Crusty Dinner Rolls in the Ninja Combi (and regular oven)

4 ingredients are all you need to make these delicious rolls! They are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside just like a good French bread. In this video I compare making them in the Ninja Combi and in a regular oven, the difference shocked me! 👇👇👇 CLICK FOR RECIPE & DETAILS 👇👇👇

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You can find the full printable recipe on The Salted Pepper website: https://thesaltedpepper.com/french-bread-dinner-rolls/

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if you love the Crusty end of a French
baguette you are going to love this
recipe because every single roll is just
like that and then we’re going to have a
little bit of fun and we’re going to do
some in the Ninja comi and some in a
traditional oven welcome to the salted
pepper where we cook for real life using
real food and we keep it real simple
today’s recipe only requires four
ingredients no more no less because
traditional French bread only includes
flour salt salt yeast and water that is
it no oils no other fats no enrichment
into the dough to be a traditional
French bread now we’re going to turn the
French bread dough into crusty French
bread dinner rolls because if you’re
anything like me you love that crunchy
end and that chewy interior and this way
you can get it every single time you
grab a roll there are three basic
components to making a delicious
homemade bread and it’s starts with the
dough so what’s important for the dough
is getting the hydration level correct
and the salt level correct I happen to
think that this French bread dough is
absolutely perfect then we move into
proofing proofing can be done several
different ways and I’ll talk about that
a little bit later in the video and then
of course baking the bread and there’s
tons of different ways you can bake the
bread but one thing that I wanted to see
is how does the comi where we can
introduce a little steam compare to a
regular traditional oven so we’re going
to test that out today all right so
let’s start making the dough you need
three cups of allpurpose flour for this
recipe this will make 12 2 oz rolls okay
and what I usually do is cut the recipe
in half if I’m going to make it just in
the comi because I can only fit six
rolls in there at a time so I usually
cut it in half but you can also make the
double batch of dough and then freeze
half of it for later okay that will work
just fine I don’t weigh my flour because
I add the water based on how the flour
is absorbing the water so I don’t really
measure it like in grams okay I don’t
weigh it out but I do use a measuring
cup this is a half of a cup and I’m
going to use three cups total but what’s
important is you first want to sort of
fluff your flour in the container that
you store it in and then take something
that you can level it
off and that is the proper way to
measure flour if you’re not going to
weigh it all right so let me finish this
up get all the flour in and I do
recommend using allpurpose flour in this
recipe instead of bread flour but if all
you have is bread flour you can use it
but you’re going to need a little bit
more
liquid all right we’re done with the
flour now leave your flour close by
because we are going to need it later in
the recipe and you might even need it
right now if you end up adding a little
extra water you may need to add a little
more flour so keep it nearby
the next thing that’s going to go in is
my instant yeast now you can use active
dry yeast which requires proofing and
what you would do is add about a
tablespoon or so of your warm water and
mix it up let it sit it’s going to get
nice and bubbly and frothy then you add
it to your flour this is instant yeast
which I love to use and it just goes
right in dry okay and it works perfectly
1 and 1/2 teaspoons is what you need for
this recipe remember I’m making a double
batch so I’m making 12 rolls so on my
website you’re going to see it’s for
half of a batch you can easily make half
of a batch or double batch just by
cutting the ingredients all right so
that goes in now what I like to do is go
ahead and turn my mixer on pretty low so
just on the stir function with the dough
hook you don’t absolutely have to have a
stand mixer to make this dough you can
make it by hand but you do need to knead
it and you’re going to knead it for
about 10 minutes or so okay but it’s I
have the stand mixer and it just makes
it so much easier once the yeast is
incorporated into the flour then I add 1
and 1/2 teaspoons of kosher or fine
grind sea salt not table salt if you
want to use table salt you’re going to
want to cut that down to maybe 3/4 of a
teaspoon to one teaspoon
tops all right there we
go now the water I have 1 and 13 cups of
really warm water you want your water to
to be about 104 to
110° you don’t want it any hotter than
120° or it will kill the yeast and your
dough will not rise so I have one and a
third but that doesn’t mean I’m going to
use it all so pay attention with this
because it’s pretty important add in
half right away cuz you’re definitely
going to need that
[Music]
much and I added about 3/4 I added a
little bit more than half let the mixer
stay on stir and start to incorporate
the flour from the sides of the bowl and
slowly
hydrate flour will hydrate with
different amounts of water just
depending on the humidity in your house
and the type of flour it is so if you’re
using bread flour like I said before
you’re probably going to need a little
bit more water we’re not going to go by
that measurement because the best way to
get perfect dough every time is to go by
the look of the dough and that’s what
we’re going to concentrate on today
