Soft White Dinner Rolls

Softness like a little pillow!


Recipe adapted from Nigella

Ingredients:
For the dough:-
  • 500-600g plain flour
  • 1 sachet rapid rise, bread machine or other instant yeast
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt [I actually less but I'm fanatic about keeping salt to a minimum]
  • 1tablespoon caster sugar
  • 375ml milk
  • 20-25g butter
Optional for toppings:-
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoons poppy seeds
Directions:
Serves: Makes 30
  1. Combing 500g of the flour with the instant yeast, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Put the milk and butter into a saucepan and heat until the milk is warm, and the butter is beginning to melt.
  3. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix with a fork or a wooden spoon to make a rough dough, adding more of the remaining flour if the dough is too wet. Then either using your hands or the dough hook on an electric mixer, knead the dough until it is smooth and silky.
  4. Put the ball of dough into a greased bowl and cover the top with clingfilm, then leave in a warm place to rise for an hour by which time it should be double the size. Punch the air out of the dough with your fist and then turn it out on to a floured surface.
  5. Pull pieces of dough the size of walnuts off the dough and form them into small round rolls, like ping pong balls, placing them as you go on to a greased or lined baking sheet. The balls of dough should be about 5mm apart so that once they have sat to prove they will be just about touching. I get 30 balls of dough, and I arrange them in six lines of five.
  6. Cover them with a tea-towel and leave to rise again in a warm place for about half an hour, preheating the oven to gas mark 7/220°C, while they sit. When the buns have puffed up, beat together the egg, milk and a pinch of salt and paint them with the glaze. Scatter alternate lines of buns with sesame and poppy seeds, leaving plain rows in between. (A teaspoon of seeds should decorate two rows.) That's to say, a row of poppy-topped, then a row of sesame-topped, then one row of plain and then repeat again.
  7. Bake the buns for 15 minutes by which time they should be golden brown and joined together in a little batch. Remove them to a cooling rack or serve immediately. 
Enjoy warm with real butter!