Clover Leaf Rolls

At last ... baked some "real bread"... hee hee LOL ^-^ ! I've seen many bread recipes and some special techniques shared in the blogosphere  : straight dough, gelatinized dough, overnight dough, tangzhong method, pull apart bread ... etc.etc. I'm quite confused actually. And seeing some of those complicated steps ... lagi confused! >?<

I don't have a bread making machine and I do know that baking bread is "very time consuming" from kneading the dough ... to proofing takes between 2 to 4 hours depending on the type of breads/buns that you are baking. Although I could attend to other matters and leave dough aside for proofing,  still I don’t get to eat my products until after some 4 hours or so.

Frankly, I prefer baking cakes or pies to bread. But I would like to try out some nice simple buns recipes. This cookbook has all kinds of delicious bread and bun recipes ... Sesame Seed Bread, Rosemary Bread, Focaccia, Potato Bread, Poppy Seed Rolls, Breadsticks etc. etc. Wow! How I wished that I'm Hermione and I could perform magic just 'abracadabra' Ta da ! ALL appeared on the dining table within seconds !! Ha ha wishful thinking isn't it ^w^ !

Okay must learn to walk before I could run or 'fly'... back to reality and back to basic .... I zoomed into this kinda 'basic and not too difficult' recipe of baking rolls... Clover Leaf Rolls.

Recipe adapted from Cakes & Bakes 500 Cookbook by Martha Day, original recipe yields 24 but I reduced the quantity by half to make 12.
Clover Leaf Rolls (Makes 12)
150ml milk
1 tablespoon caster sugar
25g butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon active dried yeast
1/2 egg
1 teaspoon salt
250g bread flour
Melted butter to glaze

Method
1) Heat the milk to lukewarm in a small pan, pour into a large bowl and stir in the sugar, butter and yeast. Leave for 15 minutes to dissolve and for the yeast to become frothy.

2) Stir the egg and salt into the yeast mixture.  Gradually stir in 220g of the flour, and then add just enough extra flour to obtain a rough dough.
(I used a pair of chopsticks to mix/fold in the dough ... like kungfu ... twist & turn around ^-^)

3) Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  This will take about 10 minutes.

4) Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with clear film and leave it in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.

5) Grease 1 12-cup bun tray (I used  muffin pan). Knock back (punch down) the dough, and divide to 36 equal size balls.

6) Place three balls, in one layer in each bun cup. Cover the tray loosely with a clean dish towel and leave to rise in a warm place, until doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.

7) Meanwhile,  preheat the oven to 200°C. (Next time I will adjust to 180°C for my oven as the buns were burnt slightly ...) Brush the rolls with melted butter glaze.

Ta da ! Freshly baked.

8) Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes,  or until they are lightly browned.  Carefully turn out on to a wire rack and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Taste ok texture soft

Kneading the dough was a good arm workout for me .... so enjoying the momentum ... dust dust flour & knead knead knead. But experienced some arm muscle ache the next day >~< ....

Glad that we enjoyed these freshly baked warm soft rolls ... with a cup of hot coffee or juice. Think it's great to served with some soup too ^-^!

Have a nice weekend !

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

And

I am linking this post to Cook-Your-Book#13 organized by Joyce (Kitchen Flavours).