Chocolate-Hazelnut Rolls

And how restaurants can help feed the homeless (and many others)

Hello, welcome, and thank you for joining me here! I believe many of you have come because you were regular readers of the Sunday newsletter I wrote (up until earlier this month) for King Arthur Baking Company. I am so grateful you’re keen to stay connected, and I hope you’ll gain just as much from this newsletter as you did from my previous emails.

While I have certain objectives for this newsletter (see below), I intend for it to evolve as you and I become more familiar with it. I value your feedback (the more constructive the better), and will take it to heart as I continue to work and write here. I’ll include the “Leave a comment” button throughout each newsletter, so please do use it!

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A Little Housekeeping

Timing

For now, I intend to publish this free newsletter twice a month (the middle and end of every month). And I will likely stick with Sundays (I need an antidote for the Sunday Scaries). I hope to publish more frequently down the road, perhaps adding a paid option for those of you looking for extra content, but we’ll cross that road when we come to it.

Why Balanced Diet

Some of you may be wondering about (or perhaps even turned off by) the title of my newsletter. I will state right here that what I write and share will not have anything to do with “dieting” or the culture and commercialization that surrounds it. I am not about to tell you all what you should or shouldn’t eat.

Instead I hope to enhance your eating habits by either inspiring you to cook or bake or teaching you something about food (or the system behind it) that you didn’t know before. Together, let’s redefine what a “balanced diet” means in the broader and complex conversation about food.

To that end, my plan is to share both recipes I’ve developed myself, as well as links to recipes from other developers that I’ve tried and enjoyed (I promise to avoid paywalls as much as possible). I also plan to share synopses of food-related content (from other newsletters, news outlets, and media sources), connecting them to one another by theme or topic. My hope is to inspire you to cook and bake, and to highlight food-related issues that don’t always make front page news.

Goals!

Which brings me back to those objectives of mine. Here they are:

1. Make everyone feel welcome and recognized.

2. Share information that’s relevant and helpful (and of course accurate).

3. Create recipes that work and are accessible.

Those all may seem like very basic, obvious goals to many (if not all) of you, but as I continue to learn, none of these should be taken for granted.

For one thing, the narratives of our society today, including those about food, are (and have always been) systemically unjust and one-sided. There are many amazing voices out there counteracting the words, phrases, stories, policies, and systems of this white-led conversation. I am humbly asking to add my own beneath (and eventually alongside) them.¹

That leads me to my next objective. With the food-related links I plan to share, I simply hope to spark awareness and further conversation on the issues they raise. I will tend to advocate for a particular outcome on some issues, and I welcome you to bring your own perspective and knowledge to the comments. There’s a lot to be gained from a continued conversation I think, as long as it’s done respectfully.

Finally, to the recipes. I know there are A LOT of recipes available to you (on the internet, in books, among your family traditions, etc…). And while I do believe that no recipe is inherently bad as long as it’s inspiring you to get into the kitchen, I also believe a recipe can be poorly written.

If there is one thing I learned from my time at King Arthur, it’s the value of a well-written, executable recipe. So I plan to create recipes for you that are just that. A lot goes into a great recipe though, including the thorough work of a capable team — recipe developer, tester, and editor, plus food stylist, photographer, and art director. Thus, I’m still working out how exactly I’ll deliver on my plan.

In the meantime, I’ll be sure to call out whether a recipe has been tested and edited, and I apologize in advance for my rather amateur photography skills (something else I hope to work on). Also, if you’d like to volunteer to do some recipe testing, please let me know!

With those housekeeping matters covered (I assure you that future posts will be more food-focused) let’s move on to the good stuff:

Chocolate-Hazelnut Rolls

I started working on this recipe last summer when it looked like there was reason to add it to King Arthur’s recipe site. That reason came and went, but I couldn’t forget about how good these rolls were. So I decided to resurface (actually write up) the recipe at the end of last year when I made them for friends and neighbors. It’s based off of King Arthur’s 2021 Recipe of the Year, but with a significant number of adaptations.

Here are a few quick notes that are helpful to know prior to making these rolls:  
— They are extra soft and will stay that way for several days. If they last beyond that, or if you prefer them warm, simply wrap them in foil and reheat them in a 325°F oven before enjoying/serving.
— I highly recommend adding the nuts for extra flavor and texture if you’re a hazelnut fan.
— The icing is a little over the top, but certainly worth it for an indulgence.
— This recipe has not been tested or edited.  

