Soft cream cheese rolls

These soft cream cheese rolls are light, fluffy and wonderfully soft – perfect for toasting. Their mild flavour makes them ideal with jam, honey or soft cheese, but they’re equally delicious as homemade burger buns. You won’t taste the cream cheese after baking, but it replaces the butter beautifully, giving the rolls a soft, tender crumb and a light texture.

Makes 8 rolls.

Ingredients for the soft cream cheese rolls:

• 300 g strong white bread flour
• 15 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 g fresh yeast or 5 g dried yeast
• 1 large egg
• 150 ml lukewarm milk
• 50 g full-fat cream cheese (such as Philadelphia)

All the ingredients should be at room temperature. Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, prepare a starter first). Add the remaining ingredients and knead until the dough is smooth, soft and elastic. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1½ hours.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Divide into 8 equal pieces and shape into rolls. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise again for about 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

For brushing:

• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

Brush the risen rolls with the egg wash just before baking.

Bake at 180°C for 18–20 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: MaggiEats.com, adapted with my own modifications.