It’s getting to be too hot for stews, but I had a relatively tough roast in the fridge that needed eating, so I made Beef Ragu for dinner this weekend.
It smelled amazing. It wasn’t quite as amazing to eat, but that’s okay – the rolls I made to go with it were.
These are based loosely on the Gourmet Buttermilk Fantails. I saw the recipe, and immediately thought "Those would be so much better with garlic butter!".
So I made my own garlic butter – I put an entire head of garlic in the food processor, and minced it fine. Then I melted a stick of butter, and added it to the garlic, and pulsed it a few more times. When it was as finely minced as it was going to get, I put the bowl in the fridge overnight to infuse.
The rolls themselves are just a simple yeast bread – bloom the yeast, add to the flour, add some buttermilk. Knead (I cheated and used the stand mixer), let rise, punch down.
Then you roll them out. I used my fingers to spread the butter on the dough before slicing it – I never have much luck spreading melted butter evenly any other way. I was supposed to slice it into 6 pieces, stack them, then slice in the other direction – but I misunderstood, and just folded them back and forth in the muffin cups. Either way would work fine – their way did look nicer.
The garlic really made them work – they stood up well to the ragu. And they had enough butter in them that they didn’t need any added at the table.
They’d be perfect for a dinner party – just a bit fancier then garlic bread, but without significantly more work!
