For week 2 of our Let Us Eat Bread challenge, I chose something equally sculptural – these lovely Buttermilk Fantails. Each flaky layer separates easily, and tastes fantastic spread with butter or jam. They were better day one than leftover, but I found they revived nicely when sliced in half and toasted.

These came together easily, and though the assembly looks complicated, it’s really quite simple – just layer and cut, and a muffin tin does the rest.

Enjoy!

Buttermilk Fantails
adapted from Gourmet, February 2009
Makes 1 dozen rolls

how long?
about 50 minutes active, 5 hours total

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105–115°F)
1 tablespoon sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

equipment:
12-cup muffin pan

1. Stir together yeast, warm water and sugar in a measuring cup. Let stand until it foams, about 5 minutes. If it doesn’t toss it out and try new yeast.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Add buttermilk, 6 tablespoons melted butter and yeast mixture. Stir with a spatula until it turns into a soft dough. Put the dough on a floured surface, adding flour to your hands to keep the dough from sticking, and knead until the dough is elastic and smooth, about 6 to 8 minutes.

3. Form dough into a ball. Spray a bowl with oil, place the dough in the bowl, and turn it to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a dish towel. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Punch down the dough and cut in half. Roll out half the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin into a 12 inch square, about 1/8th of an inch thick. Brush the dough with about 1/2 tablespoon of the melted butter. Cut the dough into 6 strips.  Stack the strips together, butter side up, and then cut crosswise into 6 equal pieces.

5. Grease the muffin tin. Set each bundle on it’s end in one of the muffin cups and gently separate the outer layers so they make a fan. Repeat the process with teh remaining dough, and cover with a smooth kitchen towel. Set to rise in a warm place until the dough doubles in size and fills the cups, about 1 1/2 hours.

6. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake rolls until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Brush tops with remaining 2 Tbsp butter, then transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes.

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Check out the other We Bake Gourmet group members:

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Sandy of At The Baker’s Bench

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes