Dinner Rolls

It just occurred to me that this is my first post of the year. Oh my oh my!...

I wasn't loafing around for sure. This year has been a hectic one I must say. My helper left in Feb, and since then I have been managing the chores mostly on my own. It sure was a h*ll of a ride. No wonder I lost my password, and my mind along with it; no wonder I haven't had much chance (or time) to try out new recipes / dish, lest to talk about blogging them here.

Now that I have recovered my lost memories, (it feels like I have emerged from some black hole really), I better put this down as fast as I can.

Dinner rolls!... Love them? I do. I loved the warm small tear-apart buns. Soft and fluffy. Warm and nice. Love it in the mornings, in the afternoons, I love it in the evenings, under the moon*... on its own, with butter, or with stew. They are really your best best friends once you master them. Cross my heart.

This recipe is a sure keeper. It cuts away the proofing and 2nd proofing and trust me, all's done in less than an hour.

All I had to do was the dump the shaped dough into a preheated oven for 15-20mins.

Really, you should give this a shot.




Here's what you'd need:

* 3/4c milk
* 60gm butter
* 3/4c warm water (warm enough for you to retract your fingers from the heat)
* 4 tbsp sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 sachet yeast (I used active dry yeast)
* 4 - 4 1/2c plain flour

This is what I did:

1. If you have a microwave, heat up the milk and butter together. Or boil the mixture over low fire to melt the butter in the milk till it is bubbling slightly. Turn off the fire and remove saucepan from the heat.

2. At the same time, preheat your oven to 75degC (ie. gas mark 1/2)

3. Into your mixer bowl with the dough hook, add in the toasted milk/butter mixture, warm water, sugar, salt and 2c flour. Mix on low for a minute.

3. Add in the sachet of yeast and mix it further for a minute.

4. Add in flour a cup at a time, mixing the dough as you go. Once the dough starts to pull away from the bowl and is no longer tackily sticky, you have added enough flour. (I used about 4 1/2c flour).

5. Knead on medium (KA speed 5) for another 5-8 mins (h o l d onto your precious KA; it can walk!)

6. Use a cloth or cling wrap to cover the bowl for a minute. This is to trap the heat and at the same time, allowing the dough to rest.

7. Take dough out on to your lightly floured worktop and cut the dough into portions. I manage to cut 20 portions of 50gm each, or 30 portions of 30gm (ya, I know it doesn't add up. Plus and minus a bit here and there. Uniformity is not a rule here.)

8. Shape them into round balls and place them on the roasting pan about an inch apart; barely touching each other.

9. Place pan into the oven at 75degC for 15mins, till the dough has risen and doubled in size.

10. Without removing the pan from the oven, turn the heat up to 180degC for 20mins. This 20mins include the time it takes for the oven's temperature to rise.

my little baker @ work

11. When the buns are nicely browned, remove pan from oven and brush butter onto the bread buns to given them that healthy, glowy, glossy finish (see see see the gloss!!!)

12. Let it cool and serve. Curtsy!

Psst psst... I tried substituting 1/2c plain flour with cake flour. And the result was a batch of ever fluffier buns. Lovely.

My newly found blog: Jamie