Soft and Fluffy Wholemeal Rolls

This recipe was originally made for iced buns however I found the bread so nice that I would eat it on its own as dinner rolls. However, you can adapt this recipe to your own and add a bit more sugar to the dough then top with icing, fill it with jam or even make it hot-cross-bun-style by simply adding spices and fruit!

I made mine as a tear and share, but you can easily make them into individual rolls, as described in the recipe below...

Soft and Fluffy Wholemeal Rolls

Serves: 8 rolls ( 135 calories each )

Ingredients

• 125g strong white flour

• 125g strong wholemeal bread flour

• pinch salt

• 20g sugar ( it doesn't matter what type )

• 20g butter, melted ( I used Lurpack light )

• 1 large egg

• 15g fresh yeast

• 145ml almond milk, lukewarm

Method

- Start by pouring the milk into a large, glass bowl. Work quickly as you don't want the milk to cool down. The temperature is very important here to activate the yeast.

- Add in the sugar and crumble in the yeast. Briefly whisk with a fork and allow to proof for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast is frothy and bubbly.

- Whisk in the egg and butter until fully combined the gradually add in the flour. Add a bit in a time and whisk until fully incorporated until adding more- you want to get as much air into the batter as possible.

- Keep adding flour until it's all gone and a dough forms.

- Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface. It will be very sticky so it will be hard to work, don't be tempted to add lots more flour- only a little bit so you can't handle the dough without it sticking to everything. I actually used two spatulas to 'knead' the dough.

- Once you've given the dough a fair amount of work, Cover it in flour and roll into a ball ( the inside will be wet and sticky but as long as the outside is smooth and dry then it's all good ).

- Pop the dough ball back into the glass bowl and cover with a tea towel. Place the bowl in a warm area to rise for 1 hour.

- After an hour, scrape the dough out of the bowl and again onto a floured surface. Work the dough a bit ( I like to slam it against a hard surface a few times to get a better texture in the dough and divide into 8 rolls. It may be too sticky to handle so just simply cover the 8 bits of dough with flour so you can roll them into balls.

- Line a baking tray with baking paper or tin foil and evenly space the bread rolls apart on top. Cover again with a tea towel and let the dough rise a further 30 minutes.

- 10 minutes before it's finished rising, preheat the oven to 180 degrees c, fan.

- Pop the bread rolls into the oven and bake until lightly golden . If the rolls are ready, when the bottom is tapped it should sound hollow.

- Allow to cool for 30 minutes and serve with butter for a delicious treat!

Can be made into hot-cross buns too!