Shaping Rolls and Baps for a Weekend Batch

Before You Shape: Getting the Dough Ready

Shaping is only as good as the dough you bring to it. A weekend batch begins with a proper bulk prove: the dough should have roughly doubled, look domed, and feel full of air. For twelve generous rolls I use 500g strong white flour, 320g water, 10g fine salt and 7g instant yeast, with a knob of butter rubbed in for softness. Knead for eight to ten minutes until smooth and springy. For baps, add 25g of softened butter or lard and keep the dough slightly softer — nearer 340g of water. Prove it covered for about an hour and a half somewhere warm but not hot, until a floured finger poked into it leaves a dent that slowly fills.

Turn it out gently onto a very lightly floured worktop. Do not punch it down hard. A light fold — far edge into the middle, near edge over that — is all the degassing you need. Now weigh it. Eight pieces of 80g gives you good dinner rolls; 100g pieces give you proper baps.

The Tension Trick Behind a Round Roll

Everything about a good roll comes down to one thing: the surface tension of the skin. A tight skin traps the gas the yeast is making and pushes the loaf upwards rather than outwards, which is why your rolls rise tall instead of spreading flat.

Here is how to build it. Put a piece of dough on an unfloured or barely floured patch of worktop. Cup your hand over it, fingers slightly curved, and move your hand in small circles. The dough should catch gently on the surface and roll. As it rolls, use the side of your little finger and the heel of your hand to drag the edge underneath, tucking as you go. After fifteen to twenty seconds you will feel the ball tighten and push back against your palm. Stop there.

A few things go wrong at this stage, and they are all easily fixed:

• Too much flour. The dough skids instead of gripping. Brush the bench clean and start again.
• Too much pressure. You squash the ball flat. Light, quick circles beat heavy hands.
• Too little time. A soft ball that flops has not been tensioned. Give it another ten seconds.

Place each roll seam-side down on a lined tray, spaced a good 5cm apart so they can colour on the sides, and cover with a tea towel as you work.

Baps: Flatter, Softer, Handled Gently

Baps are not rolls with the air let out. They want a different touch: soft, pale, slightly flat on top, with a floury crown. Overwork them and you get something closer to a hockey puck.

Divide into 100g pieces and give each only a brief, gentle preshape — a few tucks, seam underneath — then leave them covered for ten minutes. This rest relaxes the gluten so the dough stops fighting you. Now flatten each ball with the heel of your hand to a disc roughly 9cm across and 1.5cm thick. Press your thumb firmly into the middle of each one; that dimple stops the centre ballooning into a dome while the edges stay put.

Sit them on a floured tray, dust generously with flour shaken through a small sieve, and cover. Baps like a slightly gentler oven than rolls — 200°C fan, 220°C conventional — and only 10 to 12 minutes, just until barely golden. Any darker and the crust loses its softness.

Proving, Dusting and the Poke Test

Both rolls and baps want a second prove of 45 to 60 minutes in a warm kitchen. Cover them with oiled cling film or a clean tea towel so they do not dry out and form a skin.

To judge whether they are ready, flour a finger and press gently into the side of one. Ready dough springs back slowly and leaves a faint imprint. If it bounces straight back, give it ten more minutes. If it stays dented and looks deflated, they have gone too far — bake them anyway, they will still eat well.

Dust the rolls with flour just before they go in. If you like the chequered top that marks out a proper bap, press a lightly oiled cooling rack gently across them before baking.

Baking, Cooling and Keeping

Preheat properly — at least 30 minutes at 220°C fan, 240°C conventional for rolls. A tray of hot water on the oven floor, or a few sprays of water against the oven wall, gives a burst of steam that keeps the crust thin. Rolls take 12 to 15 minutes and are done when they sound hollow tapped underneath.

Cool on a wire rack. For baps, drape a clean tea towel over them while they cool — the trapped steam keeps the crust supple, which is the whole point of a bap. Once cold, freeze whatever you will not eat within a day, wrapped well; they refresh in five minutes at 160°C. A Saturday morning of shaping buys you a fortnight of very good sandwiches.