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The BEST soft and chewy bread roll for hoagies/submarines/grinders. Pillowy soft rolls that are begging to be filled with deliciousness!
*note this post was drastically updated on 1/20/2020 to include more step-by-step instructions and detailed explanations.
Depending on what part of the country, or world, you’re from these things are called various names. I’ve heard “Subs, Submarines, Hoagies, Grinders, Hero, Italian Sandwich, Torpedo, Blimpie, Po’Boy, and Rocket” just to name a few.
Whatever you call it, I’m talking about those luxurious sandwiches full of meats and cheeses then wedged into a chewy, soft bread roll.
Hoagie Roll Ingredient List
- Bread Flour – it must be at least 11-14% protein content
- Yeast – Active Dry or Instant
- Water
- Salt
- Sugar
- Butter
- Items for a bread wash *optional
Can I use All-Purpose Flour?
Normally I’d advise against it because you’ll end up with a different texture and outcome.
However, given the current state of the world and the difficulty people are having finding bread flour, you can BUT there are differences in the outcome.
- You won’t get the same result with US all-purpose flour as you would bread flour. The higher protein in bread flour is what gives the bread its “chew” and rise.
- Plus, AP flour will make the bread denser. You can use it but they won’t be like classic hoagie rolls but they still will taste yummy.
Since bread flour is so hard to find (I’m feeling that pain too), grab some Vital Wheat Gluten and make your bread flour using your AP Flour.
I have the formula on my blog. Check out this post on how to make your own bread flour.
Working with yeast – no fears, you got this!
One of the most comment comments I get when I ask why folks don’t make homemade bread at home is that they are afraid of it. They are afraid to work with yeast or aren’t sure about the techniques. Well, that’s where I’m here to help you.
Baking bread, rolls, and dough is something I honestly find truly cathartic. It’s relaxing albeit using the stand mixer or kneading the dough by hand. Because I use only Red Star Yeasts (99.9% of the time it’s their Platinum), it’s pretty foolproof.
- Store your yeast in a dark, cool area. I tend to store mine in the fridge or the freezer for extended storage.
- When adding it, add it to very warm liquids (120-130F). You don’t want to add it to boiling or super hot water as you will kill the yeast.
- With the Instant Platinum yeast, you don’t even have to let it proof first – like how I added it to this recipe. Proofing yeast is used more for dry active yeast. Because I use the Instant Active Dry yeast, there’s no proofing involved.
- To Proof, Active Dry Yeast, place a portion of the warm liquid in a bowl and add the yeast. Give it a little stir and let it sit for 1-5 minutes or until the yeast is completely dissolved. It should bubble up and “bloom”.
- If, after 5 minutes the yeast isn’t bloomed then your yeast is old (expiration dates matter here!) or the liquid you used is too hot
The Best Hoagie Rolls at Home – yes, you can do it!
Feel good about working with yeast? You should. It’s really easy and just don’t be afraid! You can do this! Baking is a science and when you add ingredients it matters. Plus we need to discuss how humidity can affect how much water you put in.
Active Dry yeast
- If using Active Dry Yeast (not the Instant I use) you have to proof the yeast first. Add the Active Dry Yeast, sugar, and 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of warm water in a bowl of a stand mixer. Using a whisk or spoon, mix and set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast has bubbled quite a bit.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (this would be the same bowl your yeast mixture is in) add 2 cups of flour and the remaining cup of water. Start off on low. Mix for 4 minutes.
- Add in the salt and 1 cup at a time of the remaining flour and mix for 5-6 minutes until the dough is slack (See note). At this point, your mixer should be at medium speed. If your dough, after 5-6 minutes is not slack add up to 1/4 more cup of water (taking you up to a full 1 1/2 cups used) but add one Tablespoon at a time. The additional water will fully depend on how humid your room is.
Instant yeast
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook add in 2 cups of flour, water, sugar, and Instant Yeast. Start off on low. Mix for 4 minutes.
