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By Root 671 0

love making a shape to bake, be inordinately proud of the result—and delighted to eat it, too. When baking such works of art, keep in mind that the tiny thin parts will tend to burn, while large lumps take much longer to bake. You can shield small parts with foil once they brown, to protect them from burning.

Even when they can’t have a direct part in the process, grade schoolers are thrilled to come home to your bready rendering of their initials, or a favorite animal you’ve softly sculptured and baked especially for them. On a more mundane and practical level, the manageability of small soft-crusty breads makes life easier for very young ones whose tiny hands are relatively new to the eating game. (Eaters who have been at it for many years also appreciate breadsticks, incidentally, especially alongside a hearty minestrone soup.)

You can make 12 soft foot-long breadsticks out of a loaf’s worth of risen dough. Rolled in sesame or poppy seeds, they provide a chewy, toothsome accent to a light meal. If sesame and poppy are getting ho hum, try caraway or fennel, or, more daring, whole cumin seeds, spicy-hot.

To shape, divide the dough into 12 parts, form balls and roll into snakes. Place side by side on a greased cookie sheet, allowing room for them to double in girth. Let rise until a gentle touch makes an indentation that fills in slowly; bake at 325°F until lightly brown, usually about ½ hour, preferably not near the bottom of the oven. Let them cool somewhat before removing from the sheet. For crisper breadsticks, roll them thinner and bake at very low heat for as long as an hour.

Dinner Rolls for Aunt Agatha

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)

1 cup warm water (235 ml)

3 tablespoons honey (45 ml)

1 cup buttermilk (235 ml)

1 egg

5 cups finely ground whole wheat bread flour (750 g)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (150 g)

2 teaspoons salt (11 g)

¼ cup cool butter (56 g)

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Mix the honey, buttermilk, and egg, stirring until smooth.

Stir the flours and salt together in a bowl, making a well in the center. Add the yeast and the other liquids, mixing from the center to make the dough. Knead about 12 minutes, until the dough is smooth and supple. If necessary, add water by moistening your hands as you knead—the dough should be very soft. Press the butter into a smear on the tabletop, and gradually knead it in, working until the dough is lustrous and utterly silky.

Let rise in a covered container at warm-room temperature for about 2 hours, or until your wetted finger makes a hole that does not fill in. Deflate the dough carefully, keeping the smooth top surface intact. Let rise again, perhaps a little warmer, for about 1 hour, until the dough once again does not fill in your test poke-hole.

Turn out on a lightly floured kneading surface, and deflate. If you will be making all the dough into rolls, divide it into four equal pieces. (If you don’t need so many rolls, half of the recipe can be rounded and then shaped into a regular loaf.) Form the dough into balls, keeping the gluten film, the smooth surface, unbroken.

Cover the rounded pieces of dough with an inverted bowl or damp cloth to prevent them from drying out while you work. Let the dough rest until the first ball is relaxed, soft and pliable—this step is especially important here. Gently press the soft dough flat; cut in half, then in threes. Form one round roll out of each piece, trying hard to keep the smooth surface intact. Repeat the process with all the rest of the dough, placing the rolls in greased muffin cups, or about ½ inch apart in a greased baking dish.

Ideally, you would want a shiny thick aluminum bun pan measuring 11″ 16″ to fit 24 such rolls—but two Pyrex dishes (8″ 8″ and 9″ 13″) would be fine, or a large cookie sheet. If you have extra space on your pan, rather than spread the rolls out, cluster them the suggested ½ inch apart so that they will rise and bake properly. Prevent the grease on the unused space on the pan from burning by dusting it generously with cornmeal