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Comment by lchengify | Hacker News Reader

Ah man, despite baking a lot, I've never tried to make the bread myself.

You're going to want a hoagie roll [1][2]. They are shaped like a baguette and have the same ingredients, but way softer, chewy-er and denser. It's a process with multiple rises, then it's baked in steam to keep it soft.

This [3] seems to get the details right, but I haven't tried it. Conshohocken is a suburb outside of Philly known for microbreweries and baking so it's legit if that's the source.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoagie_roll

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8oA5ACqPg

[3] https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21448/real-italian-hoagie-...

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A banh mi roll would work pretty well.

Yeah the banh mi roll is a modification on the french roll with the exact same goal that you want for a philly cheesesteak I bet.

Good call. I love philly cheesesteaks, but honestly I don't find the roll all that special (and yes I've had it at the classic places in philly). I think a typical vietnamese banh mi roll is probably going to be honestly better and work great for the sandwich.

Disagree. I've had them in Saigon in addition to here in the States, and a good banh mi roll is much crispier on the outside. That's not the texture you want for a cheese steak -- it has to be really soft.

No. Banh mi is too crusty. The best cheesesteaks have a mushy roll, NOT a crusty one.

I live near Philly and the Vietnamese grocery stores in town all sell hoagie rolls relabeled as bahn mi rolls. So if it works one way it probably works the other.

Edit: Forgot to mention. Steaming the roll is essential to a good cheesesteak. Even more than the bread after you've met a certain floor.

Apparently there is 1 Subway restaurant in Vietnam. You can go there to get an idea of what a hoagie roll is. Also make sure the steak is in strips. I ordered a cheesesteak in Helsinki recently and they used cubes of steak. It was weird.

It sounds like Italian ciabatta might work. It is a great cold sandwich bread with many of the same properties that you describe. I've seen smaller ciabatta rolls in a wide variety of sizes. It should be possible to create the "hoagie" shape.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta

Ciabatta is great but it has nothing to do with a Philly cheesesteak roll. Like so far away as to be from another dimension. A Subway roll would be closer.

You want a soft roll, not actually dense, despite GP’s statement but not airy like sourdough. In texture it’s closer to a hamburger or hotdog bun. In size and shape it’s like a sub or a hero.

Traditional ciabatta is a very wet, kinda shapeless dough; hydration level is high enough that it can't really hold a shape outside of flat blob. High hydration makes it easier for the yeast to eat the carbs, and allows the loaf to absorb more air.

Hogie rolls are long and soft, closer to baguette but with softer (less protein) flour and some light steam during the bake.

You could probably hack it with a baguette recipe subbing some AP flour, and baking at a slightly lower temp with a pan of water under the baking sheet.

edit: I also had some success in the past with a naan recipe that I didn't have time to cook w/ a flat-top, and rolled into vaguely hogie shapes. It had yougurt and a small amount of canola oil, which kept it soft -- that might be an option.

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