- Add in the salt and 1 cup at a time of the remaining flour and mix for 5-6 minutes until the dough is slack (See note). At this point, your mixer should be at medium speed. If your dough, after 5-6 minutes is not slack add up to 1/4 more cup of water (taking you up to a full 1 1/2 cups used) but add one Tablespoon at a time. The additional water will fully depend on how humid your room is.
Now, depending on the temp in the kitchen or how humid it is, you can add anywhere from 3 1/2 – 4 cups of flour. Just go slow. The worst thing you can do is add too much flour because you’re impatient. At this point, your dough should start to look and feel “Slack”
What is Slack Dough?
Think of a blob. It’s kind of fluid but it’s not liquidy. It’s the point where if you were to dump the dough out onto a board and try to form it into a shape, it would just blob back out and not hold a shape.
That’s what Slack Dough is. Slack dough means when the dough cannot hold a shape; it has no elasticity or spring back at all. It’s a wet dough but not too wet. It’s “billowy”. The dough is super, super soft, and smooth.
Below is what Slack dough looks like
How Humidity affects dough and bread baking
If your bread dough never turns slack there can be 2 reasons for this
- You didn’t mix it enough. Give it another minute or two. If it still doesn’t turn slack, add a tablespoon of water at a time until it forms slack.
- Your house is super dry – add a bit more water.
The rule of thumb is if your area is hot & humid then reduce the liquid by 10%.
Now, back to making the dough.
- Once all the flour is added and the dough is slack, add in the butter one tablespoon at a time. Just like the flour, you’ll add it in slowly allowing it to incorporate into the dough. Don’t panic if it doesn’t go in all at once or the dough looks to break down. Just be patient, it’ll combine again. Patience – that’s the key.
Cold Butter or Softened Butter?
I was raised using cold butter in this recipe though you may use room temp or equal amounts of olive oil. When using cold butter, even though you ‘meld it into the flour’, you’re helping with gluten formation and the development of dough structure. I’ve made it with room-temperature butter and it works just as well. You can use either folks.
- Once it’s mostly all in, turn the mixer up to medium and mix the dough until it pulls completely away from the side and is smooth and shiny.
- Transfer the dough to a large, lightly sprayed bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap or use what I use – Disposable plastic clear shower caps. They have a stretchy-band that snaps around the bowl and remained ballooned to allow the dough to proof without sticking to it.
- Once it’s doubled in size, it’s time to shape the hoagie rolls.
How to shape hoagie bread rolls
- Punch the dough down and place on a very lightly floured board. I would advise using as little flour as possible when shaping these. The more flour you add, the tougher the hoagies will be.
- Divide into 4-8 pieces and shape. *See below on how to shape!
- Once shaped, transfer to a parchment-lined tray and cover with lightly sprayed plastic wrap. Allow to rise again until almost doubled. ~30-45 minutes. Do NOT overproof them otherwise they will fall flat.
What does Overproof mean?
In simple terms it means the was let to rise too long, It will almost “super balloon” in size. You’ll know you’ve over-proofed dough if, when you poke it for 2 seconds, remove your finger and see if it springs back. If your dough does not spring back, it’s over-proofed.
But that doesn’t mean all is lost. Simply remove the dough from where it was rising, degas it (meaning press down firmly on the dough to get rid of the gas), then re-shape. Place it back on your pan and repeat the second proofing.
Watch your dough – things like ambient temperature, humidity, etc will cause your dough to rise slower or faster. The 30-45 minutes is fairly standard time but you need to use your judgement in the kitchen.
Chef’s Tips on shaping hoagie rolls
Shaping does take practice but that’s the fun of baking, right?!
- When you divide the dough, with your fingers, gently pat it into a rectangle where the dough is about 1/4″ thick.
- Next, fold up the bottom third to the center and then fold the upper quarter (like an envelope) towards the center and press gently to seal.
- Rotate the dough 180 degrees (so the last fold faces away from you) and repeat the above folding step then using your hand to seal the dough seams as you fold it. What you’re doing is folding the dough into itself.
- At this point, your dough is almost shaped like a log/snake. Gently cup your hand over the center of the dough and, without applying pressure/pressing down, gently roll the dough back and forth to reinforce the seal and roll it out into a log. If necessary, gently pinch the seam closed.