Active Time: 30 minutes
Inactive Time: 3 to 4 hours
Bake Time: 20 to 24 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 50 minutes to 4 hours 54 minutes
Yield: 9 rolls

Milk Bread Starter (Tangzhong)  
- 1/2 cup (113g) whole milk
- 3 tablespoons (23g) Unbleached Bread Flour

1. Whisk together the milk and flour in a small saucepan. Set the saucepan over medium heat and stir until thickened and pasty (anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes).  
2. Remove the pan from the heat and scrape the starter into the bowl of a stand mixer. *Though it's possible to mix this dough by hand, I only advise it if you're prepared for a 20 to 25-minute mini arm workout.

Dough
- 2/3 cup (151g) whole milk 
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 1/4 cups (270g) Unbleached Bread Flour 
- 2 tablespoons (11g) Dutch-process cocoa or natural cocoa 
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt 
- 3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, softened 
- 1/4 cup (74g) chocolate-hazelnut spread (I have been using Nutella®) 

3. Add the above (dough) ingredients to the mixing bowl in the order listed.
4. Mix the ingredients together on low speed of your mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Once the dough begins to form, knead it on medium-low speed until it becomes smooth and bouncy; it'll be a bit sticky to the touch. 
*You'll know you've developed the dough (kneaded it) enough when it stops sticking to the bottom and sides of the bowl; this can take upwards of 15 minutes.
5. Shape the dough into a ball with your hands then place it back in the bowl and cover the bowl. 
*A shower cap, other reusable cover, plastic wrap, or damp towel all work well to cover the bowl. 
6. Let the dough rest in a warm place (over 70°F) until it's puffy and about 50% bigger, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
*A great way to create a warm environment for your dough is to put a cup or pan of boiling water into your cold (turned off) oven or microwave alongside the bowl with the dough. 
*To test if the dough is ready: Use a lightly floured finger to gently press into the dough about 1/2". When you release, the dough should not spring back immediately.
7. Pour 2 to 3 teaspoons of vegetable oil onto a clean work surface and use your hands to grease a 12" x 16" rectangle.
8. Remove the dough from the bowl with your oily hands and transfer it to the greased surface. Pat and press it into an 11" x 15" rectangle.

Filling 1
- 2/3 cup (195g) chocolate-hazelnut spread 

9. Warm the above (filling 1) amount of chocolate-hazelnut spread gently (in short bursts) in a microwave, or in a metal bowl set in hot water.
*You want the filling to be easily spreadable but hardly warm to the touch.
10. Gently spread the filling over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1/2" bare strip of dough along one long edge. 

Filling 2 (optional) 
- 1/2 cup (60g) hazelnuts

11. Toast the hazelnuts (filling 2) in a small skillet set over medium heat, shaking the pan gently from time to time to get even toasting.
12. Transfer the hazelnuts to a cutting surface and chop them coarsely with a sharp knife.
*The skins will fall off some of the hazelnuts and that's OK.
13. Scatter the hazelnuts evenly over the chocolate-hazelnut spread.
14. Roll the dough into a coiled log starting with the filling covered long edge.
*There's no need to roll the dough too tightly. To get it going, simply fold 1/2" of the edge in and keep rolling with your fingers and palms of your hands. 
15. Maneuver the log so that the seam is facing up and check to see that it's between 13" and 14" long (or roll it evenly with your palms until it is). Use a dull straight tool (dough scraper, back of a knife, butter knife) to make 8 marks at roughly 1 1/2" intervals along the log.
16. Cut straight through the log at the markings to create 9 rolls.
*I recommend using a piece of dental floss here, sliding the middle of it under the log to each marking then pulling up and across the log on both ends so that the floss cuts cleanly through the dough. You can also cut with a sharp knife, but you may not get as clean a cut.
17. Transfer the rolls to a lightly greased 9" square pan or casserole dish, evenly spacing them apart and away from the sides.
18. Cover the rolls and let them rest in a warm place (until they come very close to touching one another and the sides of the pan, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
19. As the rolls approach the final 15 minutes of resting, place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.
20. Uncover the rolls and place the pan in the oven. Bake the rolls for 20 to 24 minutes until a digital thermometer inserted into one of the outside rolls reads 190°F.
*Without the more traditional visual cue of browning, it's hard to know when these rolls are fully baked without a thermometer. You won't go wrong pulling them a little early or late if you're taking an educated guess though.
21. Remove the rolls from the oven and transfer them to a rack to cool until you're ready to serve them.

