Cowboy Rolls
✨ These squishy rolls are the perfect accompaniment to an American themed dinner party, pasta dishes, or just fresh and warm out of the tin! My husband absolutely loves the NFL and The Superbowl and our friend hosts a cookout every year and we always bring something along, it’s usually our mac and cheese, cornbread and some sort of dessert, but this year - it might very well be these because I know they’ll go down a storm!
🌾 This recipe uses something called a tangzhong, and if you aren’t familiar with is, let me explain what it is and why it’s amazing in bread recipes!
🥛Tangzhong is a paste made by gently cooking flour with water or milk until it thickens. It’s a step that may seem small, but it makes a big difference. By heating the flour, the starches swell and lock in moisture which allows the dough to hold more liquid than usual, resulting in a pillowy, tender dough that stays fresh for days.
🍞You might also hear this technique called water roux or yudane, and it’s especially beloved in Eastern Asian baking. It’s the secret behind the famously soft Japanese milk bread, but it also works wonders in rich, buttery loaves like brioche and it’s a technique worth exploring. It’s an easy addition to your bread-making routine and I just remember how excited I was to try it for the first time, and I hope you are too!
🎶 So get your favourite playlist on, and let’s get cooking!
Servings: 10
Ingredients
🌾Tangzhong
160g whole milk
30g strong white bread flour
🍞Dough
220g whole milk
450g strong white bread flour
12g fine sea salt
7g fresh yeast/14g instant yeast
30g caster sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
80g unsalted butter, cut into equal cubes
🧈Cowboy Butter
125g unsalted butter
6 confit garlic cloves (there is a guide to this here)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1/2 lemon
10g American mustard
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp chopped chives
1/2 tbsp chopped parsley
1g Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
🌿Extras
100g Manchego cheese, grated
150g double cream
1 tbsp chopped chives
Hot honey
👩🍳 First Things First: Mis en place
A French term for everything in its place - in other words, organise all of your ingredients to ensure an efficient process while we cook something delicious!
👩🍳 Let’s cook!
Let’s start with the tangzhong, pop the milk and flour into a saucepan, cook it over a low to medium heat, whisking constantly and ensuring there are no lumps in the mix. Using a thermometer, make sure the tangzhong doesn’t reach over 50°C, if it does - that’s OK too - just leave it until it reaches 45°C-50°C before using it in the dough. Transfer it from the pan into a tuppaware or bowl, and cover the surface of the mixture with cling film.
Now onto the dough! Warm the milk up, again ensuring it doesn’t reach over 50°C and pop it into the bowl of a stand mixer, on top of this, add in your yeast, sugar, garlic powder, flour, salt and cooled tangzhong. Starting slow, and using the dough hook attachment on your mixer, mix the ingredients until you can’t see the flour anymore, and turn the mixer up to medium high and add in one cube of butter at a time, until it’s all gone, and leave to mix on medium high for 10 minutes, I usually stop the mix once or twice and use a dough scraper to scoop the dough from the bottom of the bowl to make sure there are no dry ingredients in the bottom.
Now lightly oil a large mixing bowl and scoop the dough into the bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel until it’s doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 1-4 hours depending on the temperature in your home.
Now we can make the cowboy butter, If your butter is straight from the fridge, or still quite hard, pop it in the microwave for 10 second bursts until it’s soft but not melted and add all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix until they’re all incorporated, transfer it to a bowl or tuppaware, cover and leave at room temperature so it remains nice and soft.
When the dough is doubled, lightly oil your surface and roll the dough to a 14×8-inch rectangle, it’s very helpful to use a ruler at this point! Now, spread on the cowboy butter and 80g of the Manchego cheese, then roll the dough into a neat log with the seam at the bottom and cut it into 10 even rolls and arrange in a lightly greased 10 inch cake pan with space between each roll, then cover again with a re-dampened tea towel and leave until they’re doubled in size and touching, or very nearly touching.
Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan, and while that’s warming up, pop your cream into the microwave until it’s warm, so just about a minute, then pour it between the rolls, then pop them in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
Using a thermometer, push it into the inside of one of the rolls, and we’re looking for an internal temperature of 91–93°C and transfer the rolls to a wire rack and at this point, I like to drizzle over some hot honey and use the remainder of the grated cheese to sprinkle over the rolls, then right before serving, I sprinkle over the freshly grated chives!
Happy baking!
Emily x 🍞✨
🥗 Serving Ideas
Like I said at the top, we love to serve these rolls with an American style feast, so that is definitely a fun option, and I’ll be sure to post our Superbowl recipes here when the time comes! These rolls would also be amazing with cauliflower soup, a mustard based pasta, or just warm on their own!