Soft baked homemade rolls - doable or just a fantasy??

[FusionChefGeoff]

I love my homemade bread / rolls but the fussy DC aren't so keen on the very crusty crust.

Can I steam bake or something to make them softer??? I've never tried anything like that - just seen it I occasionally on Bake Off!

For a soft roll, I bake the bread at 180°C in a 'non-fan' oven; it works far better than a fan oven for soft rolls. I then cook them for 20 minutes and if they sound hollow when I tap them on the bottom then I know they're cooked
. If you only have a fan oven, it's hard to keep them really soft; it helps to cook them at a lower temperature, maybe 170°C or even 160°C and to wrap them in a clean tea-towel immediately after cooking.

When I remove rolls from the oven I brush them with melted butter. It keeps them from going too crispy.

DAVID, Elizabeth
English bread and yeast cookery

For any small breads which should have a soft crust, a half and half mixture of milk and water, or even all milk, makes a great difference.

In an ordinary household oven, the crust is formed before the inside is properly developed or cooked. The milk in the dough provides a good solution and has long been used to make soft breads.

• I hope all this helps. This book is 600 pages of fascination. If you see it in a secondhand shop, grab it.

Yay thanks everyone - I'll try a half milk mix and I think my oven has a non fan setting so will do that and the damp tea towel

I achieved soft bread rolls once by kneading and leaving to rise for an hour 3 times instead of once (plus the final rise before putting in oven)