all right so I’m going to add in another
like two
tablespoons once most of the flour has
pulled from the edges you have a very
dry dough okay and we don’t want that
that’s not going to make the best crusty
roll so we do need to add some water but
this is where you need to start paying
attention to how much you add only add
about a tablespoon at a time and I call
this washing the bowl so what I do is
just kind of pour a little bit around
the
bowl and turn the mixer on
[Music]
stir all right so the dough picked up
almost all of the flour and all of the
water and I look at the very bottom and
it’s come clean from the bottom now now
that would be a fine dough you could
stop here it would be okay but I like to
have a little bit more hydration in this
crusty French bread so I’m going to put
in another tablespoon of the
water and continue to go on
stir it’s going to get kind of sloppy a
little bit a little messy but the flour
will start to absorb that extra
water and what I’m looking for about A4
to a half doll size of the dough
sticking to the bottom of the bowl
that’s when I know the dough is hydrated
the way I want for this
[Music]
recipe it’s important to remember every
time you add a little bit of water to
give it some time don’t freak out and
say oh no I added too much and start
adding flour give it a good three to
five minutes to absorb that water before
you make some decisions if you need to
add flour
okay all right it’s looking good but we
have probably about this much at the
bottom sticking but I want to push the
dough down to the bottom now and then do
a need for another minute or so and see
what happens with the bottom before
making any decisions if I need to add
more flour the dough feels really nicely
hydrated all right so just push the
dough down put your dough hook back down
for your mixer make sure you lock your
stand mixer and then go to stir
[Music]
again all right that is perfect now I
can tell you how much water I have left
but remember this will vary
okay let’s
see I’d say it’s probably 2 and 1 half
tablespoons all right now let’s feel the
dough and you see it sticking to the
bottom that’s what you
want all right this look this feels
really good feels really good all right
take off the the mixer we are done the
kneading process so that was probably a
total of I would say 5 minutes now if
you’re doing this by hand it’s going to
take you 10 to 15 all right so it’s
slightly sticky okay but not not super
super sticky all right let me set this
right over here for a second and I’m
going to get out the pan that I’m going
to use to proof my dough in now this is
the bulk proofing so you can proof all
of it at once and then we’ll split it up
and we’ll make our individual roles I’m
going to use the ninja comi to proof
this so I’m just going to use the comi
pan nothing on the bottom no oil cuz
this is French bread so we’re not even
going to use any oil on the pan or
anything and then one thing that is like
a little secret that’s kind of funny is
if your dough is really sticky and
you’re like me and don’t really like it
sticking to your hands put your fingers
in the water before you grab it out of
the bowl and believe it or not that
prevents it from sticking to your
fingers so there see that funny you
would think it would be the opposite all
right now I am just going to make a
little round here this is not really
that important but it helps me determine
uh when it’s doubled in size so take a
peek at it now we want it to double in
size I’m going to proof it
95° for 30 to 45 minutes if you didn’t
have the ninja comi and you were going
to do this on your counter the proof
time will depend on the temperature of
your house but you’re going to want to
kind of tent this with either some suran
wrap or some kind of a loose bag um I
like to use these uh loose bags that go
over nicely and they provide a tent
because you need to have room for your
dough to rise or you could use a deep
bowl that works really well too and then
just cover it with some Saran Wrap we
want it to double in size no matter how
you proof it and then we will go into
shaping the rolls
[Music]
it’s been 45 minutes and the dough is
definitely doubled in size so we are
ready to move on to the shaping step
look at that might have actually gone a
little bit too long but that’s okay all
right so now we’re just going to turn it
over onto a nice clean work surface and
I like to use this matte but you could
use a clean countertop or a large
cutting board whatever you prefer so
just pull it out now if it’s sticking to
your hands which this is not too bad but
if it’s sticking to your hands remember
dip them in some water and it
won’t all right there we go okay I’ll
get that pan cleaned out in a minute cuz
we’re going to actually proof in that
pan okay make your dough back into a
ball and now this is where you can
decide if you want to measure out like
weigh out each bun so you have
absolutely perfect size buns or if you
want to do what I do and that is just
take some sort of a sharp edge here and
cut the dough in
half sprinkle a little bit of flour onto
the corner of your work surface just a
little bit and then have some over here
for
shaping all right so once you have the
dough split put one half over here just
sitting on the
flour and then we’re going to make six
buns out of
this so I do another little ball
there cut that straight in the
middle and then take it and sort of put
it out to like a little bit of a log at
least this is how I do it you can do it
however you want it’s a little bit
easier when you’re doing four per
section but we’re not we’re going to do
three so we’re going to divide this into
[Music]
thirds then you can kind of feel
them I think that one’s a little bit