- I then grab the ends, lightly, and carefully pull them outwards to help stretch out dough (just an inch or so – again dependent on how long you want your rolls).
- To help round out the ends, cup each hand at the end of the roll and move them in opposite directions with a back and forth motion to roll the ends and then tuck underneath the roll.
- At this point, they are ready for the next rise.
Adding Slashes/Slits
While completely not necessary, you can add slashes/slits to the rolls before they bake to give them a prettier look. Cutting them adds zero taste value; it just pretties them up.
However, it does help with the texture. Did you ever make or buy bread that has a huge bubble or has a blowout? The bread “ruptures” in a sense. By scoring the bread, you can help control where the gas can escape without destroying how the bread looks.
I use a Lame to do mine.
A lame is a handle that has a very thin razor blade on the end of it specifically used for bread slashing. In a quick motion, make a slash (or multiple slashes) down the center of the bread but not go in deep. You’re going in maybe a 1/4″ at best.
Can I use a sharp knife instead?
Personally, I would say no as the blade isn’t thin enough and the knife may not be super, SUPER sharp. You could risk tearing the bread instead of a quick, pretty slash.
Coating your rolls before baking
You do not have to coat these if you do not want to. They will bake up beautifully and taste amazing BUT they won’t really have that deep color, crust, or shine like the ones most pizzerias have. Again, not a bad thing. Go with what you like.
When it comes to these rolls, depending on the application you use to coat, you’ll end up with different results. For my hoagie rolls, I use an egg white mixed with just a Tablespoon of milk
- Whole egg: this will give your bread a sheen and color
- Egg Yolk: this will give your bread color and will help brown it
- Egg White: Will give you a firmer crust
- Milk: will give your crust color
- Butter: will make your crust softer and richer
- Egg White with Milk: will give you a firmer crust and deeper crust color
Cutting your hoagie rolls
At first cut, the bread insides are so soft and billowy. It’s as if it’s held together by pockets of air and strands of sweet dough.
While it’s hard to resist, I HIGHLY recommend waiting about 10 minutes before trying to slice into these hoagie rolls. If you don’t, you risk tearing the bread (even with the best bread knives) because it’s simply too hot and too soft inside.
Trust me on this, it’s worth the wait!
I would HIGHLY recommend using a quality bread knife to slice these as the rolls are soft and chewy and nothing is worse when cutting into them with a crappy knife! You’ll love this knife! Sani-Safe S162-8SC-PCP 8″ Scalloped Bread Knife with Polypropylene Handle Pan is a great knife that’s affordable!
How to use The Best Hoagie Bread Roll Recipe
There’s no limit to how you can use these hoagie rolls or what you can put in or on them.
- Italian Rocket Hoagie or any favorite hoagie topping such as steak, meatball, cheese, pizza… you get the idea!)
- Meatball Hoagie like the pics below – use any of my meatball recipes, top with sauce of choice, cheese, and bake at 400F for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted
- French Bread Pizza – split in half, top each side with cheese and pizza toppings. Bake at 400F until the cheese is melted
- Stuffed Breakfast Boats – these were such a HUGE seller at our pizzeria (even though they were on the ‘secret’ menu
- Make them smaller as dinner rolls and, while still warm, top with honey cinnamon butter right before serving
How to store your Best Soft and Chewy Hoagie Rolls
Store them uncut. When you’re storing overnight, you’ll want to store in a paper bag OR, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and then in a plastic bag. Air is your enemy here.
Freezing
These rolls can be frozen either before they are baked or after.
Post-baking
- I personally prefer to freeze these after they are baked. Simply wrap each cooled loaf in plastic wrap, twice and place it in a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.
Pre-baking
- If you do this add a little more yeast (about a teaspoon more) to the recipe. This ensures that the post-freeze rise will give you a stunning result.
- Allow the dough to proof and then shape it on a parchment-lined pan.
- Wrap the pan with plastic wrap. Once each loaf is frozen stiff, wrap each roll twice in plastic wrap. Store in a freezer-safe bag for up to 6 months.
