Sunday, October 5, 2008

There's something so wonderful about home baked bread

It's cool and damp and generally crappy here today in NY. I woke up to rain and despite it's best efforts the sun just isn't coming out.. bummer.

So what am I doing on this crappy day you ask? I'm Baking bread!!

Just before I sat down to make this post I pulled some sweet rolls out of the oven, and just before that I pulled the plain rolls out (and after it cooled I passed one to P. and had one myself, YUM!)

I had a basic recipe for dinner rolls that resulted in dense, heavy rolls that I wasn't really looking for today but I used it anyway, the trick to that recipe is that you don't let the dough rise and they're done in under an hour.. but today I had the time and I wanted some soft rolls, so I let it rise, punched it down and let it rise a second time before dividing the dough into 12 gorgeous rolls and then left them to rise just a bit more before going into the oven.

The result? Perfectly browned, soft, freshly baked rolls and my whole apartment smelling like freshly baked bread is a total bonus :)

Perfect rolls:

Yield: 12 buns

40 minutes prep 10-12 minutes bake time

  • 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water, plus
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3-3 1/2 cups flour
  1. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.
  2. Add oil and sugar and let stand for 5 minutes.
  3. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
  4. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 3 to 5 minutes.
  5. Put back into the mixing bowl and let rise 10 minutes
  6. Punch down and let rise another 10 minutes
  7. Divide into 12 pieces and shape each into a ball.
  8. Place 3" apart on greased baking sheets.
  9. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
  10. Bake at 425° for 8 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
  11. Remove from pans to wire rack to cool.
I left the first batch plain and the second batch got a filling of brown sugar and cinnamon.

3 comments:

Vicki said...

I love baking when the weather's crappy, it makes everything better :-)

Joe Horn said...

I love bread. I've only baked ciabatta once and was surprised how awesome it was. I'm never organized enough to let it rise and all that jazz.

Thanks for coming by my blog too. Hope to see you again!

Joe

Anonymous said...

lol I guess lots of other people besides me knows the joy of baking bread on a rainy day. For me it is "Hawaiian Sweet Bread". Baking has turned into a hobby for me. Glad you visited me at "Hawaiian Food Recipe"