on breads....

[youonlylivetwice]

does anyone know the secret to getting an incredibly light bread or roll?  At my local market I can get white or wheat rolls that are super light and yet moist inside, and generally have a nice crust to them.  Is this really just a product of a steam oven, or are there ingredient tricks that can get you there?  My breads turn out pretty good, but the texture seems to always be the same. 

Another example, we have this place called Atlanta Bread Company, maybe it is everywhere, I don't know.  They have a real basic nine-grain bread that has a great texture (I think) but I can't get the texture of my breads to change much.

thanks for any ideas!!

[Pete-zza]

YOLT,

Proofing in a humidified environment seems to be the way to getting soft rolls, along with using high amounts of yeast and fats and some sugar (mainly for crust color). Maybe these links will get you going in the right direction:

http://www.pmq.com/cgi-bin/pizzacookbook/recipe.cgi?action=view_recipe&id=108&recipe=Sub+Grinder+Hoagie&category=Pizza+Dough
http://www.pmq.com/cgi-bin/tt/index2.cgi/read/25456
http://www.pmq.com/cgi-bin/tt/index2.cgi/read/29600
http://www.pmq.com/cgi-bin/bbs/archive7.cgi?read=4161
http://www.pmq.com/cgi-bin/tt/index2.cgi/read/18025

If you decide to give the rolls a try based on the above information, you may have to improvise, as by using a rolling pin or a pasta making machine as your “sheeter”, using a fork for docking purposes (unless you already have a dough docker), and using a slightly warmed oven with a pan of warm water as your “proofer”. If you know how many dough pieces you want to make and what weight of dough pieces you want and have a dough formulation, I can help you with the number crunching if you'd like, to tell you what you will need in the way of quantities of ingredients. I wouldn’t worry about the additives that one of the noted formulations calls for. I think you should be able to achieve acceptable result without them.

Good luck and please let us know what results you get if you decide to proceed.

Peter

[youonlylivetwice]

Thanks a lot Peter!  I am going to give it a try tonight!!