This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I’ve spent a lot of time working with various aspects of breads and rolls and also get questions regularly from operators about producing different types of breads and/or rolls at their pizzeria. As I’ll explain, their production is distinctly different from the production of pizza dough, and for that reason, most of the time I try to encourage pizzeria operators to partner with a local retail bakery who can provide their breads and rolls. But if you are one of those who either out of necessity, or pure desire, wants to make your own breads and rolls, this article is dedicated to you.

The types of breads and rolls that we’ll concern ourselves with in this article are French and Italian bread and rolls, Hoagie buns, and soft buns such as bread sticks and garlic knots. The ingredients used in making these breads and rolls should already be on hand in your store: flour (a strong bread or pizza flour), salt, sugar, olive oil, vegetable oil, and yeast. While on the subject of yeast, since many of us use instant dry yeast, I will give the yeast levels all based on instant dry yeast (IDY). If you’re using active dry yeast you’ll need to use approximately 50% more, and if you’re using compressed yeast, you’ll need to use about three times as much as the amounts shown here.

French Bread and Rolls are made from a dough formula containing only flour (pizza flour) 100%; salt 1.5%; IDY 0.5%; and water 52%. When using a Hobart mixer, the water (65F) is added to the mixing bowl, then the flour, salt, and the IDY are added. Using a dough hook, this is mixed for two minutes at low speed, and then five minutes at medium speed. The dough is then set aside and allowed to ferment for 90 minutes. It is then taken back to the mixer and mixed until a smooth, satiny dough appearance is achieved. The dough is now ready to be taken to the bench for scaling and rounding into balls. For French loaves the appropriate weight is 12 ounces and for French rolls, 1.5 to 2 ounces is correct. After scaling and forming into balls, lightly dust the dough balls with a little flour and cover with a sheet of plastic to prevent drying. Allow the dough balls to proof for about 30 minutes, and then shape each 12-ounce piece into a loaf about 1 inch in diameter and 24 to 26 inches long. The individual French rolls are made by shaping the 1.5 to 2-ounce dough pieces into rolls looking much like that of an egg. The shaped breads and rolls are placed onto perforated 18 X 26 screen pans (available from a bakery pan supplier). I like to place the pans of product into a tray rack, which I can cover with a large plastic bag. This will act suitably as a proofer, allowing the dough to rise without significant drying or crusting. After the dough has proofed for about 60 minutes, it is ready to be docked and baked. To dock the rolls, simply make one or two diagonal slits across the top of each roll using a very sharp knife or single edge razor blade. The breads are docked in a similar manner, but they are given a series of four to five diagonal cuts evenly spaced along the top length of the dough piece. After docking, the breads and rolls are given a light water spray and placed into the oven for baking at 400 to 450F in a deck oven. Due to the very high air flow (velocity) employed in air impingement ovens; these ovens are not well suited for baking breads of this type. The breads and rolls are baked to a golden brown color and removed from the oven. An excellent way to use the French bread is to cut each loaf into three sections and use each section to make a hot sandwich such as an Italian beef sandwich. They can also be sliced about an inch thick and spread with a garlic butter or garlic flavored butter oil, then placed back into the oven for light toasting as a garlic bread. The rolls are best when served just as they are as a side, with butter, to a pasta dish.

