Easy White French Bread Rolls Without A Poolish

A simple dough but the output is tremendous. These white French bread rolls are made with T55 bread flour and offer a bit more "lightness" in the bite of the roll. While most French Baguettes are made with a yeast based starter called a poolish, this recipe skips that step.

Contents

• The Best French Bread Flour
• Why Does A Poolish Make A Difference?
• Splitting Dough For Bread Rolls
• Other Bread Recipes
• The Recipe
• Your Comments

The Best French Bread Flour

As with all bread making recipes the flour is a key ingredient which makes a huge difference to the output of the bread. This recipe calls for T55 bread flour which I usually order from Shipton Mill. Other baker suppliers such as Dove Farm also do a range of European bread flours.

The T55 flour is a finer bread flour and is the required flour type for a French Bread Stick. It has as relatively low percentage protein content. The 55 refers to the ash content (or mineral content).

T55 flour is often used in French breads like baguettes, batards, and other artisanal breads. It provides a balance between strength and flexibility in the dough, allowing for good rise and structure while still maintaining a light and airy texture in the finished bread. Have you squished a French stick in the supermarket when you were a kid? This crunch that springs back - that's what I'm talking about.

T55 White French Bread Rolls

The flour is available from plenty of stockists online. I buy mine from The Replenishery in Leigh, Lancashire. They are a zero waste local business and I try to support them where possible.

The recipe only has 4 ingredients which shows just what difference a bread flour can make on a recipe. If you made this with 00 bread flour, you'd be making pizza.

Why Does A Poolish Make A Difference?

My recipe does not use a poolish which is a yeast, water and flour mix made in a concentrated form. This is usually made the day before baking and then added to the rest of the recipe on bake day. If you made this recipe with a poolish then you will be making French sticks or Baguettes.

The recipe here skips that first step to speed things up. However if you wanted to do it the traditional boulanger way then make sure to use the poolish.

Splitting Dough For Bread Rolls

To make sure you use the correct amount of dough for the rolls, there are two approaches you can take.

• Weigh the dough, split evenly - This method will give you an even amount of bread rolls. So if you have 1000g of dough you can split into 10 x 100g rolls. This will give you a good looking equal and uniform batch of bread buns.
• Roll out to a specific size - This will mean you decide the optimum size for the rolls you are making. If you want 75g rolls you would roll out each dough ball to that size but you might have a bit of dough left over.

Whichever route you take, don't worry too much about being bang on accurate. Aim to be as close to the required weigh as possible but keep in mind that if you are within 5 grams either more or less, you will still get a uniform batch.

Obviously if you are selling your produce, weights and measures become more important so check with your local authority or regulations before proceeding.

Top Tip - If you don't have a bread cloth or baguette tray to make a baguette or roll, you can prove the bread in a wet tea towel. Pull and lift at each end to create a channel to rest the bread dough in.

Other Bread Recipes

I have lots of other bread recipes and a more detailed post about the bread making process to be sure to check that out.

Give this one a try and experiment with different shapes, proving times and water hydration. Use the hydration calculator for further assistance.

The Recipe