Buttermilk Rolls

I love lazy days. You know, days when I don't have to do anything. Nowhere to go. No chores to get done. No one demanding my attention. Lazy days when I can just do be as inactive as I wish and take it easy. Well, I woke up to lazy day today. I woke up early enough but I decided to give myself a break from my daily gym routine. I'll make up for it tomorrow. Today, I will chill out. I decided to make bread instead. My bread of choice today were buttermilk rolls topped with poppy seeds.

The problem: apparently, my yeast was having a lazy day too. It just refused to foam or froth the way it usually does. Completely inactive.  Drats. Could it have reached its expiration time already? Double drats. I decided to go ahead and use it anyway. I thought I saw a single bubble in the bowl where I mixed it with some tepid water. It should work, right?  Even if it may take twice as long for my rolls to rise.

The good thing about baking bread regularly, is you lose some of the fear that is usually attached to bread baking. A year ago, I would have shelved the project and started on a cake or something. Today I figured I could wing it.

Thankfully, the yeast had some life in it yet and it only took slightly longer for the dough to rise: 90mins instead of 60 — that's not bad.

I chose to use buttermilk instead of water for my bread simply because I wanted a soft, soft bread. Why? I wanted bread which I could use to dunk in soup. Soup is my perfect lazy day meal: a bowl of hot soup and some rolls and TV. Ahhh ... sweet! Milk would have worked fine but I love the slight sourness of buttermilk.

I also added some golden syrup. Honey is sometimes used in bread for that very slight sweetness but I really am not a fan of honey and so I used the syrup instead. The quantity of syrup is only slight so you won't end up with sweet rolls; you get dinner-type rolls with a beguiling sweet flavour that's barely detectable.

For the sheen and golden tops, I brushed the top surface of the rolls with egg wash. And, I added some poppy seed for some crunch. I would have added some oats as well ... but I ran out. And, speaking of running out, I usually used white bread flour for these rolls but I didn't have enough white bread flour so I mixed it with some whole wheat flour (2 cups white to 1 cup whole wheat). The rolls were slightly more chewy but still really soft.

Buttermilk Bread Rolls
31/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
11/4 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp tepid water
1 cup buttermilk (or mix 1 cup milk and 1/2 tsp white vinegar and let it sit for 5 mins)
1 tbsp golden syrup/honey
poppy seeds
1 egg, beaten + 1 tbsp water

Perfect for dunking in my Mushroom and Chilli Soup.

Dissolve the yeast in water and let it sit for about 10 mins or until the mixture starts to foam.

Whisk together the flour and salt. Add the yeast to the flour and then the honey and mix together. Add the buttermilk and bring the dough together. Knead for about 10 mins or until smooth and elastic.

Cover and let it rise until it doubles in size: between 60-90 mins.

Grease the bottom of a round or square 9-inch baking pan with olive oil.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

When the dough has doubled, gently punch it down with your fingers and then divide equally (you can measure or estimate) into 9 portions. Roll into tight balls and place next to each other (maybe leaving a 2mm space in between) in the baking pan. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle seeds (or any topping you prefer).

Cover and let the rolls rise, about 20-30 mins.

Bake for 15-17 mins.

All in knots

He said my garlic knots tasted like fried chicken. 

"Ermmm, okay,"  I said. "Thank you."

I knew It was a compliment, though a very strange one, because my man loves his chicken. Real chicken. He isn't a Veggie Dude. 

Anyway, he then explained that the glaze topping for the buns - Oregano, garlic and butter - reminded him of a fried chicken meal I once cooked. Ahhh, ok. 

This was a first attempt at making these buns. I was browsing through some food photography sites and I came Zoom Yummy and a recipe for these garlic buns. Zoom Yummy's photographs are lovely. Browse through her blog and I bet you'll want to try some of those recipes too. Since I love making bread, I was tempted by her pictures of these garlic knots. Go check em out and you will understand why. 

Turns out, these buns are really easy to make with relatively brief resting time for the dough to rise, about 1 hour and a half in total. With a prep time of about 30 mins, the knots can be in the oven in a little over two hours.  

