Banh Mi Roll

Banh mi is a Vietnamese short baguette with thin, crisp crust and soft, airy texture. It is often split lengthwise and filled with savory ingredients like a sub sandwich and served as a meal.

The filling often includes a combination of meats such as grilled pork, chicken, or cold cuts, along with pâté for added richness. Some versions also include Vietnamese-style pickled vegetables like carrots, daikon radish, cucumber, and cilantro.

To add flavor and a touch of heat, traditional banh mi sandwiches are typically garnished with condiments like mayonnaise, soy sauce, and chili sauce. This combination of savory and tangy flavors, along with the contrast of textures from the crusty bread, tender meat, and crunchy vegetables, makes banh mi a delicious and popular street food choice.

• 400g bread flour
• 250g lukewarm water
• 4g instant dry yeast or 2g fresh yeast
• 40g sugar
• 8g salt
• 20g oil without flavor (original recipe doesn’t contain any fat, but I noticed that oil will provide softer crumb)

Directions 

• 8 am mix lukewarm water, dry instant yeast and sugar until dissolved add flour, salt, mix all together, until no dry flour remained, cover, let rest 30 min for autolyse (during the autolyse stage the flour absorbs the water, becoming fully hydrated. This will activate gluten development). Dough will look lumpy but don’t worry it will become smooth  later.
• 8.30 am add oil and knead by hands or with your mixer for 5-7 min. Until dough will become smoother. Cover, let rest for 1 hour – 1 hour and 30 min at 76-84F/24-28C.

• 10 am dough should get almost twice bigger in volume. 
• Sprinkle work surface with flour.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces (about 100g each).

• Roll each piece in a tight roll, creating a mini baguette shape.

• Place rolls on parchment paper, or into a baguette pan, cover the rolls and let them proof for 1 hour at 76-80F/24-26C, until they get slightly bigger in volume.
• 11 am move rolls to fridge for 15 min, it will make scoring easier.
• Preheat the oven to 450F with empty tray under.
• 11.15 am remove rolls from fridge, score them.

• Place rolls into the hot oven, pour 1 cup of hot boiling water in a tray( the one that was preheating under).
• Bake rolls 10 min with steam, then 10-12  min without steam until golden brown.

Enjoy!