Easy White Bread Rolls Recipe

I've been away on holiday to the wonderful island of Madeira, we had amazing food at our hotel and I especially loved the vast choice of desserts but now it's back to every day home cooking and salad, salad and more salad!  I made these bread rolls before I went away on holiday.

I used to live in a small market town in Leicestershire and one of the things we ate regularly at home was a cob filled with Leicester cheese and topped with a few slices of home made pickled beetroot and a grinding of black pepper. It's still a firm favourite now and if you can find time to make your own bread and cook up some beetroot it takes lunch to another level. I must write a blog post showing how easy it is to cook beetroot using a steam oven, trust me it saves getting everything covered in beetroot juice, and if you've ever cooked beetroot in a pressure cooker you will know where I'm coming from!

The bread dough was made in my Thermomix but I've included instructions for using a stand mixer too, the rolls are easy to make and are wonderfully soft, light and fluffy, this is a recipe I use time and again. I always use Waitrose Canadian White Strong Bread Flour because I've found it consistently gives me the best result.

Thermomix Instructions in Italics

Makes: 12

500g strong white bread flour
5g fast-action yeast
10g salt
35g butter
300ml warm water

1. Put the flour into the bowl of the mixer and using the appropriate attachment rub in the butter.
2. Add the yeast and salt to the bowl, it's always best to place them on opposite sides of the bowl.
Add the flour, yeast, salt and butter to the jug Turbo x 3 times.
3. Fit the dough hook and pour in 300ml of warm water, knead for 5 minutes until the dough is elastic.
Pour 300g warm water into the jug Knead Function/4 minutes.
4. Remove the dough and place into a greased bowl, cover with cling wrap and prove for an hour or so until doubled in size.
Prove the dough in the TM jug, cover with cling wrap, leave until double in size about 1 hour.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl, return to the stand mixing bowl and using the dough hook knead for a minute to knock out the air.
Remove the dough from the TM jug and knock out the air.
6. Cut the dough into 12 even size pieces and shape into balls.  Place onto floured baking sheets. Dust with flour and cover with a tea towel to prove until double in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 210ºC. Place the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool.

More Bread Recipes:
Malted and White Bread Rolls
Apricot Couronne
Fougasse

How to Sous Vide In The Oven

My first attempt to sous vide without any fancy kitchen gadgets....I used a digital ovenproof thermometer, deep ovenproof casserole, large freezer bag with a zip (try the bargain shops), round cooling rack, bulldog clips and a straw.

I took inspiration from online searches and asked hubby to help me. Temperatures and timings can be found at ChefSteps (a link is at the end of this posting).  I cooked my joint for 6 hours which produced meat which was medium but I think 4 hours would have been sufficient.

I did find it all a bit of a faff but the end result made it all so worthwhile. The meat was a silverside joint I bought from Asda when it was on offer, for our time we were rewarded with a really tender joint without shrinkage and it didn't dry out. The downside is that you have to sear the meat in a pan after it's cooked and this process fills the kitchen with smoke, or alternatively browned using a blow torch otherwise the outside looks anaemic, unappetising and the meat will lack in flavour.


Experimenting before buying expensive gadgetry is a great way to try before you buy.  Sous vide machines have a huge footprint and some are the size of a microwave or there are alternative sous vide cooking aids that you can buy.

I used a fan setting at 110 deg C and let the oven heat up and stabilise for a good half an hour prior to cooking. The rolled 1kg silverside joint is seasoned and placed into a strong ziplock freezer bag.  It's good practise to turn down a third of the bag to the outside when placing the meat inside the bag to help eliminate bacteria.

This is where the faff begins.....Place hot water from the tap to half fill the large deep casserole. Now boil the kettle and add some of this to the casserole, using your digital thermometer you are looking for 60 deg C.

Taking the air out of the bag using the water displacement method is to simply place the open bag into the water and the air is automatically released from the bag, close to a straw width and then making sure you don't suck up any meat juices suck out the remaining air and close the bag.

Place the rack on top of the casserole, using bulldog clips attach the bag to the top of the cooling rack, ensure that the bag does not touch the casserole.

Being extremely careful place the casserole into the oven.  Top up with hot water checking it is 60 deg C.

Place the probe of the digital thermometer into the water and attach using a bulldog clip, ensuring that it is reading the temperature of the water and not in contact with the casserole, close the oven door.

Adjust the oven temperature to keep the water to 60 deg C. My oven temperature setting initially needed to be 110 deg C but then tracked down to range between 65 deg C and 75 deg C I used fan for efficiency, but once it settled down I didn't have to keep an eye it was quite happy at 85 deg C.....but all this for me was a faff but hubby seemed happy enough checking the temperature.

The meat doesn't look very pretty when you remove it from it's water bath but you get all those lovely meat juices to make your gravy, just be sure to pour these through a sieve and you are left with tasty meat juice.  Here is a blog post How to use juices from the bag after sous vide braising explaining why it is necessary to sieve the meat juices before making a sauce.

NOTE:
I used ChefSteps Time and Temperature Guide
For the water displacement method ChefSteps Simple Sous Vide Packaging
A must read: How to Cook Food Perfectly and Cheaply with a DIY Sous Vide Machine
An interesting read: How to sous vide in the oven with or without water

Disclaimer: Other oven brands are available but #boughtformebyme. Please be sure to do your own research if you are using this method regarding temperatures and timings because I take absolutely no responsibility for anyone reading this post and falling ill!

Chocolate Finger Birthday Cake

We had to transport the cake to Kent from the West Midlands and the safest way was to Blu Tack the cake board to the base of the cake box. It arrived safely but when we came to lift the cake out of the box it was stuck down so well we couldn't budge 'board from box'.  Eventually we managed to lift the cake out but the chocolate fingers started falling off the cake with shock.  Not to be beaten we melted the chocolate fingers with a match and stuck them back onto the buttercream.  What a faff!

The chocolate cake with Nutella buttercream pleased my grandchild and he said it exceeded all expectations and didn't care that the chocolate fingers were falling off because we were going to eat them anyway....

200g butter softened
200g caster sugar
4 medium eggs
150g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

For the Nutella Buttercream
225g sifted icing sugar
100g softened unsalted butter
2 heaped tablespoons Nutella
2 tsp milk

To decorate:
2/3 Packs of Chocolate Fingers
Box Maltezers
Bag of Mini Chocolate Orange Slices

Conventional Method - Thermomix instructions in italics

Preheat oven 180C. Grease and line 2 x 20cm cake tins with greaseproof paper.

Add all of the ingredients into the bowl of a mixer and combine for a couple of minutes until smooth.
Add all of the ingredients into the jug of the TM and mix 1 minute/3.5 speed.

Pour the cake batter into the cake tins making sure you they’re as even as possible. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until cooked. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Leave in the tins for 10 minutes, turn the cakes out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

For the butter cream
Place the softened butter in the bowl of a food mixer, gradually add the icing sugar. Mix for 5 minutes. Add the Nutella and milk, mix again to incorporate.
Add the icing sugar and softened butter to the TM and mix 15 Secs/Reverse/Speed 2. Add the milk and mix for 4 Minutes/Reverse/Speed 2. Now add the Nutella and mix for a further 15 Secs/Reverse/Speed 2.

Put the base cake onto a serving plate. Spread Nutella buttercream over one of the cakes then sandwich the two cakes together. Spread the remaining buttercream over the top and sides of the cake. Press the chocolate fingers around the sides. Decorate with maltezers, smarties and mini chocolate orange slices.