Parker House Rolls
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott adapted from the Omni Parker House
Preparation time: 25 minutes plus 2.5 hours rising time
Cooking time: 25 minutes
- 520g/18.3ozs baker's or bread flour
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs water
- 180ml/6flozs whole milk
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons/12g/0.4oz salt
- 60g/2ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1 teaspoon/3.5g/0.12oz instant dried yeast
- 60g/1/2 stick or 2ozs melted butter
- Oil spray
- 50g/1.7ozs melted butter, extra
- 1 teaspoon flaked salt to sprinkle
Step 1 - First make the tangzhong roux (you can skip this step if you're planning to eat the rolls over the next day). Remove 20g or 0.7oz of the total flour weight and place in a small saucepan and whisk with the half cup of water. Heat on low temperature until it reaches 65C/149F and it becomes thicker and smooth. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the milk, egg and salt until smooth. Set aside.
Step 2 - In the bowl of an electric mixer add the remaining 500g/1.1lb of flour and whisk with the sugar and yeast distributing it all well. Add in the roux mixture and the melted butter and stir until you get a rough, shaggy mixture. Fit the mixer with a dough hook and knead for 10 minutes until you get the window pane effect (flour your hands well and if you can stretch apart the dough without it breaking then it is ready). It is a fairly wet dough.
Step 3 - Grease a large bowl with oil spray and grease your hands and shape the dough into a ball. Cover with cling film and place the bowl in a bowl of hot water and leave to rise for 1.5 hours. You will replace the hot water a couple of times during this time.
Top to bottom: rolling out half of the dough into a 20x30cms/8x12inch rectangle. Brushing with butter and cutting it in half lengthways and then in 8 pieces. Folding over with a small border.
Step 4 - Have a large 22x33x7.6cm/9x13x3inch baking dish ready and line it with parchment. This dough weighs 1kg/2.2lbs so divide it in two equal portions and you will have two 500g/1.1lb rounds of dough from which you'll make 8 dinner rolls. With both rounds you will get 16 rolls in total. Flour a surface generously with flour and place one dough round on this and stretch out the dough to 20x30cms/8x12inches (avoid stretching it bigger than this, slightly smaller is better than larger).
Step 5 - Brush the dough with the extra melted butter. Cut the dough in half lengthways and then fold each half over leaving a small border. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Then cut each folded over dough crossways into four pieces making 8 pieces total. Place in the baking dish in 4 rows of 4, the longest side of the buns against the longest side of the dish. Repeat with the other dough round.
Step 6 - Cover with cling film and allow to rise for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 180C/350F fan forced and bake for 25 minutes. Brush the buns with the remaining melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven and sprinkle with salt. Do not cut the buns or pull them apart for 20 minutes.