Chewy Italian Dinner Rolls

These Chewy Italian Dinner Rolls are like mini ciabattas... airy, crunchy, and perfect for soaking up sauces.

These Chewy Italian Dinner Rolls are absolutely wonderful for deli, pressed Italian, or meatball sandwiches. I also love them sliced in half. toasted, and topped with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni for quick mini bread pizzas.

If you are ever asked to bring dinner rolls to a potluck, these are the ones to bring. Just bring them the day they are made and reheat them in your host's oven to re-crisp. Even if you can't reheat them, they will still be chewy and delicious.

To make these, be sure to build in enough time to make the biga the day before.

Biga? It's a preferment that is allowed to sit overnight to develop flavor. You just mix up some flour, water, and yeast, and let it rise and fall, and get really bubbly.

The final dough for these rolls is really sticky, but do not be tempted to add more flour. The beauty of these rolls is their open and airy crumb thanks to the super wet dough.

To work with sticky dough, keep a bowl of water nearby in which to dip your fingers to keep them from sticking. You can also spray your fingers with spray oil to keep the dough from sticking. If you are working with wet dough that is coated with flour, coating your fingers with the same flour also works, as long as you are careful not to work the flour into the risen dough.

You will love these rolls!!

Chewy Italian Dinner Rolls Recipe

Ingredients

For the Biga:

• 6 1/4 ounces unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 ounce white whole wheat flour
• 8 ounces water
• 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast

Final Dough:

• All of the biga
• 10 1/2 ounces unbleached all purpose flour
• 4 ounces water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Instructions

1. Biga: The night before making the rolls, mix all of the biga ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let sit at room temperature for 12 to 20 hours.
2. Final Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the biga along with the rest of the ingredients, and mix on low with the dough hook for about four minutes. Increase the speed to medium, and mix for four minutes more.
3. Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until very puffy, about 1 to 2 hours.
4. Scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface. Stretch it into a 6 inch by 12 inch rectangle. Using a bench knife or pizza wheel, cut the dough into 8 three inch square pieces. Place each square, floured side up, onto a piece of 18 inch by 13 inch parchment paper. Cover with a damp cloth or oiled plastic wrap.
5. Preheat the oven with a baking stone on an upper middle rack. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Let the rolls rise for about 45 minutes, until puffy.
6. Slide the rolls, parchment and all, onto the baking stone with a pizza peel or the back of a cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 8 Rolls
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour