White Bread Rolls

I find there’s nothing better than the smell of bread baking in the oven. It’s aroma wafts through the kitchen to greet you and gets those taste buds tingling! Also it has its advantage of giving you a good work out in kneading and knocking back the dough, and a good stress reliever too. Throw away those stress dummies if you have one, bash and thump a piece of dough instead and get excellent end results of freshly baked bread. How good is that?

I’ve made bread rolls here and shaped them in cottage loaf style and long loaves. To shape them into cottage loaves, roll two balls of dough one larger than the other, place the smaller one on top and with your index finger poke it down the middle and hey presto you have the shape. For the long rolls, form them into sausage shapes and with a sharp knife make two slashes into the top of the dough.

The recipe here isn’t from the book shown in the photo by Andrew whitley – Bread Matters, but a book I would recommend to buy.


White Bread Rolls

Ingredients
240ml warm water
1 egg, beaten
450g white bread flour
1tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
25g butter
1½ tsp easy blend yeast
For The Glaze
Egg yolk, beaten

Method

Grease 2 baking sheets and set aside

In a mixing bowl add the flour and salt, and then rub in the butter. Stir in the yeast and sugar. Make a well in the centre, and then add the egg and enough warm water, mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a round, and then place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and leave it to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough on a lightly floured surface, and then divide it into 8 or 10 equal portions. Roll each portion of dough into a round, oval or small cottage loaf shapes.

Place the rolls on the baking sheets, spacing them well apart, cover and leave to rise again for 20 –30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/425°F/Gas mark 7. Brush the tops with the egg yolk and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the rolls are lightly browned.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool. Serve warm or cold.