Mr G’s Best Fluffy White Rolls

Mr G has always loved bread and has, over recent months, been learning how to bake his own. Below is the recipe he has found to produce the lightest, floury rolls yet. I made a big batch on Sunday to feed the workers (and children) at lunchtime and they went down really well with bacon (rashers) and sausages.

Ingredients

1lb strong white flour
1 tablesp sugar
1 tablesp salt
1 oz lard
1 sachet of dried yeast
¼ pint milk
¼ pint water

Recipe

Warm the milk in a pan until it is just hot enough to touch with your finger. Empty the sachet of dried yeast into the milk, stir and leave for 10 minutes or until it froths on the surface.

Mix together in a large bowl the flour, sugar and salt. Rub in the lard until it is fully blended with the flour mixture.

Warm the water a little, make a well in the flour and pour the water into it. Add the milk & yeast when ready and mix all of the ingredients together loosely with your hands. Turn the mixture out onto a board and knead for 10 minutes. Put back into the bowl and leave (we put a clean tea towel over the bowl) in a warm place for an hour to rise.

When the dough has risen, remove from the bowl and roll into small balls (about a third smaller than you would want the rolls to be, as they will rise further). Cover each roll with flour by putting the flour in your hand and rolling the ball of dough in it. Place all of the rolls on a baking tray (or two) and cover with the tea towel again. Leave for another 45 minutes or so.

Heat the oven to 200C. If you want to dust the rolls with poppy seeds, brush the top with a little water and sprinkle the seeds on them. Place the trays in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes. The rolls are done when they have turned a light, golden colour and sound hollow when you turn them over and tap them.

It may sound like a lot of effort, but the work involved actually only takes about 20 minutes... the rest of the time is taken up by the rising of the dough and you’re free to do other stuff during that time! In order to make these, we need to be home for the morning and start the process by about 9am / 9:30. The result is well worth the effort though, as the rolls are delicious and light and are always gobbled up by any children who are around!

If you're not too familiar with kneading, the link below gives a fairly good idea of how to do it.

http://breadbaking.about.com/od/beginnerbasics/ht/kneadhowto.htm