Sometimes a nice, fluffy, little bread roll really makes a meal.
Sadly my attempts at cooking bread rolls from scratch have often led to hard, rock like, little bread rolls!
I have not given up however, and recently my bread rolls have improved out of site! They are not quite perfect, but they still make our summer meals of hamburgers or felafels with salad even more excellent!
Homemade Bread Rolls Recipe.
1 tbsp of instant (dry) yeast.
1 1/4 cups of warm water.
1-2 tbsp of honey (depending on how sweet you like your rolls – we are a 1 tbsp kinda family here)
2 tbs olive oil
3 1/2 cups (approx 350g) of bread flour
a pinch or two of salt.
Add the yeast and honey to the warm water, give it a gentle mix and set it aside till it froths up a little (that way you know your yeast is alive and well).
Mix the salt into the flour, then add the oil into the yeast mix and add all that to the flour.
I use our bread machine to mix, knead and do the first rise of the dough, but you could definitely do it all by hand if you wanted, or use a mixer with a dough hook.
Once the dough has been mixed, kneaded and left to rise for the first time, give it a quick knead to knock all the air out of it, then make a rough sausage shape and divide it into twelve equal-ish sized bits (more or less depending on how big you want your rolls to be). Make them into rough ‘roll-like’ shapes and pop them into a well greased baking dish, leave a little space around them as they will rise a fair bit.
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave them somewhere warm to rise. Getting a good second rise seems to be important for the fluffy factor. If it’s cold here I often leave them on top pf the fire box or even in a warm, but turned off, oven to get a decent rise happening.
They need to go into a hot oven, about 200 Celsius, for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden on the top. Once they are done allow them to cool, but eating them while they are still warm is the best thing ever! Which is why I don’t have a photo of the finished rolls… they are gone before I can ever get the camera out!
Have you been cooking from scratch?
I was inspired by Little Eco Footprints Skip the Supermarkets Challenge and Stuff With Thing has inspired me to have another go at hot cross buns!
Have you got any inspired cooking to share?
Oh I know all about making little bricks; done plenty of that myself!
I like the idea of using honey rather than sugar.
We’ve also substituted golden syrup for the honey or a little brown sugar mixed in water…. but the honey is best, not too sweet but feeds the yeast well.
Hopefully soon we’ll have our first honey from our own bees!
Ooh! Thankyou! You have inspired me to have a go. Although I don’t have a bread machine. DS’s allergies have left us without many options for commercial bread, so it’s about time I gave this a go!
This is totally doable without a bread machine… thought I love our ancient, second hand bread machine because I am too lazy to mix and knead well, and it guarantees a good first rise which is not always easy in our drafty old house!
I love the smell of baking bread rolls…have never tried honey in mine though…so might give that a try. they taste so much better when you have baked them yourself i think….i do seem to eat more of them though…..
I am currently perfecting my gluten free pastry base, stock, savoury muffins, chocolate & zucchini brownie, and thinking about sprouted flour, or maybe gluten free ravioli next! When I can get some organic pork fat, I’ll be rendering lard too.
Hi Kate, thanks for this. I couldn’t live without my bread machine. I make everyday loaves, fancy spiced-type fruit loaves, and I use it to knead and mix dough for pitta, focaccia and other flatbreads. But for some reason, I don’t have a great recipe for good rolls. So I’m going to do this this weekend! I love cooking from scratch. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction, even if sometimes it wears me out. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s what my mum did, and it’s what I do. Just about to go and make chutney now with my tomato glut. Thanks for sharing.
wow these look yum i think i might make some tomorrow :-)