Soft Scottish dinner baps/rolls (perfect for burgers) -water roux method

Baps in Scotland are much like dinner rolls in the rest of the world, but, they are softer and larger (width-wise) and are not sweet (unlike the Irish ones). They are perfect for barbecue or for burgers. With Summer rolling on soon (hopefully), I thought I will share this recipe just in time for those special Summer barbecues. We love them as sandwiches/burgers or with soup or just steaming hot with butter for breakfast. The water-roux method gives extra soft crumbs and the butter gives great flavour to them. So without further ado, here is the recipe for 8 Baps/rolls.

You will need:

For the water roux:
25 grams of white bread flour
125 ml of water

For the bread dough
Water roux from above
75ml warm milk
225ml warm water (use more or less as required - this will be stickier dough than normal bread dough)
475 g white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar (optional)
1 tbsp milk powder (optional)
2 tsp rapid-raise dried yeast
30g butter, softened
oil, for greasing baking pan

Garlic bread sticks (Olive Garden style) with water-roux (Tangzhang)

Unfortunately, it is my turn to get the flu here. Today is the second/third day of it. I have had a lot of help and attention in the style of "Mr. Large in-charge" from Anjalie and Naz here. By now I felt that I can no longer expect them to do everything around the house. In fact, I myself was getting tired of those canned supermarket soups! So I decided to make my own soup and my personal favorite, minestrone, for dinner tonight. While we lived in the USA, Naz & I used to frequent the Olive Garden chain of restaurants. I loved their minestrone soup and garlic breadsticks. So I decided to make their style of garlic breadsticks to go with my soup tonight. Recently, you might have noticed, I have had great success with water-roux in achieving soft rolls, buns and bread. So, naturally, I used water-roux to give these bread- sticks/rolls the soft texture. I had to rush a bit since it is a weekday and I tried to get some work done from home in a bid to avoid spreading my flu to my colleagues. This meant setting the bread machine to finish the dough cycle at around 5 pm with a plan on getting dinner ready by 7:30 pm (barely enough time)!! But the garlic bread turned out great -golden brown top, soft insides with a chewy bite just the way we remember the Olive garden garlic breadsticks used to be. Anjalie loved it too as well. So a definite keeper that will please the entire family. Bread flour works out best for this recipe. But you can make it with plain/all purpose flour too. Here is the recipe I used...

You will need:
For water roux (Tangzhang):
1/3 cup bread flour
1 cup water
For the garlic bread sticks:
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1.25 (scant) cups of lukewarm water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp milk powder
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp melted butter (for spreading on top after baking)
1 tbsp olive oil/butter ( I like the flavor of olive oil in my bread sticks)
1.5 tsp instant active dried yeast
1 tbsp garlic salt granules/powder

Honey Partybrot/Partybread (water roux method)

Partybrot are traditional Swiss-German rolls, baked as one, in a round pan. As the name suggests partybrot is perfect for sharing. I received a new pot of home-made honey from a friend today and I really wanted to try it tonight (asap). I had wanted to make this tear off bread to share. I just used honey to make a sweet partybrot. It is a weekday but I could not wait to try the fresh honey. So, I quickly made a snack, veggie cutlets, for us while I prepared the partybrot. It was late dinner tonight but was well worth the wait :) I have had great success with water roux method so I used it for making this one too and the end result was perfect, fluffy and soft like cloud  bread that was sweet with great honey flavor. Anjalie loved the tear-off part and insisted on tearing off the bread for us too :)


You will need:
For water roux:
40 grams of bread flour
200 grams of water
For the dough:
Roux made from above
300 grams of bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg lightly beaten egg
1 tsp instant active dry yeast
225-250 grams**(yes, by weight) of lukewarm milk
50 grams of honey (add more if you like them sweeter)
30 grams unsalted butter + more to smear on top
Egg wash (optional): 1 egg + 2 tbsp milk

Hot-Cross Buns (just in time for Easter) with water roux

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny

Hot cross buns!

With Easter almost upon us, I had a few requests to make my hot-cross buns.  This time around, I had decided to try out the water roux method to make these soft melt in your mouth sweet buns even more soft! These traditional buns are very popular here in UK during the Easter time. The traditional cross on these Easter buns probably symbolized the four the seasons and were made during the spring time to point out the end of winter time and the cycle of seasons. But later the cross was associated with Good Friday and the Crucifixion. Regardless, they taste great and are perfect for this time of the year with the smell of spices and mild sweet taste of the dried fruits.

