Earlier this month Tom and I hosted a cousins' brunch a few days before my cousin Cindy's birthday. Cindy loves pistachios, so I made a point of looking for pistachio recipes. I happened to come across a Nigella Lawson recipe for "Chocolate Pistachio Whirligig Buns" that seemed perfect.
I no longer have any trepidation about making yeasted breads, and this recipe turned out to be quite easy. To make the dough, you mix flour, sugar, salt, yeast, beaten eggs, and a mixture of milk and butter that has been heated and slightly cooled. Since this is a sweet bread, I used SAF Gold instant yeast. I kneaded the dough in my Kitchenaid, placed it in an oiled bowl, and let it rise until doubled.
This dough was so easy to roll out -- it didn't shrink and didn't stick. I rolled it into a large rectangle, spread on softened butter, and sprinkled on sugar (I only used half what was called for because a full cup seemed like a crazy amount), chopped pistachios, and bittersweet chocolate chips. Then I rolled up the dough and cut it into 20 rolls. The recipe instructs you to bake the rolls in a 13-inch by 10-inch pan, which I don't own. I used a 13-inch by 9-inch pan instead, and I had to really squeeze the rolls together to fit them in. But since the photo accompanying the recipe shows the rolls crammed together, I figured it was fine. I brushed the tops of the rolls with egg wash, let them rise until puffy, and baked the rolls until golden.
Because the rolls were so close together in the pan and didn't have room to expand sideways, some of them rose upwards and listed to the side. As a result, they were irregular and lopsided, but I didn't mind -- there was something charming about their homey appearance. I pulled the entire batch of rolls out of the pan in a single block (this was easy because I had lined the pan with parchment) and moved them to a serving platter still attached; it was difficult to pull the rolls apart cleanly. A lot of the chocolate chips (I used Callebaut 60.3% callets) ended up being pushed outside of the rolls and ended up on top. When we ate the rolls, about two hours after baking, the chocolate callets were still soft and left messy smears of chocolate all over everyone's hands.
But holy cow were these delicious. While I love chocolate and pistachios, my favorite part about this roll was the bread itself. It was so soft, fluffy, flavorful, and sweet. I have made other types of sweet rolls where the filling has to carry the day because the bread is unremarkable or even dry. But this is the sweet roll bread of my dreams; it was perfect. And the fact that the bread was so beautifully textured even though the rolls were so tightly squeezed together is all the more impressive.
Recipe: "Chocolate and Pistachio Whirligig Buns" by Nigella Lawson, available here from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
I no longer have any trepidation about making yeasted breads, and this recipe turned out to be quite easy. To make the dough, you mix flour, sugar, salt, yeast, beaten eggs, and a mixture of milk and butter that has been heated and slightly cooled. Since this is a sweet bread, I used SAF Gold instant yeast. I kneaded the dough in my Kitchenaid, placed it in an oiled bowl, and let it rise until doubled.
This dough was so easy to roll out -- it didn't shrink and didn't stick. I rolled it into a large rectangle, spread on softened butter, and sprinkled on sugar (I only used half what was called for because a full cup seemed like a crazy amount), chopped pistachios, and bittersweet chocolate chips. Then I rolled up the dough and cut it into 20 rolls. The recipe instructs you to bake the rolls in a 13-inch by 10-inch pan, which I don't own. I used a 13-inch by 9-inch pan instead, and I had to really squeeze the rolls together to fit them in. But since the photo accompanying the recipe shows the rolls crammed together, I figured it was fine. I brushed the tops of the rolls with egg wash, let them rise until puffy, and baked the rolls until golden.
But holy cow were these delicious. While I love chocolate and pistachios, my favorite part about this roll was the bread itself. It was so soft, fluffy, flavorful, and sweet. I have made other types of sweet rolls where the filling has to carry the day because the bread is unremarkable or even dry. But this is the sweet roll bread of my dreams; it was perfect. And the fact that the bread was so beautifully textured even though the rolls were so tightly squeezed together is all the more impressive.
Recipe: "Chocolate and Pistachio Whirligig Buns" by Nigella Lawson, available here from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
- "Sweet, Salty, and Smoky: Maple Bacon Cinnamon Rolls," April 30, 2015.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls," October 19, 2014.
- "You Can Ring My Bell: Ring-A-Lings," November 3, 2013.
- "Why I'm Thankful This Year: Pain aux Raisins and a Brioche Bonus," November 30, 2012.
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