Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Pesto Dinner Rolls



http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/02/pesto-rolls/


I discovered last night that the dry yeast I have at home expired in 2008 and I thought the Lxxgos near my office will have it.  I went to the store this morning and well, I was wrong! Then I went to this bakery near my office building, thinking they must have dry yeast  in their kitchen or the baking lab. It turned out they don’t bake their own bread on premise.  Finally I stumbled upon a XXXmuffin and they have the ovens and the whole nine yards and I thought they must have some dry yeast.  I went in the shop and almost begged the owner to sell some to me… the owner told me they don’t use dry yeast in their products…!  

Since my husband and I did our grocery shopping last night already and I don't want him to think I'm crazy by asking to go there again today, I decided to go to this bigger grocery store, on foot, 2 blocks away from work at lunch hour.  I passed by this convenience store on the way and bought the dry yeast packets from there instead.  


After work, I couldn't wait to finish dinner and started baking.  I followed the recipe instructions religiously, only to find that the dough didn't rise much.  So after waiting for 2 hours, I decided to bake them... 

I am so disappointed now.  The rolls are as hard as rocks (they smell wonderful though).  It must have been the dry yeast...



2 comments:

Cherry said...

It happened to me before that my bread dough didn't come to a rise. The book says the perfect temperature for proofing is 80 degrees F if i remember it correctly. I followed religiously and even used a thermometer to test out the temperature, and it still didn't rise and came out as a rock. Did you cover the dough with a plastic bag? it keeps the temperature and moisture within the dough during rising.

jwingyee said...

Thanks for the notes, Cherry. I spoke to Rita late last night. She reminded me that our Chef at GB told us salt would kill the yeast. I think that's the problem. I'm just making the pesto rolls again as I write, and I didn't put salt in the batter this time. The dough came to a rise perfectly. Will post pics momentarily.