These black squid ink rolls combine cuttlefish ink with a classic no-knead Dutch oven bread recipe. The bread is usually in loaf form, but changing up the shape and the color worked quite well. You don't need much ink to dye them a morose black hue. Plus, it's a fun way to add some style to burgers. It does have a slight fishy taste, so I recommend pairing it with seafood. Although I did eat some of the leftovers with baked brie and that was phenomenal. So, don't let my making burgers out of them limit any other use that you can come up with!
7g.brown sugar(or 2 tsp. granulated sugar, maple syrup, or honey)
570g.all-purpose flour(4 ¾ c.)
2tsp.salt
2tsp.squid ink
oilto grease bowl
Instructions
Dough
Combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let rest for 15 minutes, or until the yeast begins to bubble.
Meanwhile, whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl.
After the yeast has proofed, stir yeast mixture into the flour. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined.In a mixer with a dough hook attachment, this only takes a minute or two. By hand, this takes about 5 minutes. It's a no-knead bread recipe, so you're not necessarily looking for soft and pliable dough. Really, you just want all of the ingredients to be mixed thoroughly at this point! Which does make it a great recipe to make by hand if you prefer or don't have a mixer.
Lightly grease another bowl and transfer the dough.You can use the same bowl and just clean out the dough and grease, but it's helpful to have a second bowl to be able to just transfer it!
Cover dough and let proof for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Second Proof
After 2 hours of proofing, lightly flour a surface and turn the dough out. Sprinkle with just enough flour to make it workable (a tablespoon or two) and separate into 6 balls.
Meanwhile, lightly grease the Dutch oven. Place it, with the lid on, in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.It's important to preheat the Dutch oven ahead of time in order to get it warm enough to cook the bread.
Let the dough proof for another half hour while the Dutch Oven preheats for at least 30 minutes.
Bake
Carefully, and with oven mitts, remove the Dutch oven. Plop the ball of dough into the center of the Dutch oven.
Using oven mitts, place the lid back on and put the Dutch oven back into the oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes.Baking time for different sized loaves remains the same. This sounds counter-intuitive, but don't open up the Dutch oven to double check! The bread bakes in a similar amount of time regardless of loaf size because of the Dutch oven within an oven baking method. Smaller loaves may need less, or no, additional cook time after the lid is removed. But the initial bake time remains the same.
After 40 minutes in the oven, remove the lid from the Dutch oven and bake for another 5 minutes, or until the crust is crisp.You should be able to tap on the dough and it sounds hollow. Since it's black, you won't be able to trust the light brown test for doneness and are just going to have to trust it at some point!
After about an hour in the oven, carefully remove the Dutch oven and turn out the bread. Let rest until cool before slicing. This tends to take about 30-45 minutes.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
You can use any kind of sugar that you want. The original recipe called for maple syrup or honey. But I'm honestly not as big a fan of those in bread! It goes great with butter and toast and I'm a huge fan in biscuits. But this isn't necessarily something that I'm always going for with every slice of bread.
If you don't want to predetermine the flavor profile, white granulated sugar is a great choice. I usually use brown sugar because I enjoy the richness of the molasses. But again, this is all personal preference! Sugar is necessary to feed the yeast and help the dough rise throughout hours of proofing. The particular sugar that you use in this recipe, though, is personal preference. Use whatever sugar you prefer or have on hand!