Baking Cardamom Rolls Using A Sourdough Starter

We had a large get-together as a family and my mom volunteered to make two large pots of curry. One would be very hot and made with mutton, while the other would be mild and made with chicken. I volunteered to make us a couple of rolls to accompany the curry. Cardamom is one of those spices that goes brilliantly with curries and I added a hint of this to today's recipe, along with some cinnamon. The combination was so popular that a number of people ignored the rice and opted to eat their curry on bread!

I started by pouring half a cup (125 ml) of boiled water into a measuring jug. I then dropped 6 cardamom pods into the water to infuse the water while the water cools down.
Option 1: If you will be using Active Dry Yeast, I recommend you add a packet to another half a cup (125 ml) of lukewarm water and allow it to froth up.

I then added 3 cups (750 ml) of cake flour and 3 cups (750 ml) white bread flour to a large mixing bowl.

I added 4 tablespoons (50 ml) sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons (7,5 ml) salt and 2 teaspoons (10 ml) ground cinnamon.

Mix all the dry ingredients well.
Option 2: If you will be using Instant Dry Yeast, add a packet to the dry ingredients and mix it in.

Remove the cardamom pods from the water, which should now be lukewarm. Add the infused water (and the yeast water, if you followed option 1), 1 egg, 2 cups (500 ml) sourdough starter and 4 tablespoons (50 ml) cooking oil, to the dry ingredients.

Bring the dough together and add more water if necessary. Add the water a little bit at a time so as to prevent getting the dough too wet.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it becomes a soft pliable ball of dough.

Roll the dough out to about 0,5 cm thick on a lightly floured surface. Aim for a rectangle when rolling out the dough.

Cut the rectangle down the middle to divide the dough in half.

Now cut the dough in triangles. I aimed for 14 as I needed at least 12, but wanted to cater for the odd guest who would take more than one roll.

Coat some baking trays with non-stick spray and lightly flour the trays.

Starting at the wide side of the triangle, begin rolling the dough up.

Put a little egg yolk on the point of the triangle to make it stick to the dough.

Brush some egg yolk over the roll for a nice shiny finish once baked.

Lay the rolls on the baking trays, spacing them apart so they have room to rise.

Here you can see clearly that I have allowed room to rise.

Cover with plastic and place in warm dry place to rise to about double in size.

You will note that the rolls will expand quite substantially.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C for roughly 16 minutes. The rolls are done when you hear a hollow sound when tapping the bottoms of the rolls.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

These rolls do not have an overly hard crust, but you may opt to cover them with a damp cloth to prevent a hard crust from forming, regardless.

Prepare a large plate or basket to display the rolls in.

As the rolls are very fresh and still slightly hot, they can squash each other if you do not give them enough space in the display.

This plate is ready to go on the table along with some butter. They are brilliant for soaking up the curry sauce on your plate and that is when the whiff of cardamom and cinnamon really come into their own.

My mom's mutton curry.

And here is the lovely green chicken curry as well.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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