Jacqueline’s NYC Deli-Style Farro, Fruit, and Nut Pull-apart Rolls

Related posts:

• Meet the Bakers: Dado and Jacqueline Colussi
• BreadStorm

Jacqueline’s notes

Formula inspired by organic Bluebird Grain Farms emmer farro gifted to us by MC.

* Scaling this formula to 250 g of total flour yields 11 rolls of approximately 85 grams each.
* I like to bake the rolls packed loosely together in a round springform pan of diameter 23cm (9 inch). The rolls gently grow together when proofing and baking, to form a pretty disk of pull-apart rolls.

1. Combine farro with its water. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 50 minutes. Cool.
2. Boil water for oat-raisin soaker. Pour water over oats and raisins. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes or until cool
3. Sift together Final Mix flours, salt, and yeast.
4. Combine the 2 soakers with Final Mix water and molasses. Mix gently.
5. By hand, gently knead the soaker mixture into the dry ingredients, until the dough comes together. It will be a bit sticky.
6. Gently mix in whole hazelnuts.
7. 7. Bulk ferment dough for 1 hour at room temperature.
8. Divide the dough into pieces of approximately 85g.
9. Dust baker’s bench with a generous helping of whole wheat flour. Roll each piece of dough in the flour to coat its surface; this will make shaping this sticky dough easier, as well as encourage a rustic texture on the surface of the rolls.
10. Gently de-gas and shape each roll into a tiny boule.
11. Loosely pack rolls into a springform pan, so that they don’t quite touch one another. (They will grow together as they proof and bake.)
12. Cover springform pan tightly and cold ferment overnight.
13. In the morning, bring rolls to room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 425F.
14. Bake rolls with steam for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes without steam.

My notes

• The formula was also inspired by pull-apart rolls Jacqueline used to buy from a deli when she lived in New York City (hence the name).
• Oven space is at a premium when both Dado and Jacqueline are baking and Jacqueline’s organizational skills come in handy. She knows which dough can wait and which has to be baked immediately when proofed and she plans accordingly. Dado had barely taken his Chicago Sourdough loaves out of the oven that the farro rolls went in: the percentage of molasses, the raisins, the high hydration, all conspired to make the dough super active.
• Jacqueline used osmotolerant yeast, a yeast developed for use with sweet doughs (10% or more sugar).
• The rolls were lovely, perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.