BREADS

ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN…MAKE WAY FOR DINNER ROLLS!

“Bread, milk and butter are of venerable antiquity. They taste of the morning of the world.”
Leigh Hunt
IMG 6841Knotted All Over…for dinner!

I’ve had dinner rolls on my mind for a while with the Chuck Berry song that hums in the background. Yeastophobia being a thing of the past, I’m gingerly inching my way forward to make things I dreamt about for long. The last time I bought dinner rolls was the last time I bought them. They were so ‘not real’…nothing to them. So I got on & read a few baking books about shaping & knotting breads…what fun!

IMG 6836

Dreaming of Garlicky Dinner Rolls…

Then came the time for recipe searches. I had a couple ingrained in my brain for months, but the one that kept coming back was one @ Aparna’s My Diverse Kitchen. I made these pretty rolls adapting her recipe. Changes…hmmm…plenty because of overconfidence! Measured all wrong, mixed everything together & did a double take; too late. March on you daring baker, there was only one way to go. ROLL AWAY!! Other regular deviations of my kind were to add some minced garlic for a subtle flavour. I LOVE garlic…& if I can stick it into the dinner roll too-YAY!! Also didn’t have wheatgerm (what I had was well past its date) so substituted flour for that. The rolls were a GREAT hit. They looked pretty too & I had a blast shaping them to my dreams desire! A brush of milk, a sprinkling of seeds…plenty of choice. Thank you Aparna…they were really great!
IMG 6825Voices heard…” The snail is mine, ooooh there are 2 of them; I’ll have the knot please; Can I have the braid Mama?“…
The recipe, as adapted from My Diverse Kitchen.

Ingredients:

Flour – 2 cups (can substitute 1/2 cup with wheat germ)
Wholewheat flour – 1 1/2 cups
Warm milk – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 tsp
Dry Yeast – 1 3/4 tsp
Oil – 1 tbsp
Sea salt – 1 tsp
Garlic – 2-3 cloves / minced (optional)
Warm water – 1/4 cup/ as required
Polenta for dusting the baking sheet
Milk – 1/8 cup for brushing
Poppy seeds, sesame seeds if desired.
IMG 6812
Method:
  • Add the sugar and yeast to the warm milk, mix and allow to proof for about 10 minutes till nice & bubbly. Then stir in the oil, garlic & salt.
  • Mix both the flours, add the milk-yeast mixture & pull together to make a soft pliable dough. Add some warm water if required.
  • Turn out onto a floured surface & knead well for 5-10 minutes till smooth & elastic.
  • Lightly oil a large bowl & place the ball of dough into this, turn over to grease under side, & leave to rise in a warm place till doubled. (about 2 hours).
  • Punch the dough back & divide into 12 equal portions. Shape into rolls as desired with lightly oiled hands.
  • Place on a sheet dusted with polenta & allow to rise for a further 10-15 minutes in a warm place.collage1
  • Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
  • Brush the rolls with milk & sprinkle with poppy seeds , toasted sesame seeds etc. Do them one by one as the milk tends to dry up quickly.
  • Bake for about 20 minutes till nicely browned. Tap the bottom to see if you get a hollow sound; an indication that they are done.

collage1

  • Cool on a rack. I placed them in a preheated oven (switched off after preheating) for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with olive oil or some yummy butter.
IMG 6842 All knotted up & headed for dinner…
IMG 6821 Pretty picturesque rolls. We loved them!

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

14 Comments

  • Manggy

    Haha, children are funny… They never can separate the taste of food and the appearance of food! A knot feels the same in the mouth and tummy as a snail!

    Very picturesque indeed Deeba! Nice job and beautiful photos!

  • Ben

    Oh wow! Great looking rolls, Deeba. You are really mastering the yeast. Your creations are mesmerizing.

  • maninas

    Hi Deeba,

    Remember the One Perfect Ingredient event I’m organising? I’ve just realised there might have been something unclear in the rules, and I wanted to let you know about it. The restriction was actually on shipping, and not blog location. The shipping of the award is restricted to UK and Europe only, as DK have said they will post the book only to European and UK addresses. I’m sorry about that. Importantly, even if you are not in Europe, you can still take part, but the prize will be sent to a European address of your choice, if you win.

  • meeso

    I have never tried to braid any bread but it does looks great when done…these rolls look amazing 🙂

  • arundati

    oh!! where did my comment go!! great work!! i’ve been eyeing them on aparna’s blog too!!

  • Susan

    Yes, very picturesque indeed! I’ll take one of the “S”-shaped ones. Glad too see the yeastophobia is really gone for good!

  • Saswati

    Yo know what Deeba…you have a perfect hand…amazing looking rolls…am really proud to have you as a blog friend.

  • Rajee, irving, tx

    Pls teach me how to braid the bread. You have so wonderful blog. Pls let me know if u know popular italian books as I want to learn Italian recipes and baking.

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