My mother made beautiful bread and rolls. She used to make them weekly before she started working full time, but only ever very infrequently after that. You knew you were in for a real treat when you got home from school, and just outside of our house . . . and the air was filled with the smell of baking bread. Oh boy, but my heart did skip a beat with joy!
I am not so great at making bread. My ex husband used to make all of our bread. With five children we went through a lot of bread and so he took it upon himself when he was home to make it all. He made big beautiful big fluffy loaves. He would dance our kitchen table across the floor when he was kneading it, flour would be everywhere . . . a huge mess for me to clean up, but I never minded because his bread was flawless. He would bake six loaves at a time. One loaf used to disappear almost as soon as it came out of the oven. Everyone had to have a piece . . . hot and spread with cold butter. My favorite bit was always the middle fluff from where the sides of the double loaf would be stuck together . . .
I found this little Fleischmann's Yeast Leaflet the other day when I was going through an recipe box of mine. I can't tell you how old it is, but I reckon it is pretty old. Its Canadian for one thing, the design screams 1960's to me, and all of the measurements are in cups not grams, so it predates Canada going metric with all of its measurements.
I never did cotton on to metric you know . . . I still always think in cups and ounces, quarts and miles . . . you can't teach an old dog new tricks in some respects. And yet in many ways I am quite modern. I guess I am what they call a bit of an enigma!
Anyways, this White Batter Rolls recipe comes from that little leaflet. There are a couple more recipes in the leaflet, for Waffles, Pan Rolls and Cinnamon Bun Loaf, plus an offer of a full sized book, "When You Bake with Yeast" for only 25cents.
Those were the days when you could trust putting a coin in an envelope along with your return address, and you knew that what you were sending for would eventually come. Nobody would steal your coin.
I am sitting here now wondering why I didn't send for the full book. Probably because when this came out 25 cents was a full week's allowance for me and I didn't have money for a stamp on top of that.
These White Batter Rolls sounded simple and very do-able. Quick to make as well. They were very easy to make I have to say and came out perfect. Shortly after they came out of the oven, I rubbed the tops with some softened butter just like my mom used to do . . . old habits die hard.
There are times when you just crave a fresh bread roll. Today was one of those days . . .
These are not huge. They are just a small sized roll, but they are light and fluffy and delicious!
And they went really nicely with our dinner. What more could you want!
Yield: 12
Author: Marie Rayner
White Batter Rolls
Simple to make and oh so fluffy, light and delicious!ingredients:
- 180ml of milk, scalded (3/4 cup)
- 3 TBS sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 TBS shortening
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 2 additional tsp. sugar
- 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (2 packages, NOT instant yeast)
- 280g strong flour (2 cups)
instructions:
How to cook White Batter Rolls
- Stir the 3 TBS sugar, salt and shortening into the scalded milk to melt the sugar and shortening. Stand aside to cool. Add the sugar and yeast to the lukewarm water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then stir well. Stir in the lukewarm milk mixture. Stir in the flour until well blended, about 2 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside in a warm place until double in size, about 40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Grease a 12 cup medium-sized muffin tin well. Fill 3/4 full. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
I almost forgot to show you how nice and fluffy they were inside! Here you go. Spread with butter of course. Try not to lick the screen!
Up Tomorrow: Frank-ly Chili (A real family pleaser!)
