Cheese Stuffed Rolls

I wanted to make a light snack for the folks bringing their cars to a Trunk or Treat event this afternoon. I heard that about 10 or 12 cars were coming, so I decided to tweak another recipe I had recently read and make Cheese Stuffed Rolls.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 16 ounces of sourdough starter (or 8 ounces of water and 8 ounces of flour and 1/2 teaspoon yeast)
  
• 5 ounces lukewarm water  (+ 2 tablespoons  more if needed)
• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon Romano cheese powder
• 8 ounces bread flour
• 4 ounces semolina flour (or use more bread flour instead)

Filling:

• 10 ounces grated cheese (such as cheddar, Gruyere, mozzarella, …)
  (I used about 7.5 ounces sharp cheddar, and about 1.5 ounces each of mozzarella and feta.)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)

Instructions:

1. If using sourdough, mix 8 ounces water and 8 ounces flour into 12 ounces of unfed starter in the bowl of a stand mixer. 
1. Let proof for an hour or so. 
2. Scoop 12 ounces of starter back into sourdough crock, leaving 16 ounces for this recipe.
2. Mix 16 ounces of starter with the water and yeast in a stand mixer bowl. Let proof while measuring other ingredients.
3. Add in flour, Romano cheese, and salt to starter mixture.
4. Knead for 5 minutes or so make a smooth dough.
   (I only used 1 ounce of water, and the dough formed up into a fairly firm ball. It ended up being very easy to roll out,)
5. Scoop dough out of bowl, mix with cooking spray, return dough to bowl, mist with cooking spray. 
6. Cover bowl, mark height of dough. 
7. Let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until the dough is nearly doubled in bulk.
   (Mine may have taken 60 minutes.)
8. Lightly grease the wells of two 12 cup muffin pans with cooking spray.
9. Divide the dough into two pieces. For each piece:
1. Pat and stretch or roll into into a rectangle, about 7” x 12”. 
2. Spritz with water, and sprinkle with the 1/2 of the grated cheese.
   (I patted the cheese down to make it stick before rolling.)
      
   


3. Sprinkle with paprika and lightly with garlic powder.
4. Roll dough up from the long side into a log, sealing the long seam. 
5. Slice into 12 pieces.
   
   


6. Place each piece cut side up in a muffin pan well.
   (I kind of fanned out the top some, to open up the swirl some so they could grow.)
   
   



10. Cover the pans loosely with cooking spray misted plastic wrap,
11. Let rise for one hour or so, until the rolls are puffy
    (They may not double in bulk, but should fill in the well muffin.)
12. Near the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.
13. Spritz with warm water (optional), and place pans in the preheated oven.
14. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the rolls are a very deep golden brown. 
15. Remove pans from the oven, and remove rolls to cool on a rack.

Carole's Notes:

Yes, we liked these, especially the crusty cheese parts on the top where the cheesed oozed out.  I will have to make these again so Emily can get one.

The recipe is adapted from https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gruyere-stuffed-crusty-loaves-recipe.