Garlic Rolls

Have you ever tasted, smelled garlic? Smelled that delicious green funky smell? Remember how your fingers become kinda sticky after chopping them up? Can you smell that brown, toasty smell of garlic frying in olive oil before you dunk it all over your tagliatelle? Inhaled that rich smell of roasted garlic being slathered on a crusty piece of buttered bread? Sucked on that whole bulb of garlic that Ma put in light mutton curry, soaking in all the delicious juices?

I'm really not high. It's just that I love garlic more than anything on this planet.

Plus side, I'm totally safe from vampire attacks. Haha eat it Twilight!

Yeast, on the other hand, frightens me to bits. There's so much depending on it, and that itself depends on so much. It must lukewarm water, not hot. It must froth properly, not just a few bubbles. That is of course, if you've found good quality yeast somewhere, which, from what I heard, was last seen in the hearts of the deserts of Australia. But I love me some carbohydrates!

So what I made a few weekends past marries all my loves, ie, truckloads of garlic, copious amounts of butter and pillowy soft buns into one roll. That is to say, I made Garlic Rolls. From scratch.

These were rolls of doughy yet cloudy bread, absolutely slathered on the insides with butter and garlic. Dip it into a sauce, or have it with soup, or just stuff your face with just like that. I've gained weight just remembering this thing, but it was worth every single bite. So here's how to make it.

Garlic Rolls

Adapted from Kurry Leaves

You need:

• All purpose flour: 24 tbsp
• Active dry yeast: 1 tsp
• Lukewarm water: 0.5 cup
• Salt: to taste
• Sugar: 1 tbsp
• Oil: as needed
• Salted butter: 3 or 4 tbsp
• Minced and cooked/fried garlic: 2 tbsp
• Coriander leaves: chopped, 2 tbsp

The How:

• Mix the butter, coriander and garlic in a bowl, keep aside.
• In a bowl, keep the flour and salt mixed and ready.
• Add the sugar to the lukewarm water, and add the yeast. Stir lightly to combine. The yeast, if of good quality, should froth up in about 8-10 minutes. It need not look like soap bubbles, but after about 8 minutes, it should look something like the picture below. Dip a toothpick gently, when you take it back out, it should have foam. You are thereby done.

• Add the yeast to the flour, and add the required amount of water to form a slightly sticky dough.
• Lightly oil the doughball and the bowl. Cover the dough with a clean moist towel and put it in somewhere warm. I heat the oven, switch it off and chuck it in there.
• It should ideally take about 1.5-2 hours to double in size, looking something like this:

• Punch it down. It should feel hollow, spongy and well risen when you punch it down. Divide into two pieces.
• Roll out one into a square/rectangle/amoeba shape. Remember the dust the counter well. Also remember, be careful while rolling it out, since it needs to be of even thickness.
• Slather half the butter-garlic mixture on the dough, leaving space on all 4 sides.

• Now roll it up. Take care that the filling isn't leaking through any holes.
• Slice the roll into 2 inch discs.
• Grease a baking pan. Place the rolls cut side up in it, leaving enough space between them, like this:

• Cover with a moist clean towel and leave in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes, at the end of which it should look like this:

• Now brush the tops of it with milk, preheat the oven to 180 celsius and bake for about 18-20 minutes, till the tops are light brown/golden.
• Repeat for the other half. If you want, grate some cheese on top.
• Now this is my request, please wait for it to cool before you grab one. I know they smell irresistable, but just wait!

And that's it!

It cured my fear of yeast, for a while, and kept me, a garlic lover, stinky forever more!

Until the next time!