November's challenge bread was Shio Pan, or, Japanese Salt Bread, a buttery and easy to make crescent roll, filled with butter. Karen, of Karen's Kitchen Stories, was the Babe's Kitchen of the Month.
I've loved crescent rolls ever since I learned how to make them in a high school Home Ec class. That class was the beginning of my love affair with homemade bread, and I still use that particular recipe to this day.
Karen describes how she first learned about Shio Pan, and offers variations on the traditional rolls. Definitely worth a read!
Be sure and visit the other Babes' blogs to see how they interpreted this month's challenge.
Shio Pan,
Japanese Salt Bread
Ingredients:
210 grams bread flour
10 grams granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
70 grams cold milk
70 grams cold water
7 grams softened unsalted butter
15 grams butter, melted, for
brushing
60 grams butter, cut into 6 x 10
gram strips as pictured.
Flaked sea salt for topping
Instructions:
Whisk together the dry ingredients
in a medium bowl.
Dump in the milk and water and mix
by hand or dough whisk until just combined. Add the softened butter and knead
it in by hand.
Knead the dough by hand (using
pressing, stretching, and folding constantly) or mixer for about five minutes,
until smooth. The dough will be fairly sticky but don't add more flour unless
your kitchen is super humid.
Let the dough rise until doubled, 45
minutes to 2 hours, depending on your room temp.
Turn the dough out onto your
unfloured work surface and form it into an 1/2 inch thick round disk.
Cut the dough into 6 wedges with a
bench scraper.
Roll each piece of dough into a cone,
pinching the seam, and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
With your hands, press each into a
triangle and then, using a rolling pin, shape each into a very long, thin
triangle. Lightly brush each triangle with melted butter. Place a 10 gram
butter stick on the wide end and roll up the dough and form it into a crescent.
Place it on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until puffy, about 45 minutes to an
hour in a warm spot.
Heat your oven to 400 degrees
F.
When ready to bake, spray the shaped
rolls with water until they are shiny. Sprinkle each with a pinch or so of
flaked sea salt.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until
lightly golden on top and crispy and browned on the bottom.
Transfer to a wire rack.
These are best warm from the oven or
within two hours. You can rewarm leftovers the same day to refresh them. Wrap
and freeze additional leftovers for reheating in the oven the next day.
