Mini Crusty Bread Roll

Had this urge to try my hands on bread baking recently and came across a recipe posted by Happy Homebaker. Ingredients used are really simple, just bread flour, instant yeast, salt, sugar and water and steps looked quite manageable and assuring as well.

Hubby loves crusty bread roll, naturally he was happy to hear my bread making plans. So over the long weekend break, finally found the courage to attempt the recipe and with success two times!

First Attempt on Thursday night

I mixed all the ingredients into my electric mixer and let the mixer work them into a dough first. Since it was my very first attempt, decided to hand knead the dough, as indicated in the recipe. The dough was super sticky and for 30 minutes, I was sort of messing around with it, rather than kneading the dough properly. The dough didn't look ready, still sticky and didn't pass the 'window pane test'. Surrendered and called hubby for help to takeover the kneading as my arms were aching! I must say that hubby was quite a natural when it came to dough kneading :) So after another 15 to 20 minutes, the dough was ready. Although the recipe indicated 20 to 30 minutes of kneading, I guess factors like humidity and temperature played a part, so kneading should actually be adjusted accordingly.

We placed the dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl and let it proof for 1hr. And after 1hr, the dough almost doubled in size :) So magical!

Lightly knead the dough and divided them into 12 mini rolls and let them rest for about 10 minutes. Thereafter, press them into discs and re-shaped into rounds again. Place the rolls spaced apart, on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or Silpat. After dusting the surface of the rolls with some flour, clingwrapped the tray and let the rolls proof for another 50mins to 1hr.

These were my 13 mini bread rolls (instead of 12 as I made them smaller) before the second proofing.

After 50 mins to 1hr, sent the bread rolls into the oven, 200 degree celsius for about 13 to 15 minutes. Tada! My golden brown bread rolls, oooh, the aroma of freshly baked bread :d~~~

My (our) first crusty bread rolls! The crust was crispy, bread fluffyand slightly chewy. It tasted really good fresh from the oven. Hubby loved it and finished a few at one go.

Once left overnight, the crust was no longer crispy and in fact the bread roll turned even more chewy. Probably would be good to pop them into the oven for a few minutes. But this was exactly the texture that hubby liked O.o

Happy that my first attempt at bread making was successful!

Second attempt on Sunday evening

The bread rolls were all eaten by Sat, and hubby wanted more. So a second attempt on the crusty bread rolls.

This time, I decided to let the electric mixer do all the kneading. After a good 30 minutes of kneading, the engine of the electric mixer got quite hot and still the dough looked quite sticky. Ok, no choice we had to switch to manual kneading once again. The dough seemed much softer this time, probably due to high humidity on Sun?

After another 15 to 20 minutes of kneading, the dough ready for first proofing.

1 hr later, the dough doubled in size :)

The dough was indeed much softer this time and I wondered if the rolls would turn out softer?

The rolls after second proofing. How come they seemed much bigger than the first attempt? Haha, coz I rolled 12 this time instead of 13.

After 13 to 15 minutes, the bread rolls were ready!

The rolls were slightly softer than the first attempt. Whatever, they were delicious! Sweet labour of love indeed.

Thank you to Happy Homebaker for sharing the recipe. Surprisingly bread making doesn't seem as intimidating as I imagine; for this recipe, just lots of labour and patience. I'm now inspired to attempt other types of bread!