Ingredients

500 g organic white strong bread flour Shipton Mill

300 ml organic whole milk

21 g fresh yeast*

1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

120 g unsalted butter

1 egg (yolk and white separated)

a pinch of salt and sugar for the dough

poppy seeds to sprinkle

*If you can’t get fresh yeast, use the dry or instant one (21 g fresh = 7 g instant)

Method

Take the butter out of the fridge and let it soften.

Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt. Make sure you stir it well into the flour, so the salt doesn’t come in direct contact with the yeast at the next stage.

Heat the milk over a low heat until warm. Add a little sugar and stir. Transfer half of the milk into a glass. Crumble the yeast into it and stir until it dissolves. Add a pinch of flour to kick-start fermentation and stir again. Cover the glass and leave in a warm place.

When the yeast has risen up to the brim, pour all the contents of the glass onto the flour. Add the remaining milk, the sugar, the egg yolk, and the softened butter cut into pieces. Knead by hand or in a food processor until you achieve a smooth, elastic dough. Cover with a dishtowel and leave to rest in a warm place for an hour.
When the dough has doubled in volume, transfer it onto a floured rolling board.

Divide the dough into halves and shape into two balls. Roll out each ball into a circle until the dough is about 5 mm thick. With a pastry wheel, cut each circle into quarters, then each quarter into halves, so you’ll end up with eight equal segments. Roll them in starting from the outside, as seen in the photo below. Shape each roll into a crescent. Dust the board, the dough and your fingers each time the dough feels too sticky to work with.

Put the rolls on a baking tray (depending on the size, you’ll probably need two of them) lined with a piece of baking parchment. Glaze with the egg white and sprinkle with the poppy or sesame seeds.

Put in the oven preheated to 180ºC and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the rolls turn golden brown.

This batch is about 16 rolls.