bigger than this one and just sort
of there that’ll be
good okay so we’re going to start with
this one dough ball the rest of them can
sit over here
once you have your one roll we’re going
to shape it take a little bit of your
all-purpose flow go over the top and
kind of around the sides just a little
bit okay then we’re going to take it and
sort of push it down and fold it under
itself and the reason why I’m doing it
this way which might seem a little bit
complicated I’m going to show you a
different way too is because I don’t
want the flower to really get into the
dough itself I want it to be on the
outside so I’m kind of being careful
that I’m not needing the extra flour
into the dough because then we change
our hydration and I just love the way
these rolls turn out the way that uh the
hydration is right now so all right now
what we want to do is shape this so that
we have a taut surface on the top okay
that’s going to allow a beautiful rise
for our rolls and and there’s a ton of
ways you can do it but this is the way I
do
it go with the bottom of your hand press
down and twirl
around and you can see I’m creating
tension on the top of the bun don’t
worry what the underside looks like that
does not matter we want the tension to
be built on the top of the bun what I
like to see is little bubbles
forming because that gives you a nice
crispy crispy
crust okay that’s it and then just press
them down a little bit
otherwise they’ll just turn into big
like baseball looking things all right
so press it down and that is one is done
put a little bit more flour on your work
surface and set that to the side there
we repeat that for all of them now let
me show you a different option okay we
have this is going to be three
individual rolls so what you can do is
take it in your hands squeeze it and
this is what I call popping
and pop
it and then you essentially do the same
thing um but when you you’re working
with this kind of a dough and you want
them all to be the same size it can be a
little bit trickier so anyway let’s do
it again so now we have we need to get
two out of here pop it through your
fingers like that and then squeeze it
off and
twist okay and then press it down a
little bit
B all right now with the final
one cuz you can’t really pop it too well
but with the final one I try to do the
same thing pull it together at the
bottom pull it together here and sort of
just do a little bit of a
Twist and if your fingers are too sticky
go ahead and put some flow on them it’s
fine so then go between your fingers and
your thumb and give it a nice
little push through and then twist the
bottom but leave the bottom on because
we need all that dough for a roll all
right it’s two different ways to do
it now it helps if you don’t put flower
down on your work surface because that
helps to create the tension but I do
usually like I said before sprinkle it
over you can have it on the sides too a
little bit okay and then shape
[Music]
all right there we go so all 12 of our
rolls are done now we can move on to the
second Rising now one thing I wanted to
share with you is we’re making a French
bread crusty dinner roll
so it’s very important that you allow
enough space in between each roll for
them to rise and not touch each other
okay now if they touch a little bit it’s
not the end of the world okay but when
you’re making a tall fluffy dinner roll
you usually put them nice and close
together something like
this and then they rise together and
because they rise together they are
forced to rise up and if they’re in a
pan then we’re containing where they can
go and so they’re going to rise up that
is not what we’re doing here today we’re
not making tall fluffy dinner rolls
however if you wanted to make a taller
softer dinner roll you could certainly
do it this way but I tend of like to use
an enriched dough to make those type of
rolls not just a lean dough like this is
so today we’re going to put them onto
a rack this is going to go in the combi
I’m also going to proof half of them in
my oven because I have a proof setting
in my oven that’s just to keep it
consistent so that everything is going
to be the same going to proof on the
same temperature and everything uh so
that everything’s the same so we can
really see the difference between the
comi and the oven at the end but if you
don’t have any kind of a proofing box so
to speak because that’s what we’re going
to use this for proofing box then you
can lightly cover them with some sort of
a damp towel or put them into a large or
put them onto a large parchment line
tray and then put them inside some sort
of a bag that can be tented so that they
can double in size but for the combi
we’re going to get six on here and the
important thing is to put them on each
Corner because when we go into steam
crisp we don’t want these flaps flying
up they’ll impede the way the roll cooks
and we want these to be golden brown all
the way around and on the bottom all
right so we’re going to get
six in here and we want to make sure
that we really have enough room cuz they
will they will rise quite a
bit you could even stagger them a little
bit if you wanted
to all right there we go now I’m going
to set the to the side and get my other
tray and put these other rolls on for
the oven okay all right this is the pan
that’s going to go into the oven and the
fan runs in my oven during the proofing
process so I just lightly dampened this
towel and I’m going to lay it right over
that’s just going to keep a little
moisture so the tops don’t dry out
during the proofing process because that
will impede the rising and the bake of
the roll at the end all right so I’m
going to just throw this in the oven
throw the other one in the comi and then
