Pull-Apart Brioche Dinner Rolls

Late September, and I have been exploring the RecipeSpinoff blog with increasing interest — reading the contributors, studying their voices, understanding the format. The blog is a community of food writers who write about life through the lens of cooking, and the lens is the same lens I have been using for nine years in this journal: the understanding that food is not separate from life but inseparable from it, woven into the daily fabric so tightly that pulling out the food would unravel the whole cloth.

I contacted the blog. I submitted a sample post — a piece about Mama's she-crab soup, adapted from the journal, written in the voice that nine years of weekly entries have developed: the voice of a woman who stands at a stove and writes about the standing and who considers the standing and the writing the same activity performed through different limbs.

The blog accepted the submission. I am now a contributor to RecipeSpinoff. The contributing is the next phase — not the solitary writing of a book but the communal writing of a blog, the sharing of recipes and stories with readers who respond, who cook, who taste, who recognize their own lives in the food I describe.

The RecipeSpinoff community is the community I have been looking for without knowing I was looking: a room full of people who believe that food is literature and that literature is food and that the cooking is the writing and the writing is the cooking, and the believing is the belonging, and the belonging is the blog.

I made she-crab soup — the first post, the thesis dish, the recipe that opened the cookbook and that now opens the blog. The soup is the beginning. The beginning is the constant. And the constant is the life.

She-crab soup opened the journal, and she-crab soup opened the blog — but no post lives on soup alone, and every table needs bread, and bread pulled apart and passed among people is perhaps the most honest metaphor I know for what RecipeSpinoff is: something that only makes sense when you share it. These pull-apart brioche dinner rolls are what I baked the evening the acceptance came through — golden, soft, each one attached to the next until someone reaches in and the whole warm thing comes undone into exactly as many pieces as the table needs.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + 2 hours rising | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours 55 minutes | Servings: 12 rolls

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups (390g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup whole milk, warmed to 110°F
4 large eggs, room temperature, divided (3 for dough, 1 for egg wash)
6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
1 tablespoon water (for egg wash)
Flaky sea salt, for finishing (optional)

Instructions

Activate the yeast. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Stir gently and let sit 5 to 10 minutes until foamy and fragrant.
Build the dough. Add 3 eggs and the flour to the yeast mixture. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until a shaggy dough forms, about 2 minutes. Add the salt and increase to medium speed. Knead for 5 minutes until the dough begins to come together.
Incorporate the butter. With the mixer running on medium, add the softened butter one piece at a time, waiting until each piece is fully absorbed before adding the next. Once all butter is incorporated, increase to medium-high and knead 6 to 8 minutes until the dough is smooth, supple, and pulls cleanly away from the bowl’s sides.
First rise. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Shape the rolls. Punch the dough down and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 12 equal pieces (about 65g each). Cup each piece under your palm and roll into a smooth, taut ball. Arrange the balls snugly in a buttered 9x13-inch baking pan in three rows of four.
Second rise. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until puffed and the rolls are touching, 30 to 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°F.
Apply egg wash and bake. Whisk the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Gently brush the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if desired. Bake 22 to 25 minutes until deep golden brown on top and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center roll reads 190°F.
Cool and serve. Let the rolls rest in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack or bringing directly to the table. Serve warm, pulling them apart as needed.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pull-Apart Brioche Dinner Rolls — The Table You Belong To