Italian Hard Rolls Recipe {Panini Duri Italiani Recipe}

Italian hard rolls in a straw basket lined with a tan linen napkin.

4.93 from 54 votes

Italian Hard Rolls Recipe {Panini Duri Italiani Recipe}

A light airy roll with a crunchy crackly crust. The panini recipe does not use a lot of yeast, instead it relies on extra-long fermentation for flavor development. If you like extra crusty rolls, this bread is for you.

Prep Time20

Cook Time25

Rising Times16

Total Time45

Course: bread

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 130kcal

Author: Marisa Franca @ All Our Way

Equipment

Ingredients

Starter

4 ounces cool water -- ½ cup*
4 ¼ ounces-- 1 cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
⅛ teaspoon Instant yeast

Dough

all of the starter
15 ½ ounces -- 3 ½ cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour Keep ¾ ounce or ⅛ cup out to see if needed
8 ounces -- 1 cup lukewarm water
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
olive oil for the bowls

Egg Wash

1 large egg white mixed with ½ cup cool water

Instructions

To make the starter: In a medium size mixing bowl, mix the starter ingredients of 1 cup flour, ½ cup cool water, and instant yeast until smooth. Cover* and let rest at room temperature overnight.
Next day, in a large mixing bowl combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead them together -- by hand, stand mixer with dough hook or bread machine -- until you've made a soft, somewhat smooth ball of dough.
You may not need all of the flour. Add the remaining ¾ ounce (⅛ cup) if needed.
Allow the dough to rise, covered in an oiled bowl, for 3 hours, gently deflating it and turning it over after 1 hour, and again after 2 hours.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into 12 pieces*, shape the pieces into balls, and firm them up by rolling them under your lightly cupped fingers.
Place the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover them with a clean towel and let them rise for 1 to 2 hours, until they're puffy, though not doubled in size. They'll flatten out a bit as they rise; that's OK.
Cover the rolls, and refrigerate them for 2 to 3 hours. Towards the end of the rolls' chill, preheat the oven to 425F.
Whisk together the egg white and water until frothy. Remove the rolls from the refrigerator, and brush them with the wash. They may seem a bit flat but they'll perk up when they hit the oven's heat.
Slash a ¼" deep cut across the top of each roll. Immediately slide loaves onto a baking stone in the oven. If you don't have a stone keep the bread rolls ons the baking sheet.
Bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're a deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a wire rack. For the best crunch, open the oven door, and allow the rolls to cool in the turned-off, open-door oven.

Notes

*We never use tap water. We use bottled spring water or distilled.
*We doubled this recipe and scaled our rolls at 3 ounces which yielded 18 rolls.
If you like, sprinkle the rolls with sesame or poppy seeds.
To cover the bowls we like to use those cheap shower caps. We save them whenever we take a trip. Use plastic wrap if you don't have a shower cap.

Nutrition