Bread is not a part of the traditional Thai diet. That said, East met West quite a few decades ago. Thai cooks brought their traditional recipes here to the USA, and in turn, American chefs and cooks who fell in love with Thai food have been very successful at inventing all sorts of Thai-style wraps, Thai-style sandwiches, and Thai-style pizza too -- Thai-style wraps, sandwiches and pizza are all American or Thai-American creations. I know this to be true, because my family thrives on my Thai-inspired creations. A trip to Thailand will reveal that nowadays, a good portion of the Thai population has come to appreciate bread, in the form of Thai-style "fusion food".
Thai-Asian flavor meets the American-style slider-roll dough.
"Fusion cuisine" was popularized in the '70's and describes the preparation of a meal combining two different culinary styles and/or traditions to create a new dish. Today's recipe initially put traditional Thai-Asian flavors into my Italian-American pizza dough. The idea to create a Thai-style pizza was not a big leap for me, and surprisingly, I didn't find it the least bit hard to impart Thai-flavor into the dough. Once my dough was perfected, I connected the dots: to make slider-rolls for Thai-style sandwiches.
A quick glance through the following ingredients list will reveal the common-sense substitutions and additions I made to my traditional pizza dough: sesame oil (in place of olive oil), and, the use of garlic powder, ground ginger, dried Thai basil leaves and Sriracha seasoning, in place of the typical oregano and red pepper flakes that go on or into Italian- Italian-American pizza dough.
Oh-my-Thai-style pizza dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sesame oil
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 generous teaspoon each: garlic powder, ground ginger, dried Thai basil leaves, Sriracha seasoning
1 packet granulated yeast
~Step 1. To prepare the dough, place all ingredients in pan of bread machine in the order listed, except for the yeast. Using your index finger, make a small indentation ("a well") on top of the dry ingredients, but not so deep that it reaches the wet layer. Place the yeast in the indentation. Insert the pan into the bread machine, plug the machine in, press the "Select" button, choose the "Pizza Dough" cycle, then press "Start". In about 55 minutes, you will have slider dough.
~Step 2. Spray insides of 12, standard-sized muffin cups with no-stick spray. Using lightly-oiled fingertips, remove dough from bread pan. Divide dough into 12, slightly less than 1 1/2-ounce pieces (1 3/8-ounces each is great). The best way to do this is with a kitchen scale. In between the palms of hands, form each piece of dough into a ball, placing one in each muffin. Cover pan(s) with a towel and allow dough to rise, 30 minutes.
~Step 3. Uncover the pans and bake rolls on center rack of preheated 350° oven, 10-12 minutes, or until lightly-browned and hollow sounding when tapped with the knuckle of index finger. Do not overcook these rolls. Remove from oven and place pans on a wire cooling rack. Cool rolls in pans about 1 minute prior to gently removing them from pans to wire rack cool completely.
The shape of a muffin cup, w/its steep, gently-sloped sides...
... promotes rising, a domed top, &, a firm, light-textured roll.
Mel's Easy Thai-Spiced Bread-Machine Slider Rolls: Recipe yields 1 dozen, 3"-round slider-sized sandwich rolls.
Special Equipment List: bread machine (optional); 2, standard-sized muffin pans, enough for 12 muffins/rolls; kitchen scale; lint-free-cotton towel; wire cooling rack
Cook's Note: The inspiration for these came when my mother mentioned that my Sicilian-style pizza dough would make dinner rolls. My first reaction was to laugh, but, after thinking about it, I decided it worth trying -- "nothing ventured, nothing gained". When I baked them on a flat pan, while good, they simply were not as light on the inside. The muffin tin corrected that, by promoting their rising high. Try my Italian-Style herb-seasoned ~ Baked-in-Muffin-Tins Slider-Sized Pizza-Dough Rolls ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2018)
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