Kitchen Exploits - Bread Rolls

Are we back to Kitchen Exploits weekend again?!

The week has been a challenging and literally painful one for me. If you have been following my Tweets, you would know that I had to undergo two surgical procedures earlier in the week to remove lumps from around my hip/waist. The biopsy results are not out yet, but my doctor is confident that I have nothing to worry about. Very thankful.

Recuperation has been more painful than expected. I actually thought I could go home the day of the surgery. My doctor gave me *the look* of course, and when I was wheeled out of the operating theatre and regained consciousness, I knew he was absolutely right that I definitely needed to stay in!

Book cover from The Book Depository

Anyway, prior to my surgery, I was baking a lot of bread rolls - because I chanced upon this wonderful recipe from Page 24 of How to Make Bread by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou. I highly recommend this book!

Unfortunately I had no freezer space to freeze bread for post-surgery enjoyment. Breast milk storage had to take priority!

These rolls don't require machine kneading. A simple hand kneading technique with blocks of time in between each knead for yeast magic to work was all that was required. This was a real plus for me, given that my machine broke several weeks ago. The crust had the right amount of firmness and crisp, and the insides a good balance of fluffy and chewy. My family loved the rolls!

The book gives detailed step-by-step instructions with accompanying photos. I would not do justice to the author if I summarized a recipe here. So do check the book out! The only thing I would point out is to be careful if you are using cup measurements - given the different types of cup sizes. I weighed each ingredient and my breads turned out perfect.

We ate these with a delicious Oxtail Stew - a recipe that I will share next week :)

I would love to hear about your favourite bread recipe! Do drop me a line!