Holiday season approaches…Christmas junk already clutters store aisles, and par-baked brown-n-serve rolls reappear on grocery shelves.  In my continuing quest to encourage home bread baking, I share another alternative to the little cottony bread impostors  (see a previous one here).

These lovely little butterflake rolls (p 105, from the new Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day)* separate into fluffy layers, with a tender crumb perfectly suited to reheating.  An easy shaping technique creates the layers:  roll the dough into a rectangle and brush it with melted butter.  Use a pizza cutter to divide the dough lengthwise into four long strips.  Stack the strips, then cut crosswise into 1-inch sections.  Set the bundles on their sides into muffin cups and allow to rise above the surface of the pan.  Just before baking, brush the tops with a little more melted butter.

Another bonus:  the kneaded dough can rest, refrigerated, from 1 to 4 days, and the dough is shaped while still cold, followed by an unattended 2.5 hour rise, then 20 minutes’ baking.  All of the recipes in Artisan Breads manipulate time and temperature, allowing the baker more scheduling flexibility.  If limited time and a busy schedule keep you from exploring yeast baking, this book is a must read (as is the blog Wild Yeast, with its weekly Yeastspotting round up).