hand is short by modern standards because the sponge has already done much of the gluten development. If you mix by machine, three to four minutes on low is ample; the dough should be smooth and slightly tacky, not stiff.
- YieldThe quantities suggested above give roughly 18 rolls cut with a 2 1/2-inch cutter. They are best within a few hours of baking.
Oscar Tschirky's kitchen notes were written for a cook who already knew what bread dough felt like, which is why this entry gives no quantities beyond the two gills of yeast — the skill assumed is judgment, not measurement. The two gills are the clearest date stamp on the recipe: at the turn of the century many kitchens still kept a liquid yeast or barm going, or bought it wet, and measuring leaven by the cupful was ordinary rather than eccentric.