My 10th experiment: Pesto cheese roll

This is such a wonderful spring day! Having started a poolish, I decide to go ahead with my experiments on various rolls. This time, it's a cheese roll, and I'm going to explore the wet dough that is discussed by many bakers.

Recipe: Pesto cheese roll (make 1 roll)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup poolish
- 1 cup unbleached wheat flour
- 1/4 cup warm guinness
- 1 tp active dry yeast
- 1 TB warm water
- 1 tp sugar
- 1/4 tp salt
- 2 TB pesto sauce
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup grocery store brand shredded hard cheeses (part skim parmesan, asiago, mozzarella etc)
- 1-2 TB flour for dusting

Procedure and result:

11:40am, 2-day-old poolish being warmed to room temperature:

12:02am, Dissolve yeast in 1 TB warm water and 1 TB warm guiness. Mix 1 tp sugar and 1/4 tp salt with 1 cup of flour. Add flour 1-2 TB at a time into the bowl of poolish. Add moistened yeast into the bowl. Stir the mixture gently to mix the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients. Repeat adding the flour and stir. Whenever the dough appears to be a little dry, add 2 TB beer.

12:05pm, Initial dough is barely incorporated by a spoon but not thoroughly mixed. No kneading is done with hands. Dough is actually very moist inside, but it appears dry on the surface. It is very sticky to the finger when pinched:

12:51pm, initial dough has rested about 45 minutes.

1:00pm, observe that there are still small lumps of flour in the dough. Kneading is done to break the lumps and homogenize the dough.

1:04pm, When kneaded, the dough easily sticks to the hand, but it is not overly moist. Allow to rest once it's been kneaded for a few minutes. There may still be small lumps of flour in it.

2:25pm, dough has rested 80 minutes.

2:54pm, dough is kneaded again. At this point, the dough is very moist, but not too sticky to the hands. It has a silky feel that is very comfortable to handle. All the lumps seem to have disappeared after the kneading and the rest.

3:02pm, dough is rolled out on the counter dusted with 1-2 TB flour. Dough is very soft and elastic. So, after each time of rolling out, move it a little on the counter and add a little flour on the top. This helps prevent sticking. Allow dough to rest a few second after each rolling out. Dough can be rolled into 1/4" thick. The texture of dough is such that it is possible to lift up the entire sheet without breaking it.

3:04pm, 2 big heaps of a tp of pesto sauce is spread uniformly and thinly on dough. (Since the pesto has oil, no oil has been added to the dough)

3:05pm, spread pinches of shredded cheese thinly on top of the pesto.

3:06pm: roll dough back into a roll. Because of the softness of the dough, it needs a little effort to prevent over-stretching. The dough may have stuck a little to the counter. If that has happened, simply detach the dough with care.

3:07pm, the roll is very soft to handle by hand.

3:09pm, cramp the roll a little to shorten its length before proofing.

3:12pm, roll is being proofed in a pan greased with oil. Rub some oil on top of the rolls too.

3:16pm, roll proofed in foil.

4:40pm, roll has been proofed for 90 minutes. It is outgrowing its wrapper.

4:40pm, size of the proofed roll before scoring:

4:49pm, roll is then scored and moistened. Despite the water content of this loaf, it is not to hard to score. The knife is first dipped in water. Then it is sliced on the surface like a saw. No force is exerted to push the knife onto the dough. Instead the sawing movement allows the blade to cut in rather easily. Then the top of the roll is moistened with water.

4:48pm, the front look of the scored dough:

4:49pm, the side look of the scored dough:

4:53pm, oven is preheated to 500F. The top rake is removed for ease of movement. Then the roll is placed in the middle rake and the temperature is adjusted to 350F.

5:23pm, roll has been baked for 28 minutes. The crust (both top and bottom) has a very strong echo when knocked, a sign of a very well baked loaf. The bottom and the top both are lightly golden in color.

5:24pm, the height of the roll after it's baked:

6:34pm, the roll can be sliced up shortly after it's baked. When being sliced, the crust holds itself very well. This is a view of the top, bottom and the cross-section of the roll.

5:41pm, this is a center-of-roll slice. Observe that the different layers of the roll are detached from one another because of the pesto and cheese. The inner layers rise very well with reasonably large holes.

5:42pm, a bite of the slice when it's freshly out of the oven.

Observations:

1. I had a very good time handling the dough. It's really comfortable to fold and to knead. The softness of the dough is remarkable.
2. The dough seems to rest very well, rising very well even at room temperature. This may be because I have moistened the active yeast before adding it to the dough. I've read that because the active dry yeast comes in large grains of nutrient, it is necessary to moisture it before using. Instant yeast comes in very fine grains and can be added directly to the mixture.
3. The beer seems to tenderize the dough pretty well. It gives the dough a fine and rich aroma.
4. Since the pesto sauce has plenty of oil in it, I add no oil to the initial dough. so the dough is very lean.
5. This roll is like no other breads that I've baked so far. The crust is very hard and thin, while the crumb is incredibly soft and tender, full of flavor. I think the oil and fat from the pesto and cheese has heavily tenderized the dough.
6. With time, the bread tends to stale, but apparently not as fast as the plain white bread. So I slice it up and freeze it. 

Remarks:
This is among the most exciting loaves I've baked so far! One thing I am slowly learning: with bread baking, less is often more.