we will proof until they’re doubled in
size which usually takes about 30
minutes all right so to proof in the
Ninja comi you don’t need to put any
water in the bottom of the pan I could
just put the Rack in there but because
I’m going to need water to do the steam
crisp which is going to bake the rolls
I’m going to put 1/4 cup of water right
in the bottom right now that way I don’t
have to disturb anything when I go to
bake it’s just resetting the function
and the temperature and the time all
right so we’re going to put that rack
right in there above the
water and do the same thing that we did
before Slide the pan right into the
bottom
here close the
door
95° and then we could take our time down
to 30 minutes and hit start all right so
we’ll let those two proof and then once
they’re done we will get to baking them
up in the comi in the oven
[Music]
all right we have the rolls from the
oven and the rolls from the
combi oh my goodness they look so
good and so do these these are a little
bit smaller but they proof the same
amount of time now my oven is still
preheating so I’ll let these proof for
about 5 more minutes but um they look
good so everything’s going to be good
now with the comi you don’t even have to
open it once it’s done proofing I just
did that to show you guys but we can
just go straight into the combi cook so
you’re going to want to select the
function for comi crisp that is very
important the comi crisp is only going
to steam for about 5 minutes or so at
least that’s the preheat time where the
water gets boiling and then it stays
steamy for another few minutes but then
the dry heat dries everything up and
starts to Brown Brown and crisp the Buns
so or the rolls so comi crisp is what we
want we want to go to
375° and the time is 15 minutes and just
hit start and let it do its thing
[Music]
all right they’re all done oh my
gosh they’re
beautiful absolutely
beautiful
wow oh my
goodness wow they’re
gorgeous all right let me get them off
of this pan because I like to take them
off and let them cool on a cooling rack
so they don’t
[Music]
[Applause]
steam
wow this is like amazing I’m going to
show you the bottom in just a minute
here let me just set this pan back in
here for a
second we are done with the comi I can
turn that
off my
goodness oh and the don’t hit them too
hard cuz you’ll break through the crust
that’s how flaky it is all right let’s
take a look at the bottom real quick yay
we got some Browning perfect it looks
beautiful all right I’ll get the rest
out of the oven and we’ll let these cool
and then I’ll give them a taste
all right so these were cooked in the
Ninja Combi 375 Combi crisp for 15
minutes these were cooked in the oven
425° for about 18 minutes um and I can
tell by the the look of them I mean
these look glossy almost like I did an
egg wash but I didn’t um these are a
little bit duller uh they
have Browning that’s pretty oh they burn
on the bottom a little bit oops I didn’t
even realize that all right that’s the
oven
ones but I mean there is a difference in
the way that they look for sure and I am
a little shocked by that that it’s to
this degree to be honest I am really
shocked that these look so shiny and
beautiful and these look very dull so
let’s see what they look like inside I’m
going to pick two that are about the
same size so when we open them up we’re
comparing rolls to rolls all right so
these are about the same this one and
all of the ones that went into the oven
seemed to have risen higher and never
really relaxed out like these did so it
seems like the ones in the oven all of
them sort of raised a little bit
higher but a little bit rounder like
these look more like a roll I would want
to serve all right let’s cut them
open oh it’s so
crunchy oh my gosh these are my
favorite all right looks good inside
they’re still a little warm but they
look good inside now the true test will
be does it have that chew that a good
french bread has all right let’s go
ahead and open these up
they’re
[Music]
crunchy the crumb inside looks
similar um maybe a little bit tighter in
this oven one but they look pretty
similar so okay all right so I’m going
to set the ends here we’ve got the two
tops and I’m going to spread some butter
on them of
course all right here we go
all
right which one do I go for first well
let’s do the comi one
first all right so it should be crunchy
on the outside chewy on the inside just
like a really good french
[Music]
baguette oh
wow oh my goodness oh my goodness so so
good
wow oh the
flavor perfect amount of salt oh my
gosh can you see that little crispy
crust right there it’s so awesome oh my
gosh they reheat really nicely as well
you just pop them right back in your
oven or your comi and um reheat them for
a few minutes on like 400° maybe 5
minutes and they’ll be great and if they
soften up any cuz sometimes as buns or
rolls sit or bread they’ll soften up a
little bit just pop them right back in
the oven and they’ll firm up again all
right feels kind of the same I think
this one might be a little bit
[Music]
crispier
okay
so this is
[Music]
interesting it’s
chewy but it’s dense like even though
the crumb look the
[Music]
same they’re not the same these are
definitely better hands
[Music]
down
wow now if you never had these These are
perfectly passable rolls I mean they
taste
good but just a a little bit
denser and these are
not these are just so
[Music]
perfect oh my gosh even the crunch is
better well hands down we have a winner
the ninja comi hands down if you enjoy
making bread and you are looking for
some sort of an oven that will uh
provide some steam cuz you don’t want to
mess with putting steam into your you
know water into your oven or anything
consider the ninja comi it works really
well