Today's project was making kaiser rolls.

I make them using my sourdough starter, but I "cheated" this time and added some
active dry yeast. I do that when I'm a little pressed for time and not sure of
the potency of my starter. I shouldn't have worried, as it was only a week since
the last time I refreshed it. Sometimes it's three weeks before I get around to
it.

The recipe I use is roughly based on the one for hard rolls in the Fanny Farmer
cookbook. But I say roughly because I bake bread more by the "seat of the pants"
method. I just use that as a hint for how much water to use and double it, to 3
cups. The amount of flour is by feel, I add yeast if I feel like it, I put in my
sourdough starter. I make the rolls much bigger than the Fanny Farmer recipe.
That one says it yields 18 hard rolls. I'm essentially doubling the recipe and I
get 12 rolls.

The active dry yeast I'm using has an interesting "history". It is close to 4
years old. It used to belong to my father, who passed away about 3-1/2 years
ago. I keep it in the freezer. It's amazing how long it keeps. I would have used
it up long ago, but most of my bread baking is with my sourdough starter and no
added yeast.

Here are pictures of the kaiser rolls and my next batch of sourdough starter,
ready to be stirred down:

Twelve Kaiser Rolls: http://i5.tinypic.com/67fo3zk.jpg
Sourdough Starter: http://i7.tinypic.com/5402dev.jpg

Kaiser rolls MUST have poppy seeds on top. I found a neat method to getting them
evenly on the tops of the rolls. I put some poppy seeds in the bottom section of
a small tea ball and shake them on.

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wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net