There are many superstitions surrounding hot cross buns. One of them says that buns baked and served on Good Friday will not spoil or mold during the subsequent year (probably due to the spices in them). Sharing a hot cross bun with another is supposed to ensure friendship throughout the coming year, particularly if "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be" is said at the time. If hung in the kitchen, they are said to protect against fires and ensure that all breads turn out perfectly. The hanging bun is replaced each year. For more info on these look in wikipedia here.

Like many traditional recipes hot-cross buns have many variations. Traditionally the crosses were made with shortcrust pastry. There are recipes that use plain flour and margarine and/or water to make the crosses. I make mine with royal icing (egg whites and icing sugar). If you do not want a sweet tasting crosses, you can use either shortcrust pastry or plain flour and margarine method. Also for the getting the shiny sticky look the hot-cross buns are usually glazed using one of these options: 3 tbsp of apricot jam + 3 tbsp of water- heated up to dissolve completely and sieved or 3 tbsp of sugar + 3 tbsp of milk- heated up to dissolve completely or 3 tbsp of sugar + 3 tbsp of water- heated up to dissolve completely. Again, I use a different glaze here with condensed milk instead. Here is the recipe I have used...

You will need:
water roux prepared as given here
1 - 1 and 1/4 cup warm milk
1 egg/ egg substitute (optional)
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 and 1/2 tsp apple pie spice or
1/2 tsp each of ground ginger, nutmeg and all spice
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 and 1/2 tsp of rapid-raise active dry yeast
1/2 cup currants
3 tbsp golden raisins
3 tbsp mixed candied fruit peel
egg wash (optional): 1 egg + 3 tbsp milk

For Glaze:
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

For the crosses: (choose other methods if you want to avoid using eggs)
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 medium egg white

Soft Basic white bread (with water roux method)

The greatest challenge with home baking our own bread is to get the bread to be as soft as possible without using any artificial emulsifiers that store-bought breads brands use. The Japanese milk bread turned out extremely soft and became a big hit with the family. I decided to try the water roux method for making a basic white bread and I have read that soya flour is a natural emulsifier and can be used to make bread softer  (add up to a maximum of 20% of the total flour) without changing the taste/colour of the bread. I had measured the ingredients this morning before going to work and placed them in the bread machine and set the timer. It was most wonderful to come home to the aroma of freshly baked bread and what a treat it was to spend Friday night dinner time together with the rest of the family and enjoy the softest home-made white bread ever! So here is the recipe...

You will need:
The water roux for a small loaf made as shown here
1 and 1/4 cups warm water (more or less)
3 and 1/4 cups strong white bread flour
1 tbsp soya flour
1 tbsp/30g butter/vegetable oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp active dried yeast

Japanese Milk bread (with water roux)

Ever since I realized how much Anjalie enjoys milk bread, I have been looking for Asian style milk bread recipes. During my childhood I remember sweet milk breads and buns from bakeries as well as "Milka" brand sweet milk bread. They had this "heavenly" sweet taste (sweeter than buns we get here) and a fluffy cloud like texture. While growing up "bread/bun butter and jam" as we used to call it were a treat which we only got on special occasions and trips. Typically, "bread" meant flat breads like rotis, chappatis and naans back home. I still remember looking at those drool-inducing milk-buns filled with fresh butter and mixed fruit jams lined up neatly in the display of local "Iyengar" bakeries. I desperately wanted to relive this part for myself and also wanted to see if Anjalie would fancy it as much as I did. That is when I came across the recipes for Japanese Milk bread from

http://www.the350degreeoven.com/2011/09/japanese-hawaiian/japanese-milk-bread-tangzhong-or-water-roux-method/

http://vivianpangkitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/loaf-bread-water-roux-method.html

I used Mika's website (the first link) to understand about the water roux/Tangzhong method, it's preparation and weight, flour-liquid ratios etc. But I wanted a bread recipe that I can easily translate to bread machine recipe for later on at least. I found the Vivian's website (the second one) to be better for that. Also I wanted to avoid using the egg since it will yield a bread with rich crumbs. My childhood bread had light fluffy crumbs as opposed to the rich crumb texture of egg breads.