- To use frozen dough rolls, remove a loaf from the freezer the night before you want to bake it. Keep the loaf wrapped in plastic and let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Place the thawed dough in a greased bread pan, cover it, and let it rise in a warm, dry place. Bake the bread per the recipe below.
Chef Tips About Bread Baking
- As mentioned above, humidity and heat in your kitchen will drastically affect the dough texture (too wet/too dry while mixing) as well as proofing.
- If your kitchen is warmer, your bread will rise faster. Think of bread dough like a toddler. You really can’t let it be unsupervised for very long. Use the times as a guideline but your eyes will be your best judge.
- If you overproof your dough it will fall flat when it bakes. The gluten structure will be too weak to hold the gas production.
- USE GENTLE HANDS when shaping your dough.
- Make sure your yeast is FRESH!
- Watch your oven as it bakes. If your oven thermostat is on the fritz this can affect your bread either baking too fast leading to burnt bread on the outside and raw on the inside.
- Just relax. If you don’t get it perfect the first time, try again. Ask questions if you’re not sure what went wrong. The biggest things are:
- Not mixing your dough enough before the first proof
- Too rough on shaping it and you lost the gas in it
- Over proofed the 2nd shape and the bread went flat upon baking
- Your oven thermostat is on the fritz
- PATIENCE – BE PATIENT and keep dumping in more flour or water. Rome wasn’t built in a day, just as the dough won’t come together in a minute or two.
Subbing Sourdough Starter
I get asked this question a lot. I never use sourdough starter in this recipe as I love it as-is however you can sub in sourdough starter with some recipe modifications.
- 8 ounces of ripened sourdough starter
- Reduce the total flour to 334-339 grams
- Reduce the total water to 177-237 grams
Using Whole Wheat Flour
So the answer is yes, but you have to modify it and play with the texture to get it right. Let me explain.
- You only use 3/4 cup of whole wheat for every 1 cup of flour substituted. AND,
- I’ve YET to go full whole wheat and end up loving the flavor. I, right now, ONLY recommend subbing in 50% whole wheat and the rest flour (again you need to use the measurements in step 1). AND,
- You’ll need to add another 2 Tablespoons of water for every 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour added.
- And don’t forget to factor in humidity too with this.
I personally have yet to have an OMG YUM moment when making the recipe with a 100% whole wheat swap. It’s still too dense for my liking. Then again, 100% wheat bread tends to be dense in general (at least in my experience).
I’m still working on it though I believe I can nail it and get the results I want and love.
PrintThe Best Super Soft and Chewy Hoagie Rolls
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
- Category: bread
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: baking
The BEST soft and chewy bread roll for hoagies/submarine/grinders. Pillowy soft rolls that are begging to be filled with deliciousness!
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 – 4 cups bread flour/448-512 grams *see note
- 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoon – 1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115F degrees) / 308-355 grams *see note
- 2 Tablespoons / 25 grams of sugar
- 1 packet instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon of RedStar Platinum Yeast) / 7 grams
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt / 6 grams
- 4 Tablespoons / 56 grams cold unsalted butter, cubed *see note
Instructions
Using Active Dry Yeast? Start here
- If using Active Dry Yeast (not the Instant I use) you have to proof the yeast first. Add the Active Dry Yeast, sugar, and 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoon of warm water in a bowl of a stand mixer.
- Using a whisk or spoon, mix and set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast has bubbled quite a bit.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (this would be the same bowl your yeast mixture is in) add 2 cups of flour and the remaining cup of water. Start off on low. Mix for 4 minutes.
- Go to Step 1 of Recipe Continuation and follow the rest of the recipe
Using Instant Yeast? Start here
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook add in 2 cups of flour, water, sugar, and Instant Yeast. Start off on low. Mix for 4 minutes.
- Go to Step 1 of Recipe Continuation and follow the rest of the recipe.
Recipe Continuation
- Add in the salt and 1 cup at a time of the remaining flour and mix for 5-6 minutes until the dough is slack (See note). At this point, your mixer should be at medium speed. If your dough, after 5-6 minutes is not slack add up to 1/4 more cup of water (taking you up to a full 1 1/2 cups used) but add one Tablespoon at a time. The additional water will fully depend on how humid your room is.
