Apple And Cinnamon Breakfast Rolls

Warm, sweet, spicy bread, fresh out of the oven at breakfast time. There's something really nice about waking up to the smell of fresh bread in the mornings.

I made these rolls to use up some stewed apple that wouldn't quite fit into an apple pie I was making. I think they would have been nicer even applier, but I'll tell you what I did, so you can have a go yourself, next time you have some extra cooked fruit.

Apple and Cinnamon Breakfast Rolls

500g/17 oz/3⅓ cups strong plain flour
1 tsp instant dried yeast  (actually, I halved the yeast for an overnight prove)
2 tsp salt
315g/10 fl oz/1⅓ cups liquid made up of approx. 250g stewed apple, plus water. You could get away with more stewed apple than that - probably as much as 350g of fruit with no extra water.
2 heaped tsp cinnamon

All you do is this:

Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl, squeezing them together to make a rough dough.

Tip the dough onto a clean surface and knead it for about ten minutes.

I've got to be honest, at this point, my dough was so stiff I could hardly knead it. Adding about four extra tablespoonfuls of water rectified the problem nicely. Once the dough was easy to handle, I could knead it comfortably and ten minutes didn't feel like such a slog.

Leave the dough to rise for about 45 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

You know what? My kitchen is So Cold at this time of year that my dough takes a long time to do anything. If you have the luxury of an airing cupboard, your bread might be considerably quicker.

When you return to the dough, use a sharp knife to divide it into eight pieces. Shape each one into a round and arrange them on a tray.

You don't have to snuggle them together like this, but it makes for a sort of tearing-sharing bread that is softer, with a reduced amount of chewy crust.

I had halved the amount of yeast, in order to do a slow prove (there's that overnight dough link again). I upturned the mixing bowl over the rolls and left them out in the kitchen overnight. By morning, they were ready to bake.

If you use the full amount of yeast, your rolls will be ready to bake after an hour or so, when they've risen to roughly double their original size.

Bake the rolls at 180^oC/360F for about 30 minutes if they're joined together like mine, or 15-20 minutes if they are separated out.

I put mine in the oven while everyone was surfacing and getting dressed. By the time we'd changed nappies and wrestled everyone into their clothes (ok, some of us can dress ourselves, but you get the picture) the rolls were coming out of the oven in time for breakfast.

Belatedly (as you can see from this photo) I decided to glaze the rolls with a little sugar dissolved in water. It made them a bit more special and fun.

We ate them, still warm from the oven, with butter. The remaining few were polished off in thin slices for afternoon tea.

Gimme More!

Have you:
Made Fresh Bread In 20 Minutes?
Got your handy recipe cards?

Well? What are you waiting for?!