Three Day Crusty Hard Rolls
December 22, 2005 by Andrea 
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Filed under Breads
The name says it all. Actually the good folks at King Arthur Flour just call them Crusty Hard Rolls, but these rolls take time—three days, to be precise. You make the starter on the first day, let the dough rise and form the rolls on the second day, and bake them on the third day after an overnight rise in the frig. They have a shiny, crunchy crust and a good yeasty flavor. Definitely worth the effort. We enjoy these with Winter Minestrone and just about anything else. Slather them with butter piping hot out of the oven…bliss.
Note: King Arthur All Purpose Flour has a higher protein content than other flours, which provides better structure in yeast breads.
[Updated: October 2, 2008]
Equipment
small bowl for starter
large bowl for mixing and rising (or stand mixer or bread machine)
cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat
lame or serrated knife
Starter
1/2 cup (~118 mil) water
1 cup (120 g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
Dough
All of the starter
3-1/2 cups (420 g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup (237 mil) water
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
Day 1
Mix the starter ingredients together till smooth, cover, and let rest at room temperature overnight.
Day 2
Combine all of the dough ingredients and knead them together—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—till you’ve made a soft, somewhat smooth dough; it should be cohesive, but the surface should still be a bit rough. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 3 hours, gently deflating it and turning it over after 1 hour, and again after 2 hours.
Turn the dough out onto a light greased or floured work surface. Divide it into 12 pieces, shape the pieces into balls, and firm them up by rolling them under your lightly cupped fingers on an unfloured work surface. Place the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover them, and let them rise for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, until they’ve doubled in size. Refrigerate them for several hours, or overnight.
Day 3
Preheat the oven to 425° F/220° C.
Remove the rolls from the refrigerator, and brush them with a wash made of 1/2 cup ( ~118 mil) of water mixed with 1 tablespoon egg white (you won’t use all the wash). Slash a 1/4-inch (0.5 cm) deep cut across the top of each roll, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a wire rack. For an extra-crisp crust, allow them to cool in the turned-off, door-propped-open oven.
Yield: 12 rolls
Note
We like to make the rolls a little smaller, so you can get as many as 18 rolls out of this depending on what size you make them. If you make the rolls smaller, reduce the baking time.
Sometimes I slash the rolls, and sometimes I don’t. Either way, they still turn out delicious.
For the mixing and kneading, I always use my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attachment. It does the job perfectly every time.
Variations
If you prefer to not use the egg wash, you can still get a shiny, crunchy crust by spritzing the rolls with water before you pop them in the oven. Then repeat every two minutes during cooking. Just use a simple, cheap spray bottle, one dedicated for cooking.
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Source: King Arthur Flour
I made these rolls and was so excited to finally have a nice recipe for a roll with a crispy crust. I was very impressed with the dough and the way they rose so nicely…..but when I refrigerated them over night they deflated and were like rocks when I baked them. The flavor was good but next time I will not keep them in the fridge overnight. Also I covered them with waxed paper and aluminum foil(losely) but the waxed paper still stuck to the tops. Next time I will bake them after they rise the second time. I would love to have your opinions as to what I did wrong.
Shiela: Any number of things could have happened, and I don’t know how your dough looked after the second rise, so I can only offer an educated guess. It’s possible that your dough may have risen too high during the second rise and thus was unable to sustain the structure of the rolls during the cold rise. Optimal ambient temperature for a warm rising is around 85° F, and dough can rise too high if it sits too long or if the temperature is too warm. High altitudes can affect rising time as well, but I don’t know if that applies in your case or not.
I made the crusty hard roll recipe and used active rise yeast, not the instant which I believe is the rapid rise yeast. I had a tough time adding all the ingredients together. It was extremely too dry to knead. I did the best I could by adding a little more water. I followed through with the rest of the bread making steps. When the bread came out of the oven, the crust was nice and crispy but the inside was extremely dense. When they cooled, they became as hard as rocks. Nevertheless, I am trying once again by using rapid rise yeast. When I mixed everything together, I only used a total (including the starter) of a little over 3 cups of flour. I will refrigerate them overnite and bake them tomorrow. I will let you know how the second batch turns out.
Hi Andrea. I really want to try to make these rolls. Unfortunately, I don’t have a KitchenAid mixer, but I do have a bread machine. Do you think I can make the dough and let it rise in the bread machine? Not quite sure what to do. Thanks.
Hi Cathy. The instructions mention using a bread machine, so just let it do the mixing, then rise in the machine, deflate and turn and close the lid, repeating per the directions.
Have you tried this with Wheat flour or just white? Thanks.
Hi Beverly. I have not tried these with whole wheat flour yet, but have been thinking about it.