Sacaduro

these are unusual brazilian dinner rolls called sacaduro (saca = take out, duro = hard), so they're done when they're hard and crusty. i got from "the bread bible" by rose levy beranbaum. the rolls are a little unusual, but the recipe even more so. she says use 3/4 of the recipe of one of her basic recipes, then take pieces of dough from it and start rolling them up, etc. there is no rising or proofing in the recipe for the rolls; for the basic bread, there are multiple stages, and she never tells you at which stage you are supposed to switch over to the other reciple. and why only 3/4 of the recipe? you don't make any changes--you just make more rolls, which is much simpler than trying to cut the recipe by 1/4 or figure out what to do with the remaining 1/4 or thowing it away. odd. anyway, i made what i think was the right choice, which is where you begin to shape the basic bread. it was odd up until that point even, though. odd to me. you make a wet sponge, first. then you carefully add more flour and yeast on top of the sponge, but don't mix it in, cover and let ferment for 1 to 4 hours, and let the sponge eat its way up through the flour and yeast on top of it--or not, which is okay too. then you mix it all together, then let it sit 20 minutes, then add the salt and then knead it, then let it rise until it doubles. as i say, odd. what makes the rolls unusual is that you flatten them out, then place a cube of butter in the center, with a pinch of sea salt, then pull out two flaps from the side and fold them over the center, sealing the edges, then pull out two flaps from the other side and seal them less tightly, then pull two flaps from the other side and seal them even less tightly (the text describes it and says specifically a total of 6 pulls; the pictures, however, show and tell you to do a total of 8 pulls). then you place them upside-down in a bed of flour, pull them out and then bake them. the flaps are supposed to separate slightly with the flour dusting on the petals that separate. well, some did, some didn't. (i used 6 pulls, by the way, and even that was hard to get to.) these were tasty, though a bit doughy and heavy. i think i should've baked them longer, though i went quite a bit over the time specified in the recipe. i may try them again one day, but i won't be in a hurry. i'm a little suspect of that book, now. (i got it from the library, so no money wasted--unless i'm late in returning it, which i probably will be, but i like being late. it makes me feel like i'm supporting my local public library, which is a good thing. it should be tax deductible, i think.)