Icing (optional) 
- 3 tablespoons (56g) chocolate-hazelnut spread
- 1 to 2 tablespoons (14g to 28g) milk 

22. If you want icing, combine the above (icing) ingredients in a small bowl, stirring until smooth. Heat the icing slightly if it doesn't come together. 
23. Drizzle or spread the icing onto the warm rolls (a little goes a long way), and serve immediately.
24. Keep leftover rolls tightly sealed until you're ready to enjoy them again.

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Related Links

Affordable housing is a nationwide problem, and every community could use more of it. Nowhere is that perhaps more apparent than in California, where, Civil Eats reports, 400,000 to 800,000 farmworkers — the people harvesting a good majority of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts we eat — and their families are living in tight, inadequate dwellings (it seems wrong to even call it housing). A number of factors, including deplorable salaries, racism, funding red tape, and the absence of infrastructure all contribute to the problem. So it’s no wonder that the $130 million that Governor Gavin Newsom committed towards fixing the problem barely makes a dent. These essential workers deserve better. They’re feeding the nation.

Something that seems to be going right in California when it comes to the homelessness crisis is the rollout of a little-used SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefit known as The Restaurant Meals Program. In this story (originally published by Pew Charitable Trusts), Caitlin Dewey reports that while this program has been in existence since 1978, many states have forgotten about or deprioritized it. California is credited with renewing interest in it in the early 2000s, as county welfare departments there noted that homeless recipients of SNAP benefits were unable to prepare the foods they were restricted to buying. Currently six states participate in this program — which currently benefits not only the homeless, but also people who are over 60 or physically disabled — and a couple more are working towards making it available for local jurisdictions. There are of course hurdles and contingencies with the program, and a little (or a lot of) deregulation couldn’t hurt it. But it does have potential to make cooked or prepared food available to people who might otherwise not have the means or ability to fix a hot meal for themselves.

In similar news, the Vermont Everyone Eats program recently distributed its 2 millionth meal. The program, which “provides nutritious meals to Vermonters in need of food assistance, as well as a stabilizing source of income for Vermont restaurants, farmers, and food producers”, began in August of 2020 as part of pandemic aid addressing food insecurity. But as Melissa Pasanen reported for Seven Days (an independent Vermont newspaper), Vermont Emergency Management recovery and mitigation chief Ben Rose “believes that the program has the potential to change the model for food assistance programs beyond COVID-19”. It’s the perfect example of how adequate resources, fewer barriers, and the freedom to collaborate can be tremendously impactful when it comes to addressing plaguing issues like food insecurity.

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Food I’m Making

Like many people, I love Deb Perelman’s cooking style and recipes. I made her “Sesame-Spiced Turkey Meatballs and Smashed Chickpeas” from her first cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, for the second time this week, and will definitely keep them on regular rotation. I served the dish with orzo this time around, but I recommend piling the meatballs and chickpeas into a flatbread of some sort (like these Quick and Easy Flatbreads) for a handhold-able dinner. And if you don’t have Deb’s book, her sheetpan version of turkey meatballs and crispy chickpeas sounds equally delicious. I might just make those the next time.

I tried baking a pot of beans the way Rachel Roddy outlines in this piece from The Guardian.² My beans were red — I can’t remember the specific name — and took about 20 minutes longer in the oven, but otherwise, this is definitely a recipe I’ll repeat. I really enjoyed the way the garlic and bay leaf (which I used in place of the sage) permeated every bite.

And this weekend, I’m working on J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Carnitas recipe from Serious Eats. This recipe has been on repeat for me since I learned of it last year. I find the cooking to be very approachable, and the science behind it fascinating. Plus, the resulting carnitas are outstanding. They’re on deck for my son’s 2-year birthday dinner. I’ll have cake photos and hopefully a pieced together recipe for you next time!

1. I do want to acknowledge here that I am a white woman who has lived with all the privilege that comes with that identity. I promise, however, to do my utmost to make this newsletter as inclusive as I possibly can. If you find yourself feeling disengaged or excluded by my writing, please call me out on that. I strive every day to learn how to be a good ally.

2. You can find an adapted version of Rachel’s recipe at Food52, which is where I first learned about it.