Baking rolls are a breeze with this recipe from famous chef Lea Linster. The rolls are also deliciously crunchy. A wonderful buttery bread is far more appealing to me than a lousy lobster. I'm not missing anything if the bread is really wonderful and there's nice fresh butter to go with it. I'm not suggesting you invite your friends over for a buttered sandwich. Why not, though? If you have a good raw ham, a few appropriately aged kinds of cheese, a beautiful soup, and one or two nice wines, you can quickly put together a high-quality social dinner without doing much cooking.
Why I bake my own bread rolls
It's no surprise that I have a nose for delicious bread and a palate for it. I was raised in a house full of gorgeous and fragrant loaves. My grandfather was a baker and a nice man who had an inordinate amount of patience for tiny girls. When my father was younger, he worked as a pastry chef and had the most incredible palate.
In addition, a talented baker lived directly next to the school in France, and at first recess, all those delicious-smelling loaves of bread would emerge from the oven. Every day, that rich, warm bread aroma with the taste of toasted wheat flour puts me in a good mood; it even makes me feel safe. The whole restaurant smells like our rolls when they come out of the hot oven at noon and 7 p.m. sharp - it's a dream!
My recipe for baking buns
Ingredients:
For the dough starter:
- 250 grams flour
- 300 milliliters of water
- 10 grams of yeast
Additional for the dough:
- 750 grams of flour
- 300 milliliters of water
- 8 grams of yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
Preparation for the dough:
- To begin, I combine 250 grams of flour with 300 grams of water (cold tap water) and ten grams of yeast in a mixing bowl. This combination must ferment at room temperature overnight.
- The next morning, I combine 750 grams of flour, 300 grams of water, and eight grams of yeast in a food processor and pulse for eight minutes.
- Then I add two teaspoons of salt and knead for another four minutes.
- The dough is then transferred from the kneading dish to the countertop, where it is kneaded with my hands and formed into a huge ball. I covered the dough ball with a moist cloth and set it aside for two hours to rise.
- Then I shape the dough into thick sausages and cut them into slices weighing about 35 grams. I shape these pieces of dough with my hands into nice little rolls, 40 pieces come out of it.
Tip for excellent Sunday rolls: I like to make them short and pointed on both ends - it's my signature roll. But it doesn't matter; the key thing is to get the dough onto a baking sheet and let it rise at room temperature for approximately an hour, covered from the air. Before rising, I flour my rolls to give them a rustic look.
Baking homemade rolls properly
- Cut the rolls along their full length with a blade before placing them in the 250-degree oven (convection 230 degrees, gas mark 5-6).
- When baking the rolls, a tiny cup of water should be poured on the bottom of the oven (be careful with gas, the flame must not go out) and the door immediately closed again.
- The buns should bake for around twelve minutes, until plump, appealing brown, and, of course, delicious and crispy.
- Remove the rolls from the oven, place them on a rack to steam, and wait until they are at least lukewarm before nibbling into them...
Tip
You can also use the dough for Lea's crispy rolls to make pretzels, round bread, or even baguettes. Just as you like it! We have many more recipes for you, with which you can bake bread yourself.