Need bread/roll recipes for Thanksgiving

[Momgonepostal]

Help, DUers!

I'm in charge of bringing bread or rolls to my husband's family's Thanksgiving dinner. It's a big crowd...and I'm in a bread rut. I usually do simple dinner rolls, last year I did corn muffins and that didn't go over well. Does anyone have any fresh ideas? There will be kids there, I probably will do a few plain dinner rolls, but would also like something a bit more exciting for those with more sophisticated tastes. Any ideas?

[The empressof all]

1. Do you do a crusty roll?

You can portion out a good french bread recipe and add some kalamata olives and rosemary to the dough. It's a wonderful combination and one that I think goes well with Turkey.

Also a carmalized onion foccaccia is lovely with Turkey. I sometimes add some shredded Havarti to this. Another wonderful thing to add to foccaccia is grapes. Just place seedless grapes on top prior to cooking. I sprinkle some granulated sugar lightly on top before baking. Kids love this bread.

[Momgonepostal]

3. I do a lot of focaccia and think I need to branch out

The grapes idea is worth a go, but I think not for this occasion.

I've done the kalamata/rosemary combo fairly recently for them.

[mandyky]

2. My Mom usually baked dinner rolls

and then dinner rolls with raisins and frosting on top.

[Momgonepostal]

4. I wanted to stick with savory and not sweet...

because there will be lots of desserts later.

I may end up with the standard dinner roll, but was hoping to find something new that goes with turkey.

[politicat]

5. This stuff goes great with turkey or chicken.

I usually make it as a stuffing bread, but I love it with chicken, a bit of cranberry sauce and some gravy as a sandwich, too. It should make decent dinner rolls; I'd probably do clover leaf rolls or parker house. If you want to be really tricksy, you could make up a batch of your standard roll dough, a batch of this and a batch of something like sun-dried tomato rolls and make clover leaf rolls with three different breads in each.

And yes, I'm a selective TV geek. It does indeed come from "The Northern Exposure Cookbook" and was featured in an episode of that show. I loved the show, and my mother bought me the cookbook my first year on my own. I have transcribed it exactly as it appears in the book...

Sage Bread

This is a hearty, aromatic bread that's good for use in stuffings. But it's also good toasted with butter, and if you served a turkey sandwich on it nobody would ask any questions. Sage is a strong herb, especially when dried, so tread carefully.

This is what we used as the basis for the stuffing of Joel's grouse, by the way. But it's also good in fattier birds (it absorbs the juices). I know, I don't like the term "fattier birds" any more than you do, but that's what they are.


Cornmeal to dust the cookie sheet
2½ cups warm (about 110° F) water
2 packages active dry yeast (or 4½ teaspoons jarred yeast)
7 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon dried whole sage leaves, crumbled (or about 15 fresh sage leaves, chopped fine)
7 cups bread flour (can be made with part whole wheat, but add gluten)
1/2 cup flour for dusting, if needed
1 large egg (optional)
sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or other for topping.

1. Lightly grease a cookie sheet and dust with cornmeal. Set aside.
2. Put ½ cup of the warm water into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over top of water and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt and oil. Stir in the sage and the remaining 2 cups of warm water. Using a wooden spoon, stir in yeast mixture (assuming it actually proofed) and 7 cups of flour. Let set for 10 minutes.
4. After 10 minutes, you should have a dough stiff enough to not stick to the fingers when formed into a ball. If not, add extra flour, up to ½ cup.
5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface adn knead for about 4 minutes until it is smooth, elastic and satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning the dough so all sides are greased. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and set aside in a warm place for about an hour, until the dough has risen to double its original size. Punch the risen dough down to flatten, and remove from the bowl.
6. Cut the dough into 3 pieces lengthwise and shape each piece into a 10 inch strip. Lay the three strips side by side, about ½ inch apart, on the cookie sheet. Crimp strips together at the top and braid. Tuck the ends under. If desired, paint exposed surface of dough with an egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon of water, using a pastry brush. If desired, add seeds now. Cover bread with the towel and let rise for at least 30 minutes, until close to doubled.
7. Preheat oven to 350. Bake bread for 40 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped (and internal temp reaches at least 160° F).

[Tab]

6. I like to do bread sticks

Take my extra pizza dough (in your case, just get some pre-made but un-rolled pizza dough from your supermarket), slice off chunks, rough roll into breadsticks, coat with olive oil and then roll in and/or sprinkle whatever flavorins you want. Some that I like are: coarse salt and ground pepper, caraway seed, paprika (not saying all of these on the same, but you could, I guess), garlic and/or garlic salt...

Then just cook in the oven as you would a pizza. If you have a pizza stone, all the better.