The 60 Minute Rolls are not a myth

I agree with Em, the repressed pastry chef. When you need bread, you usually need it now. And once you get used to eating homemade bread, it's tough to go back to the store bought variety (unless you live in Paris, of course!). Which is why I was intrigued, interested and very keen to try the 60 minute dinner rolls that Em made a few days back.

I made 6 rolls instead of the original 24. And I made them in my brioche cups rather than muffin tins. Apart from that, the original recipe is perfect. In short, you give your flour too much yeast and it literally falls all over itself to rise.

Start by mixing 2 tbsp milk, a tsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tbsp butter. Melt in the microwave for 30 seconds. Also heat 3/8 cup of water to lukewarm - this is what happens when you 1/4th the recipes, but I just took water a little less than 1/2 cup. Add 1 1/2 tsp yeast to water, then add the milk mixture (it should be now lukewarm). Gradually add flour until it stops sticking then knead it for a couple of minutes. Or head over to Em's to see how to do this effortlessly in a stand mixer.

Make a dough ball, put it in a greased bowl and let rise for 15 minutes. Divide it into 6 equal pieces and put each ball in a brioche/muffin cup. Now pick each piece in turn and using scissors, cut in half, then in quarters, and return all four pieces to the cup. Switch on the oven to very low (say 50C) and put the rolls in to rise.

After 15 minutes, increase the oven temperature to 220C and bake the rolls until they are golden. In my oven, this took another 15 minutes. So effectively, it was less than an hour. Ready by the time my pao bhaji got off the stove. And perfect as an accompaniment to the tangy, fiery bhaji.