Oatmeal bread rolls

This week is National Bread Week in the UK, so I thought I’d share one of my favourite bread recipes with you. I generally prefer to make bread rolls to a whole loaf of bread as a loaf often tends to go off before we go through it. Rolls on the other hand are easier to freeze and just take one out and defrost as needed. They also still taste freshly baked this way!

This is a recipe that reminds me of the oatmeal rolls my gran used to make. These ones are a bit less compact though, and has the {optional} addition of linseed, or flax seed as they are also called, depending on where you are from. {Linseed seems to be the European name, whereas it’s flax seed in North America}. I usually use the brown variety, as they are generally better value, but the {more expensive} golden variety works just as well if you prefer not to see them as easily but still want the goodness they provide. Or just leave them out – I like the texture they add though.

The recipe is pretty versatile – I have used different varieties of oats {from finely milled to rolled oats}, spelt flour {refined and wholemeal} instead of wheat and have also made them as overnight rolls {I should probably have reduced the amount of yeast then though}

Anyway, here’s the recipe. I hope you give them a go!

Adapted from a recipe from Tasteline

Oatmeal bread rolls

Ingredients
500 ml milk
100 ml linseed / flax seed – optional (70g)
150 ml oatmeal (70g)
7 g fast action yeast (1 sachet)
200 ml creme fraiche, low fat
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1000 ml strong bread flour (600g)

Method
1) Pour the milk into a pot, add the oats and linseed / flax seed (if using) and simmer until thickened into a porridge. Leave to cool until lukewarm.
2) Mix most of the flour with the fast action yeast. Stir in the porridge, creme fraiche, salt, and golden syrup, working together to form a smooth dough. Add the remaining flour if needed, leaving a bit for when it’s time to roll out the dough.
3) Cover the dough and leave to rise for about a hour, or until doubled in size.
4) Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and roll it out until about 2.5cm/1 inch thick. Use an 8cm/3 inch circle cookie/scone cutter to cut out the rolls. {Or just divide the dough into smallish sized pieces and roll into a ball. Flatten slightly} Prick the rolls with a fork a few times on each and leave to rise on a baking tray for another 30 minutes.
5) Preheat the oven to 225 °. Bake in middle of oven about 12 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

The rolls freeze well and are equally good for breakfast, as a snack and bread for food.

Instant breakfast rolls

Well, not entirely instant, but as the dough is proved overnight in the fridge and minimum kneading is involved, it is possible to have delicious bread in the space of about 30 minutes in the morning. And is there anything better than the smell of fresh bread?! (Possibly the smell of a chocolate cake baking! 😉 )

I discovered yesterday evening that we were running very low on bread and as it was getting too late to start baking traditional bread for the kids lunch boxes at the time, I decided to try to bake an ‘overnight bread’ instead. After some googling I decided to (loosely) follow a recipe by bread-blogging veteran Pain de Martin, a Swedish blogger (don’t be fooled by the French name) who has published three bread books. He calls this ‘a bread anyone can make’ and it certainly is. The ingredients are stirred together then left to prove in the fridge overnight. Then, in the morning, it is quickly shaped and allowed to rise a little bit more while waiting for the oven to heat up before baking them.

Longer proving times generally improves the taste of the bread, and this bread is truly delicious, so go on – give it a go!

Overnight breakfast rolls

Ingredients
400 ml water (room temperatured)
1 tsp fast action dry yeast
450 ml strong bread flour
300 ml rye flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp golden syrup or honey

Method
1) In the evening, mix all the ingredients into a sticky dough
2) Place the dough in a bowl and cover with cling film. Place in the fridge.
3) In the morning, put the dough on a well floured board, stretch it out to about 10×40 cm rectangle. Fold the dough in half lengthwise, to about 5×40 cm,  then cut it into small squares, about 5×5 cm
4) Place on a baking tray and leave to rise while the oven heats up. Turn the oven on to 275C (or as hot as it gets)
5) Bake for 10-15 minutes

Adapted from Pain the Martin’s Easiest Breakfast Rolls (Note – the recipe is in Swedish)

Fresh From The Oven Challenge – Pita bread

One of the things I love to bake the most is bread (although not evident on the blog yet, but stay tuned!)

When I found this months challenge for pita bread from Fresh from the oven, hosted by Slice of my life, I decided to have a go. My mum used to bake pita bread every once in a while when we were little, but I had never tried to. When I saw this challenge however, I though it was about time to have a go. Particularly as hubby had bought some wholemeal pita breads the other week, which didn’t go down well at all with the kids, so I figured I couldn’t do worse than those!

The end result turned out pretty well, even though munchkin complained the first batch were too chewy and the second batch too soft – it’s not easy to please a 5-year-old! But she still ate them so they couldn’t have been too bad!!

Pita bread
Ingredients
1 sachet fast action dried yeast (7g)
1.3 liter flour
500 ml tepid water
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 250 degrees
2) Mix salt, flour and yeast
3) Add the water, honey and olive oil and mix to a smooth dough
4) Let rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size
5) Turn the  dough out on a floured worktop and divide it into 8 pieces
6) Rest the dough for about 20 mins
7) Roll out into round cakes, about 10 centimeters in diameter.
8) Bake for about 8 mins, until golden and puffed up
9) Cool on a rack

 

 

First post! – Waffles and sourdough

So,  I’m officially a blogger! I’ve decided to stop annoying my Facebook friends with pictures of cakes whenever I bake, which has been quite a lot recently, and get myself a blog instead to capture my adventures in the world of baking and  share some of the recipes.

Today is waffle day in Sweden. We were going to have them as an afternoon snack, but E’s play date didn’t seem keen on them so we waited until pudding instead – she don’t know what she was missing, but on the other hand there was  more to go around for the rest of us!

Waffles

Waffles
Makes about 8

350 ml flour
3 tsp baking powder
200 ml milk
250 ml sparkling water
100g butter

Melt the butter and allow to cool.
Mix flour and baking powder with the milk, then add the sparkling water.
Add the melted butter.
Rest the batter for a minimum of 20 minutes.
Pour a ladle of  batter intp a waffle maker and bake until golden brown.
Serve with jam and whipped cream. Yum!

I also had a first go at making sourdough bread. Unfortunately the result wasn’t a total success, it didn’t rise as well as expected, but the taste was great and it was nice and crusty. Need to do a bit of more research  and try again – practice makes perfect!

First attempt at making sourdough bread