Copycat "Subway" Rolls

In New Hampshire, Sweetie Pie had a favorite sub shop called Moe's and they have several scattered locations throughout the state and they're well-known and loved for their famous Moe's Italian sandwiches.  It's like a cult following; generations of families are avid fans of the Moe's Italian sandwich.  Sweetie Pie and I could never drive by one of their locations where he didn't buy at least two of them, one for now and one for later.  He said when he worked at the local shipyard, on Fridays, the guys would order from their local Moe's, 200 at a time!  And Moe's would ship to servicemen just about everywhere, I guess way back when, for those who missed that special hometown sandwich.  Even now, living in Arizona, when we meet people from New Hampshire, and we ask about Moe's, a moment of nostalgic silence sweeps over us.  You can feel the longing.  Yep, they're that good.

I don't know their secret as to what makes them better than other Italian sub sandwiches, but they are pretty darned good, and I've tried to duplicate them at home, with limited success.  One thing for sure is, they have good sub rolls.

I debated on sharing this recipe, because in full disclosure, in my opinion, the dough was a stinker to work with.  I've made a fair amount of homemade bread and rolls throughout my lifetime and feel I have a little bit of a knack for working with yeasted bread dough and so I proceeded with smug confidence.  But boy, I'll tell you what, this was a bit of a challenge.

Recipe is easy enough to follow, grins.  What confounded me was the final steps where the dough had to be shaped into the "sub" shape.  It just would not cooperate the way I wanted it to.  I wanted a nice long, slender cylinder of bread, and instead I would ended up with these squat, chubby mini loaves.  Well, after working and rolling, and a bit of stretching and praying, the shape was acceptable.  Not perfect, but acceptable.

And if I didn't cause myself enough angst, after the second rising I noticed that two of the loaves were touching.  And I thought, if I'm careful, I should be able, ever so gently to move it.  Big huge, deflating mistake.  Nothing I could do.  I went ahead and baked three nicely risen sub loaves and one pathetically deflated one.  A lesson in humility, sigh.  And I swore never to make this recipe again.  Ever.  Never.  Until I ate one.

There is a step at the end of the recipe that calls for buttering the top of the hot-from-the-oven loaves and then covering with a clean tea towel.  I was going to skip this step, but let assure you, I think it makes all the difference in the world to the quality of these.  Rolls turned out better any commercially made sub roll I ever had.  Oh my word.  Tender, fluffy, flavorful, and substantial.  In spite of all the challenges, I would definitely make these again because the flavor was so worth it.

Sweetie-Pie loved these so much he ate just the bread the following morning for breakfast, grins.

Can you see the deflated roll in the back?  In spite being the ugly duckling it still tasted good.

COPYCAT SUBWAY ROLLS
(Makes 4 hearty loaves)

1 cup warm water (110* Fahrenheit)
1/2 tablespoon yeast ( 1  1/2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon sugar
1  1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
2  1/2 to 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a stand mixer with dough hook already attached, combine the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil.  Let the mixture stand for about 5 minutes, allowing the yeast to foam and proof.
2. Add 1 cup of flour and mix on slow speed for 3 to 5 minutes.  add an additional cup of flour and mix until well combined.  continue to add 1/4 cup of flour at a time until a soft dough is formed.  the dough will stick to the bottom of the bowl but pull away from the sides.  You may have to scrape the dough from the hook time to time.  All this should take about 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Remove the dough hook set aside.  Remove the bowl and dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and continue kneading by hand until the dough is soft and supple.  Shape into a ball and return to the bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and place in a warm, draft free area, allowing the dough to rise for about 30 minutes.
4. After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a clean surface and divide it until four.  Roll each piece into a long skinny loaf that is about 9 to 10 inches long.
5. Place the rolled loaves onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or baking mat), about two inches apart, across the short way on the pan. Spray plastic wrap with a cooking spray and lightly place across the loaves so it won't stick when you remove it.  Allow the loaves to rise until doubled, about one hour.
6. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 350* Fahrenheit.  Remove the plastic wrap or tea towel, and place the loaves in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when lightly thumped with the back of your knuckle.
7. Remove the loaves from the oven.  rub the tops with a stick of butter and cover them with a tea towel to finish cooling.

COOK'S NOTES:  All right, I will make these again, the flavor and overall character of this bread warrants another try.  I'm thinking of pizza dough, you know how it's supposed to rest before shaping it into a pan to give the gluten time to relax to make the dough more manageable?  I'm thinking it's the same with this.  Needs to rest a few minutes before being shaped into loaves.  And I need to remember to give it the space it needs to rise properly and if I misjudge, not to be all confident and deflate them.

Also, the recipe says to let it rise a second time for an hour.  Well, I suppose that's true for a lot of kitchens, but here in Arizona the house is always warm.  We are cooling our house to 75 degrees.  If  I remember correctly, dough doubled in about 40 minutes, so keep that in mind.

The other thing I'm thinking, perhaps I could've used a tad more water.  Living in arid conditions I think affects the humidity of my flour and perhaps it was a little parched for water.  The dough seemed to work okay, but maybe a couple extra tablespoons of water would've been in order.

Anyway, live and learn, grins.  I'm looking forward to next time.

Now to figure out their olive oil dressing.  Hmm... 

Cheers!