- Add in the butter 1 Tablespoon at a time and mix until almost fully melded in before adding the next Tablespoon. In total, mix for 1-3 minutes or until the dough comes back together and the dough until it pulls completely away from the side and is smooth and shiny. Remove from bowl and transfer to a greased, covered bowl until doubled in size. ~1 hour.
- Punch the dough down and place it on a very lightly floured board. Divide into 4-8 pieces and shape. I would advise using as little flour as possible when shaping these. The more flour you add, the tougher the hoagies will be. Transfer to a parchment-lined tray and cover with lightly sprayed plastic wrap. Allow to rise again until almost doubled. ~30-45 minutes. Do NOT overproof them otherwise they will fall flat.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. If you want to slash your bread, using a lame, make your slashes. If desired, brush with a coating of choice and bake for 16-23 minutes or until golden brown. To ensure doneness, test the internal bread temp. It should be at 200F.
- Allow to cool before cutting with a quality bread knife ( Sani-Safe S162-8SC-PCP 8″ Scalloped Bread Knife with Polypropylene Handle Pan )
Notes
Flour & Water
Depending on the type of bread flour as well as how humid your kitchen is you may need to increase the water to 1 1/2 cups (which is only another 2 tablespoons more than the original). At times I’ve had to actually go up to 1 3/4 cups total but that was due to how humid my house was at the time.
Cold Butter
I was raised using cold butter in this recipe though you may use softened or equal amounts of olive oil. When using cold butter, even though you ‘meld it into the flour’, you’re helping with gluten formation and the development of dough structure.
Slack Dough
Slack dough means when the dough cannot hold a shape; it has no elasticity or spring back at all. It’s a wet dough but not too wet. It’s “billowy”. The dough is super, super soft, and smooth.
Equipment
I would HIGHLY recommend using a quality bread knife to slice these as the rolls are soft and chewy and nothing is worse when cutting into them with a crappy knife! You’ll love this knife! Sani-Safe S162-8SC-PCP 8″ Scalloped Bread Knife with Polypropylene Handle Pan
Coating your bread
- Whole egg: this will give your bread a sheen and color
- Egg Yolk: this will give your bread color and will help brown it
- Egg White: Will give you a firmer crust
- Milk: will give your crust color
- Butter: will make your crust softer and richer
beverley says
Thanks for the recipe. I am from the east coast and now live in Baja Mexico and i havent found anyone that makes a good hoagie roll for that matter nor a great cheese steak. so i am going to try myself. i have made these rolls once before and we loved love. i rolled some into rolls and some into dinner rolls.
I have a question though, Your pictures shows them all soft and wrinkly on top like a true hoagie roll but mine are not coming out like that can you help!
Thank you ///i have to run…my hoagie rolls are beeping …the house smells like a bread bakery.
Beverley
TKWAdmin says
Hi Beverly!
When they come out of the oven brush them with a bit of melted butter. That’ll make them crinkly.
To have a crispy crust brush with an egg wash before baking.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Jessica says
I throw a dish towel (dry) over them as soon as they come out of the oven and it makes them super soft.
Zain says
Grew up in Philly and Orlando, and now live in Germany. Bread here is a quite different, and its hard to find soft hoagies.
Basically, I had a craving for a proper Philly Cheese Steak, and thought I do it all from scratch, just had to figure out the bread part. I will try these. After reading all the comments, Im guesstimating that these will be just what I need for that soft chewy Philly Cheese Steak bun texture.
Will comment again soon with my results.
Cheers!
TKWAdmin says
Hi Zain!
I’ve heard that actually about the types of breads in Germany. They tend to be more rustic, crusty if you will. Still yummy but not quite what you need when you want a good ol’ fashioned Philly Cheese Steak 🙂
Please let me know your thoughts on this when you make it! To me, they are perfect for hoagies and subs but then again, it’s my recipe and I’m a tad biased *wink*. LOL
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Kiersten says
Thanks Beth!
