But today,  today is the special day. My magic touch is back!  Perhaps I should just blame it on my tendonitis that I got on my shoulder,  that causes my arm not to work so well.  Well,  it's not like I've been using a lot of kneading using my hands,  still,  I'm always looking for an excuse for a bad bake.

These rolls,  turns out soft,  fluffy, light,  and crisp.  Yes....it can be achieved using my sack of high gluten flour,  and the magic formula from Daniel Leader's book - Local Bread.  Simply love this book, because,  it is simple,  it is easy to follow,  and the breads that I make,  usually turns out beautifully.

This is one bread that takes time.  I have time,  time on the weekend to bake.  

I started out with Saturday morning,  it was a great weather on Saturday,  checked the weather report,  ah...it was going to rain the next day,  ok, I had better build in my 5km run this morning.  Very quickly,  flipping through Leader's book,  I was choosing between Como Bread or Rosetta Rolls,  I have plenty of high gluten flour,  I had better use the recipe that requires such type of flour.  There,  I've made up my mind.  

Measuring out the ingredients for the bigs - wow,  I realized its more than usual amount of biga to make this bread,  interesting.  Mixing it up,  a quick knead of 1-2 minutes in my large metal bowl,  and the dough came together,  not smooth,  just enough to pull together,  strange,  it's quite dry.  I've been playing with wet dough too much recently. Transfer it into my newly bought rectangular box,  I left it on the table top covered lightly.

Got into my running gears,  and went out running.  It was indeed good weather for a run.  I managed to run 5.6km that morning.  Coming home after 1 hour,  the biga had risen. I let it go on for another half hour,   as my kitchen is cold, and then put into the fridge, it was about 10.30am.  It will be another 9-17 hours in the fridge, that's what the book says.   I had to get a roll stamp,  that's what the book says.  Searched online,  trying to look for one,  ordered some stamp like baking equipment.  It says confirmed my order and will be delivered.  I did hope that it will deliver the following day.  All right,  I guess I don't need to bake that day,  I decided to go for a walk outside.  The week had been miserable with too much rain.  Not wasting a day when the sun is out,  we went out for a walk and let my son try out his photography.

I came back in the evening,  and decided that perhaps I should just let it go till the following day.  

Waking up early morning,  I was thinking about my dough.  Yes,  it was bubbly,  risen more than double, smelt a little acidic.  Took it out of the fridge, put into the blender,  add the rest of the ingredients,  water first,  followed by flour and salt.  Using my Kenwood Platinum,  mix at level 3 for 10 minutes.  The dough was smooth and silky. Did the window pane test,  nice!

Took out the hook and left it in the blender to rise,  I let it rise for 1 hour.  My kitchen was still cold.  It doubled nicely.   

I poured it out on the tabletop lightly floured.  Fold into a rectangle.  Suppose to cut into 12 pieces, at 80g,  I decided to cut into 16 pieces.  Too lazy to measure each piece,  I just decided to divide them up as evenly as I can.  Well,  it didn't quite even out esp the ends.  Anyway,  I rolled them up into balls,  ensuring that I stretch it nicely and tightly.  Oh gosh,  my roll stamp is not here!  I had to improvise.  Using my cookie cutter,  putting a couple of the design together,  I decided,  this might just work.  Stamping it with the cookie cutter,  well,  some of them cut too deep.  

Laid the rectangular tray with a baking sheet,  floured lightly,  I put each of the stamped rolls face down.  Let them rise for 1 hour (I think I went a little over),  and put them in the fridge covered with plastic wraps.  The book says 3-8 hours.  I let it sit in the fridge for 5 hours.  

I started to heat up the oven at 250 degree celsius,  1 hour before I bake.   I wanted to put both trays in at the same time,  but the book says, put them in the middle,  bake slightly lighter,  so,  I thought,  well,  the first tray will be a bit close to the top,  may be baked too quickly,  anyway its only 15 mins each,  I decided to go 1 tray at a time.

Removing them from the fridge,  45 mins before baking to let it rise a little more.  Just before baking,  flip them over,  oh,  my stamps didn't quite work.  The design was almost gone.  The one with the heart seems to work better.  Oh well.  It will work.  Loading them into the oven,  I noted that the book didn't require steam.  I sprayed some water on the dough anyway.  15 mins of baking at 245 degree celsius.

The rolls rose nicely,  like a tennis ball,  as what the book says.  I was pleased.

Second tray went in,  and same effect.  

I love these rolls,  I just need to get some nice roll stamps to make some beautiful looking rolls.