Some of my favourite memories growing up and staying over at my friends home are connected to homemade bread. I can remember buttering warm rolls straight from the oven and filling the rolls with thinly sliced granny smith apples. I can still feel the warm butter dripping down my chin, hear the crunch of the apple slices and smell of the distinctive aroma of the doughy rolls. These are childhood memories I love and adore.
Over the years I have shown you pics of bread and rolls baking here, but I have never shared my recipe with you. That's not very nice of me, is it? This recipe has been adapted from the original recipe of my best friends mum. She passed it onto my mum and my mum passed it onto me. I make it in my bread machine, but you can adapt the recipe if you like. I would like to share it with you as it is a good basic bread recipe, lovely and light and it freezes well. I even find that it tastes just as lovely the next day. Yes it's true!
Jenny's Bread Rolls
(Adapted for a bread machine)
2 cups of very warm water (this can vary...sometimes I only need/use 1 3/4 cups)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use olive oil or rice bran oil)
1 dessert spoon of salt
4 1/2 cups of bakers flour
1 tb of bread improver
1 tb yeast
- Place all ingredients into your bread machine (as recommended by the supplier).
- Use a dough setting and allow the machine to run the cycle.
- Remove dough and cut into 12 to 16 pieces....depending on how big you like your rolls! Shape into rolls.
- Place on a floured oven safe tray and brush with a little oil.
- Cover the rolls entirely with glad wrap and allow to double rise for 45 minutes in a warm place. (I use my oven on a low setting in winter or put the tray in the car in the warmer months)
- Remove the glad wrap and bake for 15 minutes in a HOT oven.
- Remove from the oven, slide rolls onto a wire rack and allow to cool...I can't wait though...I LOVE these rolls warm!
ENJOY!
I often tweek this recipe and add ingredients like polenta, an egg, milk powder, cheese, dried fruit and spices, nuts or seeds etc to change it around a little and to keep things interesting. But yesterday I really 'souped' it up!
I replaced the water with V8 Vegetable Juice!
This idea was inspired by a bread recipe in the Feeding Fussy Kids book. (More about this book in another post) Using V8 Vegetable Juice created sweet little apricot coloured buns with a lovely mild veggie flavour. The addition of the juice is a great way to boost the nutritional value of bread rolls, making them ideal for fussy kids! I used 1 1/2 cups of vegetable juice (heated gently to warm it) mixed with a 1/4 cup of warm water and I also used less salt due to salt being already present in the juice.
The kids LOVED them and we did too. They make a lovely change to plain rolls.
I am wondering now...how do you think these would go using freshly squeezed juice?
Thanks for visiting,
P.S The Pioneer Woman cookbook in the background was a gift from my husband who has returned from overseas. Aren't I a lucky girl? This is her second cookbook and I think I am going to love it as much as the first! Ree Drummonds blog is one of my favourite blogs in the whole world...and if I ever travel to Oklahoma I would dearly love to visit her ranch, eat at her table and ride into the sunset...one can dream!
