Breakfast Rolls with Poppy Seeds

Whilst I'm frequently baking bread - last time with not so good results but I better be quiet, I'm still chewing on this one - bread rolls are a rare treat on our breakfast table. Mostly because of one reason: If you want to have freshly baked bread rolls in the morning, there's not much sleep to be had on this very morning. Even if you make the dough the night before and leave it in the fridge to rise, you still have to get up early to take it out, let it come to room temperature (well, I usually skip this step), shape the rolls, let them rise again, and finally pop them in the oven. Unfortunately, due to our small apartment, my boyfriend wouldn't get much sleep either. Therefore, I prefer to do the whole process the night before resulting in nice but not quite fresh bread rolls on Saturday morning. Even a quick refreshing in the hot oven never restored the ultimate crunch.

This time however, I had resolved to make Deinin's bread rolls who got the original recipe from Anne. I followed Deinin's adaptations to the letter (apart from accidentally watering down the egg wash resulting in lighter colour) and was rewarded with very tasty, chewy rolls. Half of them got eaten the same evening. The rolls were not overly crunchy but had very pleasing rustic appearance and a good, hearty bite. The other half got devoured the next morning - and miraculously, these rolls hadn't deteriorated at all! I reckon it's due to the butter they contain making for softer rolls with an obviously longer shelf life. I will definitely make them again!

PS: The only thing I wondered about was how Deinin got them big enough to fill them with Caesar's Salad. While having a nice size, mine would not have been up to that task. But maybe I suffer from a streak of bad lack regarding the whole rising business - as I said, I'm still chewing on my last loaf...