Perfecting home-baked breads is deceptively elusive. It takes time to get the art, not to mention the science. And while social media offer oceans of bread baking photos and formulas, even at their most simple they can be tough to replicate when baked in your own kitchen. Take one of the most inpsiring bakers I follow online, Fulvio Marino. I follow his posts on the show, È sempre Mezzogiorno, a program for aspiring home bakers.

On his show, Fulvio offer a range of regional and international formulas his travels, as well as sharing experiences from his family’s Piedmonte milling company, MulinoMarino.  But transforming Fulvio’s inspiration into a reality can be a challenge. Recently I tried baking one of Fulvio’s Rosettas, a Milanese hard roll that originally originated in Austria. Not surprisingly, it’s similar to today’s so-called “Kaiser Rolls.” What intrigued me about the Rosetta is its hollow center, making it a perfect platform for a sandwich.

From watching the show, creating the empty space as an essential aspect of this roll, it seemed easy.

Fulvio’s Rosetta’s feature  method is a rolled out mass of dough that is cut, stamped and allowed to prove then turned over to bake, for the distinct rounded and hollowed centered rolls. I think pre-shaping round balls of dough instead of cutting dough from a flat dough mass makes better sense for “oven spring” . The characteristic hollow interior is produced with the aid of working the dough, long proving and a high oven temperature.   This hollow interior is known to be difficult to produce consistently and has been my obsession and despite that the taste profile was spot on, crisp crust and wheat flavor permeating.