Baking bread/rolls

Eduardo's Mom asked for the reciepe I used for the rolls in the previous post. I'll be getting to that, but first I'd like to say something about the myth about baking. It's supposed to be difficult - among other things because you have to measure and be excact. I'm not saying this is not true with certain cakes etc, but for your regular rolls/breads you're pretty free to experiment!

What you need for a basic bread is simply
- flour
- yeast
- water

That's it. In addition you can add pretty much whatever you like in there - seeds, nuts, cheese, youghurt, dried fruits... you name it. If you get some weird idea - just try it! (But you might want to make a smaller portion so you don't have to throw out loads of it if it doesn't turn out very tasty.)

This is what I used for my rolls (if you're making for a family or large eaters you should probably double the amounts!)
6 dl plain flour
0,5 dl seeds (pumpkinseeds, sunflowerseeds and flaxseeds)
0,5-1dl rolled oats
1 dl yoghurt
3 dl water
ca 0,5 packet of dried yeast
pinch of salt

I put yoghurt in this because I had some that had just crossed the magical "best before" date and because I like to use it when I bake. I use it in Indian Naan bread (where it's supposed to be) and in my very yummy muffins. It's not neccessary at all - but if you have some I'd try to toss it inn. Natural yoghurt of course (but if you're of the adventurous type there might be flavoured ones that would taste good, too!)

So - mix the dry ingredients together (you could of course use fresh yeast, but I'm not much of a planner, so I tend to leave it in the fridge too long and hence dried is what I use the most). Add yoghurt and/or a splash of melted butter og oil if you want and the lukewarm water and mix it all together. If it seems a bit sloppy you just add a bit more flour or rolled oats - but remember the flour will soak up some water while it's resting. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for as long as you like, aprox. one hour. Then you shape the dough into rolls, place on a baking sheet and cover with cloth to rise for another 30-45 minutes. Place in the oven at about 225 degrees celcius for 12-15 minutes. Then let them cool off on a rack. Enjoy!

TIP 1: do you want nice, freshly baked rolls for breakfast, but don't want to get up early to prepare? Mix the dough the night before, but reduce the amount of yeast by half (or more, a little goes a long way!). Cover with plastic and place it in the fridge over night! With the cooler temperature the dough will raise more slowly and be perfect by morning. The same can be done before going to work and you'll have dough ready for when you come home. This works great with pizza dough, for instance! You could use the same dough for pizza, but I'd skip the seeds and just add some more rolled oats. That make the pizza more filling! You might add some of your favourite spices, like a bit of basil or some garlic, to the dough as well!

TIP2: you can roll up anything you like in the dough (just roll it out to a rectangle, place filling, roll it up and cut into slices and place these on the baking sheet)

Here are a few I've tried (lousy pictures as they're taken with a cellphone).

Tandoori chicken - dough made with turmeric and onion seeds added for extra flavours. Then I added smal pieces of tandoori marinated chicken like I've shown you before. Yummmm!

Here's what it looked insdide (well.. sort of anyways..) Yellowish dough and pink pieces of chicken. LOL..
Ham and cheese!

Whole wheat dough with pizza filling. I placed these in a muffin tray. I like that shape!

Now that should be MORE than enough on this subject.. Sorry..