The British Bap - recipe

Soft, warm floury bread roll made with lard - aka The British Bap! 

There was a post war era when butter was not easily available and bread dough was made with shortening. Unfortunately, thanks to the unsubstantiated health risks circulated in the mid 1900’s most people moved away from using lard as an ingredient and forgot what it does to the texture of bread.

Wanting to bring a bit of nostalgia to my weekly menu I was researching old recipes for a bread roll i grew up with known as the ‘bap’. In England you can go from county to county and find different names for bread rolls which are commonly served in road side sandwich shops, bakeries and tea rooms but there is a common secret to their soft and billowy breadiness… good old lard!

These rolls are a cinch to make but guaranteed to have your friends and family hooked. They are a perfect delight just served warm slathered in butter but also out perform any other roll when used as a sandwich bread.

The recipe below yields 10 rolls, they will stay soft and fresh a few days in an air tight ziplock or container, or bake ahead and freeze as needed.

The British Bap

Recipe.

• Ingredients

  Makes 10 baps

  3 1/3 cups bread flour
  1 tsp salt
  1/4 cup lard

  2/3 cup warm water
  2/3 cup warm milk
  2 tsp sugar
  2 tsp yeast

• Method

  Rub lard, four and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
  
  In a smaller bowl measure milk and water and warm through. Add dry active yeast and sugar to the water milk mixture and wait for the yeast to start foaming.

  Once yeast mixture is activated add the contents of the small bowl to the large bowl containing flour. Mix to combine everything

  Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 mins.

  Return dough to the large bowl cover with cling wrap and leave in a warm spot, wait for the dough to double in size ( approx 1 hour)

  Prepare a cookie sheet together with cooling rack and place a large sheet of parchment paper over the tray and rack.

  The rack is going to keep your rolls from direct heat on the bottom of the tray to prevent the bottoms getting baked hard.

  When dough has risen, With floured hands divide dough into 10 pieces ( roughly 100g per piece) form into a ball shape, squish the ball into a flattened round disc shape and place on the parchment paper to rise a 2nd time.

  Pre heat your oven to 450F

  Once all 10 rolls have risen (30 mins-ish) sift some flour over the surface of the rolls

  bake for 10mins until golden brown.

  The rolls will still be cooking when removed from the oven and will appear hard on the surface but will soften as they cool.

  Once cool enough to handle transfer to a cooling rack. When they are completely cold you can store in a zip lock bag to maintain softness.

• Notes

  Dry active yeast is my preferred alternative to instant yeast. Bread making should be a slow process, the longer that flour is allowed to soak the more digestible it becomes.

  If you don't want to warm your water and milk mixture in the microwave use water from the kettle that is cooling down and mix with milk from the fridge. Just be sure not to add the yeast until the liquid is cooled enough to comfortably to touch.

Let’s bake together as you follow along on YouTube!