Yesterday’s soup proved to be (a) large and (b) delicious, so we are revisiting it today. The Chilli is set back a day and I have no need to make my garlicky tear bread. However, I have fresh yeast and time and I wish to bake. There is some ham and coleslaw for our tea – how about some soft white milk baps, topped with cheese an onion? Mr L thought that a grand idea.
I veered a little off course when I used the unbleached and also when I recalled the 4 pints of whey left over from cheese-making. I had thawed the whey out to use it as a base for our soup. There was plenty left.
The recipe is mine, veering between the Kenwood Chef book, Richard Bertinet and The River Cottage with a few things picked up along the way, plus my own inspiration.
Cheese and Onion Whey Baps
Ingredients
- 500g Bacheldre Watermill Organic Stoneground Strong Unbleached White Flour
- 10g fresh yeast
- 10g salt
- Dollop of sourdough starter (optional)
- 300ml(+) Whey (or milk or water or 50/50 milk and water)
- Handful of soaked sliced dried onions, drained
What I Did With Them
- Rubbed the crumbled yeast into the flour
- Considered adding some dried herbs, and elected not to. You could. Some mustard powder or cayenne or garlic (fresh or powder) at this stage might be nice too.
- Added 300 ml whey and mixed with a wooden spoon – the mix was too dry, so I added more to make a sticky dough and then
- Added what was left of my sourdough starter after measuring out enough to feed. Maybe 100g. This would have been better added before the liquid went in, but I hadn’t thought about it then.
- Covered the bowl and left it for 30 minutes.
- Kneaded Bertinet-style for 5 minutes.
- Covered the dough on the table and rested it for five minutes
- Added the salt and kneaded again until the dough passed the windowpane test – about 7 minutes.
- Took a handful of the now-expanded onions and kneaded them in.
- Oiled the dough and popped it into the slow cooker, pre-warmed on low – but only after I had cooled it down in a bowl of cold water. I had concentrated on the kneading to the extent that I had forgotten to turn the slow cooker off in time.
- Left to rise, covered.
- Visited the dough after 40 minutes and took it out to give it a couple of envelope folds. The dough was extremely cold to handle. At this stage I realised that my cooker has a Warm setting in addition to the Low one. In the hope and expectation that Warm is cooler than Low… I turned the slow cooker back on for a few minutes to get my dough going again.
- Made 12 rolls and set them on floured baking trays to prove for 30 minutes
- Flattened the rolls slightly. My recipe says to use three fingers to do this, but I deployed a potato masher
- Topped the rolls with grated cheddar and the soaked, drained onions
- Baked for 20 minutes at 200°C
The verdict
These are absolutely delicious! Very soft and very, very tasty. They rose rather in the oven so did not come out quite as flat as I had hoped for. Next time, further pressure on the masher.
Will make fabulous ham sarnies for our tea.
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