Forget the Jiffy, Anakkarat Barth’s Thai-American family uses Thai peanut sauce to make their favorite PB&J sandwich. This favorite family ingredient inspired Barth, who lives in Long Beach, California, to include Thai peanut sauce in her entry in the 2021 Virtual National Festival of Breads — Savory Thai Peanut Sauce Rolls. The recipe’s dynamic flavors and soft texture earned her a spot in the June 9 event as the winner of the Savory Rolls category of the Adult Division. 

“Ever since I moved to the United States 25 years ago, I have always looked for ways to integrate Thai ingredients and techniques into my everyday cooking and baking,” Barth said. “I continue to experiment on how different flavors come together. It makes me very happy when it works and this recipe is one of them.” 

The secret isn’t just in the sauce, but also how it’s used in the recipe that makes Barth’s rolls so outstanding. She learned to whisk the Thai peanut sauce constantly to prevent scorching and then refrigerate the sauce so it turns into more of a paste that is easy to spread on the master dough recipe. She also used a Tangzhong starter, a common technique that Asian bakers use for soft breads, to make the rolls soft and fluffy. 

In addition to the Thai peanut sauce, the recipe also uses high-quality KING ARTHUR®  Bread Flour and RED STAR® Active Dry Yeast to bring the rolls to perfection. In the test kitchen, recipe evaluators commented the rolls were light as a feather and a melt-in-your-mouth combination of sweet and savory.