Sunday 3 March 2013

Success at last (I think!)

So, the next chapter in my search for a recipe for soft baps. After the disappointment of the last ones, I did a google search for 'soft white baps / rolls' and ended up coming across a recipe by Dan Lepard from the UK's Guardian newspaper. I also found the same recipe repeated on a food blog by a British expat, who was missing soft white baps while living abroad. I won't repeat the recipe here as it's available on at least two other websites. but will tell you about my experiences and, of course, post pictures.
It is a very long and convoluted recipe which, like all bread, involves a fair share of waiting around doing nothing, but again, if you are having a quiet day at home, it would be easy to plan them into your day. There were two things which were a bit different from all the other bread recipes I had seen, in that you started off by making a sponge, to which after three hours proving, you add the rest of the ingredients to make the dough, and, apart from 30 seconds of brief action, there is no kneading!
The dough itself was very wet during the proving and kneading stages which was a little off-putting, but the blogger mentioned this and so I didn't lose heart.
The recipe was supposed to make 9 rolls and called for about 700g of flour, which seemed a bit of a waste if it didn't turn out. Also, I couldn't manage to eat 9 rolls on my own in a week without putting on serious amounts of weight, so I halved the recipe and made 6 small rolls. At least, I thought they would be small: at the final proving stage they grew into monsters and ended up joining together as batch rolls.
Once in the oven, they went a beautiful golden brown colour and I realised that I had forgotten to compensate for my rather hot fan oven. So, I watched them like a hawk and after 20 minutes they looked OK so I took them out.
My initial reaction was one of disappointment. The top of the rolls was very hard and crusty. However, the recipe said I should let them cool completely on the baking sheet. I also covered them with a cloth since, I had heard that that helped to make rolls soften as they were cooling. Halfway through the cooling process, I couldn't resist, so I peeked under the cloth and poked one again and ... deep breath ... they were soft! I picked one up and even though it was still warm, it felt soft and light, just like a proper soft bap. Success at last!

Sponge ingredients: flour, water, cornflour and fresh yeast



















Spong before rising. It grew to twice the size



















Ingredients for the dough: water, milk, flour, butter, sugar, cornflour, salt


















Finished buns before final prove


















Batch rolls after final prove





















Et voilà!


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