Softest White Bread Rolls - (includes Thermomix method)

These are lovely, soft and pillowy bread rolls - delicious warm and buttered on the side of a hot bowl of soup, or as burger buns, or encasing juicy thick slices of sizzling butcher's bacon...

I had to take one for the team here - me and wheat don't really get on - and especially white flour: that's a killer for me! However, for me, part of showing other people how to cook things, is finding the perfect way to cook them, and making it as 'no-fail' as possible for everyone (without fancy equipment). So it had to be done with my nemesis, white bread and all things white-bread-related! You don't have to make these with a Thermomix, you can mix and knead the dough by any method you choose, until the dough becomes soft and elastic (in the machine of your choice, or around 10 minutes or so by hand), and carry on from there.

      

For me two of the foremost 'danger' points of making your own bread (before you even get to the cooking part!) are using water which is either too cold, or too hot for the yeast ('lukewarm' can mean different things to different people!), so that it either doesn't activate, or you kill it - and then after the kneading part, the main area for failure is putting your bread somewhere which is the wrong temperature to rise.

I have always put my bread into the combination / convection oven to rise, as there is a setting for 40C which rises it perfectly. However, not everyone has an oven they can set to 40C, so it was time to get out of my comfort zone in rising bread (for the first time ever), and try a way of rising it which anyone else could do, along with making sure the water for the bread was the right temperature.

I took tips from a number of sources to put together a recipe which worked perfectly including the recipe for bread rolls from the TM5 demonstration, the 'Bestest Bread Rolls Ever' recipe from the Australian recipe community, my own preferences when making bread, and tips on getting the bread to rise from some of the lovely, helpful people on the Facebook group, 'Thermomix Owners UK'.

So, with thanks to all of the above, here is the amalgamation of ingredients and method to produce some rather delicious bread rolls, which I hope are as great a success for everyone else who tries them, as they are for us!

Makes 8 rolls, from 251 calories per roll, potentially in under 1 hour! 5 -10 minutes active time, 20-30 minutes rising time, and 25 minutes cooking time. [Calories in square brackets]

Thermomix TM5 - An Overview, and Free Cookery Demonstrations in England and the UK

Have you seen this machine and its predecessor, subtly gracing the kitchens of Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen and wondered what exactly it is and what it does?

Maybe you've just started to notice it being featured in the National Press here and there, since the release of the lastest model recently, the TM5 - perhaps a review, or an article? Or maybe you've even heard of them being used in professional kitchens, in Michelin-starred restaurants?

Maybe if you're a regular visitor to my blog, you've wondered why some of my recipes say "includes Thermomix method" in the title, with some short instructions for people with these futuristic machines below the 'normal' method?

                 

Attention: If you click on play, be prepared for quite a futuristic Star Wars kind of experience, with Very. Dramatic. Music. It might even bring a lump to your throat, or make you feel sudden and unexpected powerful emotions. I can't be held responsible for this - I'm just trying to show you what it officially looks like. It's a bit intense and there's a hint of thematic elements and mild terror...

Well, this is why I include Thermomix instructions, and this is why I have one (well, two now, as it happens!). It's my little kitchen not-so-secret secret. (If you've already got a Thermomix TM31, and you therefore already know how amazing they are and what they can do - feel free to scroll past my eulogising in the next paragraph or three to the bits about The 'New Thermomix TM5' below - you'll see the photo!).