I love pull-apart rolls. There is so much joy to be had in the tearing and sharing of bread with loved ones. And there is a certain hedonistic pleasure in biting into soft, creamy bread and getting hits of flavour with each swirl.
I’ve been toying with the idea of using coconut milk in bread for a while now. The pesto rolls are a firm favourite in our household but I wanted to do some other flavours too. And my gaze fell on a small jar of smoky chilli bacon jam.
The end result was a wonderful partnership of flavours. Coconut milk to knead into the dough and provide a slightly sweet, creamy back note, paired with the half the rolls having salty pesto and the other half having smoky, hot bacon and chillies. All complemented by some grated Parmesan.
The recipe is simple, and the rewards are great.
Ingredients
For the bread
- Strong bread flour – 400gm
- Coconut milk – 200g (half a tin)
- Instant yeast – 6gm
- Fine sea salt – 6gm
- Medium egg – 1 no
- Olive oil, for oiling the clingfilm and the pan
- Butter, melted – 1 tbsp
For the filling
- Basil pesto – 3-4 tbsp
- Chilli Bacon Jam – 3-4 tbsp
- Parmesan cheese, grated – 50gm
Method
- Take your flour in a big mixing bowl. Add the salt to one side, and the yeast to the other, taking care they don’t touch each other, and just mix each into the flour.
- Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the egg into it. With a fork, whisk the egg lightly until the yolk and whites have mixed up. Start kneading the dough.
- Add the coconut milk, a little at a time, and knead until you get a rough lump of dough.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly oiled platform and keep kneading until you have a soft dough. You may need to use a little less or more of the milk, depending on the size of the egg and how loose you keep the dough. It should not be too tight, keep it fairly loose and elastic and ensure you have worked it sufficiently for the gluten to form. The best way to check this is to do the ‘windowpane test’. Take a golf-ball sized lump in your hands and stretch it carefully. If you can get it thin enough to see the light through, you’re done kneading.
- Place the dough back in the cleaned mixing bowl, cover it with clingfilm or a damp tea-towel and allow it to rest and prove in a warm place. When the the dough has at least doubled in volume (this should take around an hour), the first proving is done.
- Turn the dough back out onto the oiled platform and knock out all the air. Carefully spread and stretch it until you have a thin large rectangle of dough. Spread the pesto evenly across the left half of the dough surface. Similarly, spread the chilli bacon jam evenly in a thin layer on the other half. Then evenly scatter the grated parmesan cheese over the whole surface.
- Roll the dough tightly along the long edge, until you have a long cylinder with the filling spiralling inside (like a swiss roll).
- Divide this roll in half, then half again, cutting it cleanly with a sharp knife. Each of the four pieces can then be cut into three equal pieces, so that you end up with 12 roughly equal sized rolls.
- Take a lightly oiled baking tray and place the rolls of dough in the tray, with the spiral pattern facing up. Be sure to leave enough space between the rolls so that they have room to expand. Cover the tray loosely with an oiled clingfilm or damp teatowel and keep it in a warm place until the rolls have doubled in volume.
- Bake your rolls in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 12-13 minutes. At around the halfway mark, you may need to turn the tray around, as most home ovens do not heat evenly and you dont want the rolls to be unevenly browned.
- They’re done when the tops of the rolls have turned an even light golden-brown. You should be able to hear a hollow sound if you lightly tap on them. At this point, take the tray out of the oven and brush the tops of the rolls lightly with some melted butter, to give them a nice sheen.
- Allow the rolls to cool on a wire rack for a while before serving.
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