Tag Archives: self quarentine

Our favorite guastelle: easy, soft Italian rolls

As I am writing this, there’s a quarantine going on (see other post for how that’s not the correct term), and a friend who knows we bake almost all our own bread asked me for some easy recipes. Here’s my first one for her.  (Hi, Laura!!!!)
Guastelle are soft, fluffy, quick Italian rolls that are a great base for other ingredients AND a great base for food. Eat them plain, as sandwhich rolls, sliced and toasted for a bruscetta style base,  as hamburger buns, etc. I have rolled these into circles and stuffed with tuna salad and cheese or hot dogs or any meat we had to make for lunches.
The only drawback is that they stale fast. They freeze well, though, and they slice up and bake into zweibeck really well.

And here’s the entire recipe, so you don’t  have to go searching and dreading a huge story when all you want is to shove warm carbs into your mouth. 🙂

Now, the following pictures were done with All Purpose flour because most people don’t have bread flour. It was fantastic. I will make them with AP again and again because they were great with it.
Yes, that’s a lot of yeast, especially in this day and age. I buy my yeast in bulk (this is where I ought to insert an affiliate like to something, but I don’t have the time for that and I want you to get this fast) so using a lot isn’t a big deal.

I used a mixer for this, because Laura has a mixer with a sough hook and I wanted this simple. Of course, a wooden spoon and kneading works great as well.

dough hook and regular beater:

That’s 2 packs of yeast (which is a little under 2 T so I just know that in my note card) and 2 cups warm water dumped into a mixing bowl or the bowl of your mixer with 1/4 cup sugar. Bread baking note: all breads are 4 ingredients- yeast, salt, water and flour. (some skip the salt, but that’s rare). Other ingredients just change the bread. But all you need are those four. The sugar in this one makes it a little sweeter, gives the yeast something easy to eat to grow faster, and gives the crust a nice brown. The sugar will also make the crust burn faster, so these need to be watched, or you can scrape the bottoms off when they come out of the oven. It’s social distancing, who’ll see?

So dump the yeast, water, sugar, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup olive oil into the mixer.  Stir.

The oil is important. If you only have corn oil, use that. Any oil you have is fine. I have used 2 onions diced and browned in 1 stick of butter to make the best rolls ever before. Do not use high quality olive oil, though- save that for dipping. The eggs add a nice richness and color to this, but they can be omitted if you are vegan or are out of eggs. Or you can use one. They are not vital. Again, yeast, water, salt nad flour are the only vital parts to any bread.

Then add 3 cups of the flour and the T of salt. I used Kosher salt, because I have that on the counter. Use whatever salt you have. If you put it in the water mix first, it will slow the yeast growth down, so dump it onto the flour, and mix. With a cloth over it! That will prevent the flour from going everywhere. Shroud that mixer! Or look like a ghost!

After that, add the other flour. A lot of bakers will weigh their flour and add an exact amount. It’s basically because the more moisture in the flour, the heavier is it.  Humans have been baking bread long before scales were around, and you can too. You want the dough to be smooth and no stick to your hands.

For some reason, it sticks to Hex’s hands and not mine, I guess his are more dry?

After it’s mixed in, you want to switch to the dough hook/ knead on a table.


Add more flour if you need to to get it to a ‘puppy’s belly’ feel. let the machine knead it for just a minute or two- it doesn’t need a lot. By hand, when it stops sticking to everything and again, has that belly feel to it. It will ride up the collar of the hook, just push it down.

Then ‘make the rolls about half the size you want’. Hex was not happy with that instruction. I take an egg sized piece of dough and roll/pinch it until it’s a roll, dip the bottom in flour, and place on a sheet. I also pat it down, because these rolls rise up and not out.

These rise very quickly. The first ones will have already loosened up when you are putting the last ones on. I got two sheets.
Start of rising:

ready

in oven having baked for 8 minutes. At this point, I take them out, turn them 360 degrees, and switch the top and bottom ones. This gives them all a better heat distribution. Maybe a convection would be enough, but I dunno…

This was the 16 minute mark. Gorgeous!

4 of them on a plate when cool. Made 22 of them.

Froze half of the right off the bat. will be using them with soup tomorrow for dinner. Supposed to be 40 degrees.
Have fun!

Nitpicking terms

Okay, it’s your nitpicky friend Gina here with a lesson on trendy terms right now.
I am seeing and hearing (looking at you Van) a lot of people saying they are in ‘quarantine’.
Most of you are not.
Ok— there are several terms in use here.

Most of us are in what is called ‘social distancing’. It’s when you aren’t showing any signs of being ill, and you are spending most of your time away from anyone not your core family. Some work sites are open to allow people to do this. Same with stores. Working from home, not going to school, closing museums and restaurants are all ways to do this.
Stay 6 feet away from people, spend minimum time around people, clean everything, don’t touch your face.

‘Sheltering at home’ means you are staying put in your house and only going out for emergencies. Locally, that includes trips to the parks, as long as you still follow social distancing. If you are only at home and no one is going out, life can be pretty normal.

Shelter in place is the same thing, only DO NOT GO OUT unless it’s required. If you *want* to go out, it’s not required. If you are missing an ingredient for dinner, it’s not required. If you are going stir crazy and want to shop, it’s not required. Going to a doctor’s appointment, going to essential work, those are ok.

Self monitoring means you may have been exposed at some point in time, and you are checking your symptoms to see if you have been infected. Say you went shopping a few days ago, and the county has announced a confirmed case went shopping at that store a few days ago- that’s when you self monitor.

Self quarantining is different. If you were at that store on the same day and you talked to the person who has now been confirmed, you self quarantine. You check your symptoms and you watch yourself carefully. And you stay away from other people for the 2 weeks you need to be sure. Even the people in your home.
IF YOU ARE MEDICAL STAFF this is your daily life, because each 2 week period starts with each exposure. I am emphasizing this for non medical people. I am sure medical staff are doing it. People whose jobs and vocations require them to have contact with people who are infected are living incredibly stressful lives right now. Cut them some slack, and stay home as much as possible to ease their loads.

These are all individual things, and as much as the government is mamdating them, they aren’t being literally policed.

Group things include:

A containment zone. Everything is closed and people in an area are supposed to shelter in place. People are free to come and go from the area, however.

An area quarantine. Everything is locked down by local or federal government. You are not allowed to leave the area or go into it. This is what’s happening in Italy, and on that cruise ship. An individual can be under a legal quarantine as well.
Isolation is when you are sick, either at home or in the hospital. This is much more than self-quarantine. People near you would wear protective gear. You are a risk to others.