ZY's Soft Garlic Knots

3 cups bread flour

1 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tsp instant yeast

11/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup milk, tepid

1 cup + 2 tbsp tepid water

The glaze

2 cloves garlic, minced very fine

2 tsp dried oregano

3 tbsp butter

Whisk the flour, salt, sugar and yeast together by hand. Add the oil, milk and water and stir to combine, either by hand or if using a stand mixer, at speed 2. Next comes the kneading. If you're using the mixer, fasten the dough hooks and mix for about 8 mins (speed 4). If you like kneading by hand, it may take about 15- 20 mins. What you are aiming for is a smooth, elastic dough. 

Once the dough is ready, transfer it into a well-oiled bowl. Roll the dough over once to make sure its coated all around. Cover with cling film and let it rest and double it's size. About an hour.  

Now comes the fun part.

Roll the dough out of the bowl onto a slightly floured surface. Divide into eight equal balls. The dough is kinda sticky so you'll have to flour your hands just a bit. Using the palm of your hand, roll each ball into a rope about, about a foot long (or 30cm). Now, as you would a rope or shoe lace, tie the rope into a knot.

I know, I know, I should have pictures but I was alone and my hands were sticky and floury. Plus, ZY has awesome shots, remember? So, please refer to her for the step by step visuals :)

Tuck the egdes into the centres of the knots as kneatly as possible: the left edge goes over the top and into the centre and the right goes under and into the centre.  

Lay the knots out onto a lined baking sheet and cover with a kitchen towel. Let it rest for about 45 mins. They will rise a little and puff up wonderfully.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175C.

Prepare the glaze: Melt the butter and simply add the garlic and oregano and stir to mix.

Before putting the knots in the oven, generously brush them with the garlic butter  glaze.

Bake for about 15- 30 mins.

I'm on a roll

I am on the hunt. I want to find the perfect recipe for the perfect dinner roll. I love dinner rolls. Love them. (Gosh, can I gush or can I gush) From the rolls you get at  Kentucky Fried Chicken  to the real nice home made ones, dinner rolls rock. Soft, fluffy and puffy, dinner rolls need not be eaten with anything. In fact, they're best eaten alone without even any butter.

I made some wholemeal buns last week, topped with poppy seeds and they were tastey .. and healthy. But being wholemeal buns, they were a little dense. I think I still prefer my dinenr rolls with white flour.

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that got a lot of positive reviews and so I decided to give it a go. Angie's Perfect Dinner Rolls was what they were called -- which was just ... well, perfect. I read through the recipe and was happy that the process of making the dough was pretty straighforward. The only snag was that the recipe called for four rises -- as in you mix the dough and then let it rise to double it size. Then you de-gas it and let it rise again; de-gass it again and let it rise; shape it into little balls and let it rise one last time.

Boy, I wondered if I had the patience or the time. Somehow, I always start my baking projects after 9pm -- four rises would take me at least three hours. I decided to skip one rise -- after all, some of the others who used the recipes and commented on teh site did the same and still achieved lovely results (or so they said).

I also halved the recipe since the original yielded 36 buns. What would I do with 36 buns other than put on some unsightly pounds? I ended up with 16 buns.

The buns were really tasty. They weren't puffy and only slightly fluffy (perhaps a fourth rise would have made a difference?)  but they were soft and buttery and slightly sweet.

Lovely.

Adapted from Angie's Perfect Dinner Rolls

11/4  cups warm milk

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup and 1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoons salt

3.5 cups high protein flour/all purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

Warm milk till it's tepid: don't bring it to a boil. It should be just warm enough for you to  be able to stick your fingers in for ten seconds without being scalded. Sprinkle the yeast into the milk and add 1 tbsp sugar. Let it sit for 5-10 mins till yeast is activated and the mixture becomes frothy.

Beat in the sugar, eggs, softened butter (1/4 cup), and salt and mix. I used my stand mixer, using the dough hook on a low speed (4). Once blended, gradually add in the flour and continue kneading until a soft dough forms. Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place to rise. Should take 1 hour for the dough to double in size.

Punch down the dough and cover again to rise again (another 30 -40 mins) . Repeat this step. Dough will be slightly sticky, don't panic.

Meanwhile, preheat your over to 200C.

Now, back to your dough. Pinch enough dough to form small balls (about a golf ball or slightly bigger) -- roll them into shape. Don't know how? Click here.

Place the balls close to each other in a greased baking dish. They can be almost touching each other. Cover and let rise until doubles in size -- just another 30-40 mins.

Bake rolls until it gets golden: about 10 - 15 minutes. When done, remove from oven and drizzle the 1/4 cup melted butter over them. Eat them while they're hot.