Italian Breads, Garlic Knots and Rolls are similar to French breads and rolls but they contain added oil, and a bit more yeast, which gives the finished breads/rolls a slightly softer texture and somewhat greater height/volume. A typical Italian bread formula contains a strong bread or pizza flour (100%); salt 1.5%; sugar 1%; olive oil 3%; instant dry yeast 0.75%. The dough is prepared in the same manner as described for the French bread and rolls. The scaling weight for individual rolls is 1.5 to 2 ounces each, and for bread it is typically 18 to 20-ounces. Again, these are allowed to proof for about 30 minutes before final shaping. The rolls can be shaped to form garlic knots if desired by simply rolling the dough out under the palms of your hands to form a rope of dough several inches long. Tie this into a simple overhand knot and set aside on a screen pan to final proof for about 45 minutes, then bake at 450F in a deck oven or 375F in an air impingement oven, and brush with a commercial garlic butter as soon as they come out of the oven. For added flavor, sprinkle with a Parmesan-Romano cheese mixture and they’re ready to serve. When making Italian bread you will need to get in a little practice hand forming the dough piece into a loaf shape, then roll the dough out under your hands to elongate it to about 16 to 18-inches. The formed dough is then placed onto a screen pan for final proofing which, will probably take about 60 minutes, then using a sharp knife or single edge razor blade, cut the proofed dough piece about 3/8 to ½ inch deep along its entire length at either the one o-clock or eleven o-clock position. Spray the loaf with water and bake at 400 to 425F in a deck oven for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown in color. Due to the size/height of these breads, conveyor ovens are not suited to baking these breads. Place the baked loaves on a wire rack for cooling. These loaves can be cut into slices for making sandwiches or as a bread side with a salad or pasta dish. One of my personal favorite uses for Italian bread is in making the various toasted sandwiches, such as Italian beef and provolone cheese with green peppers and mushrooms, or you can use your imagination to create your own specialty sandwich from the ingredients that you already have available in your cooler or on your prep-table.

Hoagie Buns are another type of bread item that we get a lot of requests for. A good working formula for these popular rolls is as follows; flour (strong bread or pizza flour) 100%; salt 1.75%; sugar 3%; shortening/oil 5%; instant dry yeast 1.25%; water 57% (variable). The dough is prepared in the same manner as described for the French bread. Immediately after mixing the dough is cut into pieces weighing approximately 3.5 to 4-ounces each (for making 7 to 8-inch long hoagies). The scaled dough pieces are formed into balls, covered with a sheet of plastic and set aside to proof for 20 to 30 minutes. Each dough piece is then ready to be rolled out to length (7 to 8 inches) and rolled (jelly-roll fashion) along its width, resulting in a rolled dough piece about 7-inches long. Using the heel of your hand, carefully crimp the end of the dough together so the curled dough piece doesn’t unwind. Place the formed dough pieces onto pizza screens or a large screen pan for proofing, be sure to separate the dough pieces by at least two inches so they don’t touch as they expand during proofing and baking. A proof box is recommended (100F with 75% relative humidity) but in a pinch, or if you will have very limited production you can get away using a warm spot in your kitchen, and covering the rack or trays of proofing dough to prevent drying. In some cases it will be necessary to spray the dough pieces with a water mist prior to proofing. In a proof box the rising time will typically be about 45 to 60 minutes, but at room temperature this might be somewhat longer. When the dough has proofed to about 2/3 of its finished size, dock each roll by cutting it 3/16 to ¼ inch deep along the entire top surface (end to end) using a sharp knife or razor blade, then spray the dough lightly with water and place directly into the oven. Bake at 425F in a deck oven until lightly browned, again, unless specially profiled for baking these rolls, air impingement ovens may not work well in this application. As soon as the rolls are removed from the oven, transfer them to a wire rack or screen for cooling to an internal temperature of 100F. Once the rolls have cooled they can be packaged into plastic bags and stored at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. These hoagie buns can be used to make a variety of open face or closed sandwiches served either cold or toasted.

In case the percentage numbers I’ve given in the formulas might confuse you, here is how you go about changing those percentages to weight measures. The first thing to do is to decide how much flour you want to use in making your dough. Then, grab your calculator. Let’s say you opted to work with 20 pounds of flour. That 100% is now equal to 20 pounds. Now, just enter 20 into the calculator, then press “X” and then enter the percent you want the weight for (lets say 1.75) so enter 1.75 and then press the “%” key and you’ll get your answer (it should equal 0.35 pounds). If you want, you can also change 20 pounds to ounces, grams or kilograms and the answer will be in those same units. So, if we were to show 20 pounds as ounces we would have 320 ounces of flour weight. 320 X 1.75 (press the “%” key and you’ll get 5.6 ounces as your answer). Do this for each of the percentages shown and you’ll have the entire formula for the amount of flour that you have elected to use.

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