Roasted Almond Roll with Whipped Honey Butter

I made some roasted almond butter sometime last week and I think I made too much of it so I thought of some idea on how to use it besides using it as a spread. I kinda toss the idea around of making a bread using it but wasn't really sure if it would work. Darn, I woke up early morning today dreaming of making these rolls...hahaha...Aigoo, talk about obssession, huh? Or, is it compulsion? The same thing happened when I was thinking of making mango panna cotta...I actually dreamed of making it the night before...

My plan was derailed since my sister called early this morning and asked if I could babysit my niece while my she and my brother in law take the other two kids to the ER for colds and sore throat. Babysitting was fun...my niece and I went to The Grove and walked around a little bit. We were going to eat at Cheesecake Factory but my sister called just before we stepped into the resto and said they are finished with the ER visit and ready to leave. she said we'll eat at Chinatown instead. I'd take dimsum over Amrican food anytime so off we went for lunch at Ocean Seafood Resto... Man the place was packed since today is labor day which is a holiday.

Anyways, back to my roasted almond roll...I finally got around to thawing the dough around threeish in the afternoon. I let it sit out on the counter covered with plastic wrap while I went to purchase some grocery from the store. By the time I came back, which was about an hour later, my dough was soft and ready...



Homemade Roasted Almond Butter
*** I forgot to take pictures but I promise to do it next time I make it again.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond
2 Tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Spread almond evenly on the pan.
3. Bake for about 12 minutes. Stir once or twice to prevent it from burning.
4. Remove form the oven and let it cool completely before grinding.
5. Place cooled almond in a food processor and grind. Scrape sides of the bowl
as needed and continue to process uts. Stream olive oil a little at a time until the desired creaminess is reached. Remove from bowl and place in a container.



Roasted Almond Roll with Whipped Honey Butter:

Ingredients:

Roasted Almond Roll

1 cantaloupe size No-Knead Dough (recipe here)
1/4 cup Homemade roasted almond butter
extra flour for dusting

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
1 tsp water

Honey wash:
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp water

1. Pinch a cantaloupe sized dough and set on a lightly floured surface.
2. Fold it twice then cover with lightly floured plastic wrap. Let it come to room temp (aorund 30 minutes)
3. Take the dough out of the plastic wrap, flatten then spread a litlle.
4. Place the almond butter in the middle then fold over twice or three time to make sure that almond butter is covered by the dough completely.
5. Either knead by hand or like me, use the dough hook attachment of my KitchenAid mixer to let it do the work. Knead until the almond butter is completely incorporated into the dough. By now, the dough will be soft and pliable.
6. Cover the dough with saran wrap again and leave it until it doubles in size.
7. Once the size has doubled, unwrap, flatten then divide into 8 equal parts. shape into a ball and place on the baking sheet with the seam down.
8. Let it rest for an hour.
9. 15 minutes before the resting period is up, preheat oven to 350F.
10. Brush top of the rolls with egg wash and bake for about 17-20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.
11. Remove from heat and brush honey wask over the cooked rolls.

Roasted Almond Roll with Whipped Honey Butter:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup slightly softened butter (not melted)
1 Tbsp honey

1. Place butter and heney in a bowl and whip using a mixer.
2. Scrape some of the butter from the beaters and continue whipping until you have reached the desired consistency.
3. transfer to container and serve with the rolls.

No-Knead Dough

This recipe is by Jeff and Zoe of Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. Their recipe is found in Steamy Kitchen's blog. This is such a great dough which can be used for different bread recipes. The good news is it requires barely any work, just measure, mix and let it chill out in the fridge....easy as 1, 2, 3!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbl instant yeast
1 1/2 tbl kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)
4 lg eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour



1. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, water, honey, melted butter, yeast and salt. Stir well with a wooden spoon.

2. Add in the flour. Stir until you don’t see any more dry bits of flour (about a minute). Cover (not airtight) and stick it in the refrigerator overnight, or up to 4 days. The longer you let it fart around in the refrigerator (literally!), the better tasting the dough will be.






NOTE: I left it out to rise for about two hours before I placed it in the refrigerator.

No-Knead Bread

I came across this recipe when I was searching for the sardine pasta recipe. This one is also from the New York Times website. What intrigued me was the fact that it requires very minimal ingredients and practically no work involved in the process of making the bread. I used to love baking but quit due to work-related injuries and really hated having to give up on this hobby in the past. I could have used the dough hook attachment of my kitchenaid mixer or my bread maker but I was too lazy to do all the dishwashing plus it didn't taste the same. This recipe has revived my passion for baking...Awww, the possibilities...




This recipe is by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street bakery. It was originally published in NY Times on November, 2006. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoons salt
wheat bran or cornmeal, if desired



NOTE: I originally intended on using Pam non-stick spray but changed my mind at the last minute and stick to the recipe instruction.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.







2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.




3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.




4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.






NOTE: I followed the step-by-step instruction which was easy enough. Didn't really run into any problem other than the minimal smoke produced by high heat and empty cast-iron pan. I used my trusty heavy cast iron pan with lid in baking the bread and it turned out perfect.

Don't worry if you put too much flour when you wrapped the dough in kitchen towel because it will add to the rustic look when it is baked.