I’m pretty lucky about lunch. My wife and I both work at home, and most days, we have lunch together. Not yesterday; I was on my own, so there was no need for a whole loaf of bread. I took a cue from Zoe’s mom and made myself a single roll (it’s basically still winter here in Minnesota so it’s not so bad to turn on the oven. I’m afraid I’m not kidding).
I took a peach-sized chunk of four-day old Light Whole Wheat dough (page 74), and stretched it, knotted it, and shaped it a bit (a round lump would have worked well too). It turned out more like a Kaiser roll than I’d intended, and I can’t say it was intentional. More about what I did for shaping in Book #2 (for which we’re busily writing/testing/eating!). But it was the roll’s toppings that made my leftovers special (see the roasted salmon with red onion compote just north of the roll). The topping was simple but it elevated the bread to a different level—nothing more than garlic and parsley sauted in olive-oil, with the whole mixture drizzled over the roll before baking for about 25 minutes at 450 (with steam; see page 30). When there’s a lot of oil or butter in the picture (like here), don’t bake directly on a stone or the fat will smoke– use a greased cookie sheet or silicone pad. After the roll was drizzled, I sprinked a bit of coarse salt all over the roll, which you can see in the picture. Salt can be a pretty photogenic mineral.
