Bolillos
The point is the texture – a good bolillo is really crispy on the outside – so that the crumbs go all over the place – and really soft and squishy on the inside – but not so soft and squishy that the dough sticks to the roof of your mouth. They should not have the feel of nasty white sliced bread (although plenty do), they just feel soft and lovely – a treat so good that it is worth doing your homework.
Servings:0
Ingredients
Flavour of the bolillo
Ingredients and method
- 150 g White wheat flour
- 75 g Warm water
- Little pinch of the Yeast of your choice Really a little pinch will do
For the starter – do this 8-24 hours in advance to improve the flavour of the bolillo
Mix this together roughly so that all the ingredients are incorporated into a ragged mass. Cover with clingfilm and leave out of the fridge for 8-24 hours.
For the dough
- Starter from Above
- 900 g Plain white wheat flour
- 9 g Dry active yeast Or 18 g fresh yeast Or 4.5 g instant yeast
- 500 ml Water
- 18 g Salt
Instructions
- If you are using dry active yeast you must proof it first. To do this, measure the flour into a big bowl. Make a well with your hands and sprinkle in the yeast. Cover it with the water and let it sit for 15-20 minutes until a beige sludge has formed on the top. Then add the salt, the starter and begin to knead. If you are using fresh or instant yeast, simply put all the ingredients into a big bowl and begin to knead.
- Knead well for a good 10-15 minutes and then pop the dough back into the bowl, cover it with cling film or a tea towel and let it rest for 1-2 hours until it has doubled in size.
- Pull it out and push all the air out of it. Give it a good knead and the put it back into the bowl to let it rise again for 1-2 hours until it has doubled in size again.
- Pull it out again and this time form it gently into one long sausage shape. Cut this into 24 pieces and roll each one into a tight ball. Let them rest, under a tea towel for 15 minutes and then form them into individual sausages with pointy ends. The easiest way to form the pointy ends is to simply form a sausage and press down with the edges of your hands about 1 cm from the edges of the sausages to form an indentation at either end of the sausage. These look a bit like ears at this point, but they will form pointy ends while they rise! Place them on cookie sheets that you have lined with baking parchment. Give them plenty of space so they don’t glom together as they rise or bake. Cover these with a tea towel and let them rise for about one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and, before you pop the dough in the oven, make a deep cut from end to end in each bun. Spray them with water from a plant sprayer or paint them a glaze you have made by boiling about 150 ml of water together with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch until it becomes clear. Pop them in the oven and bake them for 15-20 minutes. The crust should be golden and the bolillos should sound hollow when you tap their bottoms. Let cool completely and fill with some gorgeous filling to make yummy tortas.