Crescent Rolls

I love bread. The thought of being on a low-carb diet scares the buhjesus out of me. What would I eat? More importantly, what would I bake? So I won't go low-carb. Instead, I'm just trying to learn to love my flabby middle. As that's never going to happen though, I guess I'll just stick to trying to run off what I eat.

I've been working on a birthday cake all week and it's finally finished (those of you who follow me on Twitter [thanks LuShu!] will have seen a picture of it). Every time I turn around in the kitchen I was staring at more sugar or more butter so I thought I'd bake something with neither (though actually that's a lie). 

My favorite part of dinner used to be bread rolls. Maybe tha

t was just part of being a kid and not having defined enough taste buds for anything other than sugar, refined flour and more sugar. In fact, for a long time my little sister would eat nothing but bread and butter. Either way I looked forward to the garlic bread with pasta or the buns with burgers or the crescent rolls with just about anything else. And it turns out, making you're own crescent rolls is really easy! It's a simple milk bread recipe which is incredibly adaptable; I took half the dough and made cloverleaf rolls as well. Loafs, plaits and buns are other options as well.

4 cups (1lb) flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups (12 oz) milk

2 tsps sugar

1 tsp dried yeast

60gr butter

1 egg

soft butter

Sift flour and salt into a warmed bowl. I usually turn the oven on gas mark 1 and place it in there. Warm half the milk to luke warm with the sugar. Pour yeast over milk and sugar mix. Stir until dissolved. Pour mix into a well in the flour. Sprinkle a little flour over and allow to sponge. Leave until middle looks spongy with lots of bubbles. 

Warm the rest of the milk with the butter and pour into sponge. Mix to a soft dough. Place on floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Return dough to lightly greased bowl and allow to rise in warm place until doubled. 

Punch down with your fists and knead lightly. Roll into circle 1/4 in thick and spread with soft butter. Cut into 8 wedges and roll up each wedge from outer wide edge. Shape into crescent, place on baking sheet and allow to prove until doubled in size. Brush with beaten egg glaze and bake 10-15 minutes at 230C/450F/gas 8.