kaiser rolls-a work in progress

i've come to realize that my sanity may depend on securing another book deal...but, i digress.  my new found freedom (read that as kids out of the house and husband working insane hours) has left me with time to try new things.  so what do i do with this freedom?  why, i bake of course-what did you think i would do???  kaiser rolls have always been something that i love-the thin, crispy crust and the fluffy, light bread...mmmmmm...then again, cookbooks are a bit of an obsession too.  i went onto the public library's website and secured myself a copy of peter reinhart's book, the bread baker's apprentice and decided to try my hand at kaiser rolls.  luckily for all of us, the recipe was posted by the gang that blogged their way through the book and can be found here.  i say luckily because none of the recipes in this book are short-all are extremely detailed and take a lot more time than you would expect.  this recipe spanned two days and honestly, i wasn't happy with the results, but that is probably my inexperience and not the recipe at fault.

a preferment-or a batch of "old" dough is mixed and allowed to rest overnight in the fridge.  on baking day, it is cut up and allowed to come to room temp so it can be incorporated into the dough.

my old mixer got the workout of a life time!!!

if you read this book, you will see that temperatures are just as important as measuring and mixing.

the dough after mixing

after the first rise

yes, i have had lots of practice shaping rolls-old habits die hard...

i tried the stamp this time, next time i will try the other two methods; tying a knot and folding the petals to the center.

they rise upside down and then you turn them over

mmmm......seeds

not bad for this attempt but definitely not the rolls of my youth!  i will work on these again because i love kaiser rolls and good ones are impossible to find here in nashville.  that and the fact that mine looked nothing like all the ones i looked at from the bloggers group!