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Dinner or French Rolls
Make dough as directed in recipe for "Long Breakfast Rolls,” make into balls as large as a medium-sized hen's egg, place on a into balls as large as a medium-sized hen's egg, place on a well-floured board, flour a small rolling-pin (three-quarters of an inch in diameter), press down so as nearly to divide each ball of dough in the center, place in baking-pans so as not to touch each other, grease the space made by the rolling pin with melted butter, let rise until light, and bake. These rolls are so small and bake so quickly, that they have the delicious sweet taste of the wheat. Some grease the hands with butter while making the rolls. Bread dough, by adding the other ingredients, may be used for these rolls.
This is a shaping method rather than a full recipe: the dough comes from the book's "Long Breakfast Rolls," and everything here is about how you form and bake it. A few things need translating.
- The hinge: crease deeply, then butter the creaseThe rolling-pin crease must go nearly through the ball, and the groove must be buttered before rising. Butter keeps the two halves from knitting back together, so the baked roll splits open cleanly along the seam — this is the same principle as a Parker House roll.
- Ball sizeA medium hen's egg is roughly 1¾ to 2 ounces, so portion the dough at about 50-60 g each. Working to a uniform weight helps here, since the rolls bake very fast and unequal ones may scorch or stay pale.
- The rolling-pinA three-quarter-inch dowel is the tool called for; a thinner rod such as a wooden spoon handle will still crease the ball, though it is narrower than what the recipe specifies. A full-size rolling pin will tend to flatten the ball instead of creasing it.
- "Bake" means a quick ovenNo temperature is given; the book assumes a range judged by hand. Rolls of this size will do well at about 425F for roughly 10-14 minutes, until the tops are deep gold.
- "Let rise until light"Judge by feel, not the clock: the shaped rolls should look puffed and give slowly under a fingertip, usually 30-45 minutes in a warm kitchen. Over-risen shaped rolls collapse in the oven and lose the crease.
- Placing them apartThe instruction not to let them touch is deliberate — these are meant to bake as separate crusty rolls, not a soft pull-apart pan. Leave an inch or more between them.
- "Bread dough, by adding the other ingredients"This appears to mean taking plain risen bread dough and working in whatever enrichments the roll recipe calls for. Knead them in thoroughly and allow a further rise before shaping.
- YieldAt 50-60 g each, about 2 lb of dough would give roughly 16 to 18 rolls. Rolls this small stale quickly, which is the price of the "delicious sweet taste of the wheat" the author praises.
The Dixie Cook Book belongs to the family of late-nineteenth-century American compilations connected to Buckeye Cookery, and like them it treats bread as a system: one dough, then a page of shapes — long rolls, dinner rolls, French rolls, twists. The name "French rolls" here seems to signal shape and lightness rather than any French method; American cookbooks of the period used it loosely for small individual white rolls served at dinner, as distinct from the family loaf. The author's remark that small rolls "have the delicious sweet taste of the wheat" is a period preference worth noting: with a high crust-to-crumb ratio and a hot fast bake, these were prized for freshness at the table.