The Glass Oven: Soft Baps...

Everyone likes a soft bap with their burger or pulled pork, but making them is surprisingly different to making normal bread rolls... You can dust with flour to make the traditional 'floury baps' or be a little more adventurous with your toppings - grated cheese, eggy wash and sesame seeds, poppy seeds or even a tiger bread topping .

For the yeast 'sponge'

1½ level tbsp (12g) cornflour
525g strong white flour
1 sachet easy-blend yeast (2tsp fast acting dried yeast)
450ml warm water

For the dough

50ml water (1/4 cup)
75ml milk (1/3 cup)
75g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 level tbsp (15g) cornflour
275g strong white flour
50g caster sugar
2½ level tsp salt

First make the 'sponge'
Don't be intimidated by the phrase 'sponge' it's basically a bakers term fora method of activating your yeast mixture.

In a big bowl, toss together or sift the cornflour and flour then mix in the yeast.
Make a well and pour in the water, stir to a soft dough by combining gradually with a fork, cover and leave to rise for two to two and a half hours.

Scary!

Note - you'll need a big bowl 'cos the sponge really rises like crazy and if you misjudge it then you'll have sponge all over your work-surface.

This photo is of my sponge just 1 1/2 hours after I mixed it together - it was literally half the amount when it started. The original recipe says to use 'easy-blend' yeast, but I've used fast action yeast to the fermenting time is probably shorter than the 2 1/2 to 3 hours some recipes recommend.

mmmm... buttery

Next, make the dough.

In small saucepan, bring the water and milk almost to the boil, then remove from the heat, add the butter and set aside till warm (about 5-10 mins will do the trick).

Pour into a jug and top up with cold water to make up to 200ml.

The ingredients waited like a
coiled spring

Toss together the cornflour and flour, add the sugar and salt, and mix. I use a whisk to mix the dry ingredients - it has much the same effect as sieving them...

Combining the lot...
Beat the buttery liquid with the yeast sponge until combined, add the dry ingredients, then mix to a firm dough.

You don't have to use a dough scraper
but if you do make sure it's red....

Ok, so now we get to the
sticky bit, so rings and watches off time..

1.Pull

Turn the dough out onto a well oiled surface, then give it a 5 minute stretch and kneed

2.Stretch

Give the dough three 10-second kneads on an oiled surface over 30 minutes.

3.Stretch more

4.Stretch Armstrong

Set a timer to remind you to kneed the dough as it is easy to forget if you are, say, editing a blog or something....

5.Fold

6.Repeat

aaaand.... rest...

mmm.... clingfilmy goodness....

Cover with oiled cling film leave to rest for 15 minutes

Floury business...

Divide the dough into nine 150g(ish) pieces and shape into balls on a well floured surface.

Place on a baking parchment lined tray, flour the tops, cover and leave to rise for 45 minutes to an hour, until almost doubled in volume.

Don't bother trying to use the
clinfilm you used earlier...

Don't worry if your balls stick together as they rise - this makes the nice classic 'batch' style bap when you break them apart after baking.

This is just 3 minutes in!

Bake for 20-25 minutes.
I normally set the timer for 5 minutes before the recommended end time especially as we have a particularly efficient convection oven...