TKWAdmin says
Hi Kiersten,
My apologies for not answering immediately. We’re both fighting off colds although Mr. Fantabulous’ cold is much worse. I’m thrilled that Beth and Sioux stepped in and helped out a fellow TKW Family member! I can’t wait to hear how they turned out for you and your thoughts on them!
Some people have even brushed them with an egg wash (or melted butter) before they baked them and added sesame seeds or even ‘everything’ seeds. Mmmm!!!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Kiersten says
Hi,
These look fabulous, but I’m wondering if you know if this recipe can be adapted for the bread machine dough cycle?
Thanks
beth says
Yes, I have done it 3 times and they are great! After the dough cycle I form them and let rise for 45 minutes. Never buying store bought bread again!
Sioux says
I did the same and they tasted awesome! My kids even like them with just butter. They’re kind of like mini-French bread loaves but softer!
TKWAdmin says
Thank you so much Sioux! Yeah it’s funny, a lot of people love these with just butter or butter and honey! So thrilled that you and your kids love them!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
TKWAdmin says
Thank you so much Beth not only for the compliment but also for the bread machine advice/tip! I really appreciate you helping out the TKW Family!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Laura says
I’m in the middle of making these rolls and I can not find where you add the yeast/sugar/water mix. I assumed it was after the flour and water were first mixed together. Also, I used all 4 cups of flour in the beginning. I did not know you might not need all 4 cups until I read the latest post (which you have to scroll down to). Don’t know how my rolls will turn out, but I’m thinking I’ll have to make some changes next time I make these. Can you clarify in the recipe some of these concerns? Thanks.
TKWAdmin says
Hi Laura,
I’ve added more clarification to the recipe steps as to when to add the yeast mixture (See steps 1-3). As for the flour, I don’t say that you should add some of the flour now and then the rest later. Everyone’s kitchen is different. Humidity, temp, etc are approximate. The recipe is for 4 cups however you also have to pay attention to the dough (i.e, the slack portion which is described in the Notes). If your kitchen is super humid, you may need more than 4 cups where as if it’s super dry, you may need less. Part of baking or cooking for that matter is not only following the recipe but also being aware of how the dish/dough/etc is responding. If the dough wasn’t slack you tweak it to make it slack. Again outside factors come into play here.
Best Kitchen Wishes
Melissa says
Help! I read everyone’s reviews and it looks like everyone had success but me and I cannot figure out where I went wrong. I followed directions exactly but my rolls turned out very dense (like biscuits you might make for strawberry shortcake). We ate them but I don’t want to make again unless I find out where I went wrong…Thanks for your feedback.
TKWAdmin says
Melissa,
If your rolls ended up dense and ‘shortcake-like’ that’s a result of the dough not being kneaded enough and underproofed. Your dough, by the time you added in the butter should have been slack (Soft and billowy – not sticky but rather tacky. It won’t hold a shape when it’s dumped out). The dough should have a pronounced elasticity.
How fresh was your yeast and other ingredients? Was your water too hot? How was the humidity in your kitchen? Did you add more flour than the recipe called for? Too much flour ( you may not have needed all 4 cups) can lead to the denseness as well. Again, the dough has to be slack and not a ‘ball’ at the end of your dough hook.
Let me know if that helps.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Jessica says
Hi! Great recipe and responses to comments. Hopefully this isn’t to late of a comment from your post to rely to.
I have the bread in the greased bowl rising right now. I read through a majority of comments and ended up having to add 1/4 water to the mixture as you mentioned to do for others because the bread didn’t go slack. It actually never did for me…. I’m kinda just hoping it works out. Anyhow, you mentioned that too hot of water could be an issue for this ? Can you elaborate on that ?
Again mentioning other comments I also have a kitchen aid mixer that wasn’t powerful enough but didn’t resort I using hands as the mixer held power through just was weak. Another question is if I had kneaded by hands how long do you think that would take roughly between steps, and would it still become slack with use of hands ?
Brand new bread flour and yeast so I’m guessing it had to have been the hot water?….
