Oat + Walnut Rolls

 Prep Time : 30 Minutes | Cook Time : 20 Minutes | Total Time : 15 hours | Difficulty : Moderate

I love homemade bread. It’s so satisfying and it just tastes so damn good. Aaand your house smells amazing. My favourite new trick for bread to make it really soft is oats. Is there anything oats can’t do? They are insanely good for you, make excellent truffles and now they make your bread soft and fluffy.

I am also obsessed with putting nuts in things at the moment so naturally getting them into some delicious bread was a must.

Don’t be spooked by the total time – we start this recipe the night before with about 5 minutes work and then finish in the morning. Just before you go to bed mix the first 4 ingredients into a porridge, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place. This is a sponge or ‘biga’ and it contributes a lot of flavour as well as helping to develop gluten which will help the bread rise. In the morning it will look like this:

It will have puffed up from the yeast and probably fallen back a little and it will smell awesome. When you’re ready to get started mix the second measure of high grade flour and the salt together in a large bowl.

Next pile in everything else including scraping out every bit of the goo from the overnight step.

Mix it together until it forms a rough dough. Leave it to sit for about 10 minutes to relax.

Tip the dough out onto a work surface. Resist the urge to add flour at all costs! The dough is quite firm and will knead fairly easily by hand. You will get sticky in the beginning but as it starts to come together it will stick less and less. Knead for 5 minutes, leave the dough to relax for 10 minutes then knead for a further 5 minutes. When it’s ready the dough should be smooth and elastic and when you press it with a finger it should resist.

Let it relax for a few minutes while you crush the walnuts. Smash them up with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin.

Flatten the dough slightly and tip the nuts onto it. Fold the dough over the nuts and stretch it out and fold again to trap the nuts inside the dough.

Knead gently to distribute them.

Place the dough in a bowl that has been greased with a little vegetable oil and cover with plastic wrap. Don’t seal it over completely as it will need to breathe. Leave it in a warm place until doubled in size – about 1 hour or longer if its not very warm. I find that leaving it sitting on the stovetop while I cook something else in the oven is a good way to keep it warm in colder months.

When the dough is well risen, tip it gently out of the bowl and fold it over on itself to press out most of the gasses. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 10 pieces for rolls (six for burger buns, 15 for sliders) and form a round from each. I have found the best way to do this is to form a round cage with one hand over the piece of dough with my fingertips slightly curved under and move my hand in a circular motion while applying slight downward pressure. I couldn’t take good pictures of it but here is a good video (my own videos will come one day!) Place the rolls onto a lightly oiled baking sheet and leave to rise until doubled in size. Put the oven on to preheat at the same time so it will be ready whenever the rolls are risen.

When the rolls are ready for the oven you can slash the tops with a sharp knife or razor blade if you like and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 200C (375F) turning halfway through.

They will be ready when they are golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Leave to cool for few minutes and enjoy!