Bread roll

Soft dinner rolls, shaped by hand Dividing one dough into a dozen or so pieces and rounding each into a taut ball is the best shaping practice a beginner can get, because you repeat the same movement many times in one session. Cupping the dough and dragging it against an unfloured countertop builds surface tension, the skin that lets bread hold its shape. That tension is what separates a sourdough loaf that stands tall from one that spreads. Rolls also forgive mistakes: a lopsided one still tastes of soft, warm crumb, and baked snugly together in a pan they rise into each other for pull-apart sides.