TKWAdmin says
Hi Jessica,
Sorry I didn’t back to you until now. For some reason I never got notified of your comment. So let me ask this, did the bread rise or not? Too hot of water will kill the yeast and not allow it to rise but that won’t affect the slack factor. A few things will cause the dough to not go slack:
1 – too much flour/not enough water
2 – under mixed (you mentioned your mixer was on the weaker side). If it’s undermixed the gluten won’t have the ability to develop properly and give the dough that soft billowy result needed.
You can knead this by hand but it does take a bit of time. There’s a pretty good article here that shows you step by step how to make do it by hand: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4365/kneading-slack-dough-hand
How did yours turn out?
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Bob says
Read all the great reviews and I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl – but – I have a food processor with a dough blade! Made excellent pizza dough many times in the past but haven’t tried this with bread. Anything I should know (or look at) before I make the leap? Thanks!
TKWAdmin says
Hi Bob!
I haven’t tried this recipe in the food processor but I’ve made dough in my lots of time. Just make sure your processor can handle all of the ingredients or you may have to cut the recipe in half to make it all fit and knead correctly.
Let me know how this turns out!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Michelle in Missouri says
Just made these in my Bosch for some hot sandwiches! They look and taste delicious! I doubled the recipe, and used an egg wash on half the hoagies and sprinkled on some sesame seeds. I live in the country, and love that I can have hoagies anytime I want with this recipe! Thanks for sharing!
TKWAdmin says
Hey Michelle!
Thank you so much! Mmmmmm I bet those sesame seeds ROCKED on the hoagies! I’ll make these sometimes and use the ‘everything’ topping as well.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Candace says
Hey, I have a few questions for you. My hubby bought me a new mixer for Christmas (a Kitchen Aid) and I have made this recipe SEVERAL times. Every one simply loves it. I even posted a link to it on my blog because so many people have asked for the recipe. So, evidently it turns out just fine. But I was wondering at what speed do you mix the dough? Mine never seems to go “slack” It always has some sort of “spring” to it. also do you use the dough hook to mix this recipe? Thanks!
TKWAdmin says
Hi Candace!
First off, YEAH HUBBY on getting you a new mixer! WOO HOO! I updated the recipe to discuss using a dough hook and the speeds to use.
I start off on low (with a dough hook) and by the time I’m ready to put the salt in, it’s at medium.
If your dough never goes slack (meaning it’ll stretch beautifully but won’t hold a shape) even after the 6 minute mark (after adding salt) add about a 1/4 cup more water – SLOWLY THOUGH! Dough can be tricky none the less as so many external forces can interfere with it – humidity, too hot in the kitchen, too cold, it’s Tuesday (wink) LOL
What’s the link to where you posted it on your blog? I’d love to check it out!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Candace says
Go to howbigimblessed-canna.blogspot.com it’s the most recent post on there=) and thanks for getting back to me
Chrissi says
Hello!
I have been making bread almost daily for the past month and ran out of AP flour and the bread flour was looking at me. I started off making spaghetti with meatballs/sauce but then that itch to make more bread took over. I decided to make turkey meatball subs, especially since I can’t eat them anywhere else.
I made these rolls today with my granddaughter who is 4. I just read what “slack” means and it was definitely slacking! LOL. That dough was so pretty and had a very nice texture after the first rise. Now the only problem I had was trying to roll it into something that looked like a hoagie roll. It was somewhat tough but I said hopefully it will come together after the 2nd rise and baking. It did and it didn’t. Will definitely work on that.
But the bread was so good! I hate letting bread cool because I’m afraid that it will be hard. This bread was not! I love the texture and the smell of it. I think I liked it better than my sub and will probably eat the rest of them without anything but butter and jelly. Thanks for the great recipe!
xoxo Chrissi
TKWAdmin says
Hi Chrissi!
The dough would go ‘tough’ if more flour was added during shaping. Hmmm… I tend to go minimal flour when shaping dough. The dough should be kind of tacky but not sticky to the point it actually sticks to you or your board.
Yeah, you’re like me with bread… I want the bread fresh out of the oven when it’s all hot and steaming (which is the worst time to cut bread). Try it with honey butter or peanut butter when it’s still warm. DELISH!
Best Kitchen Wishes!