Homemade Roll

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1
  Place the yeast in a small bowl, sprinkle with sugar, and mash with a fork into a paste if possible. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour from the measured amount, add a third of the milk, stir, and let it foam for 10 minutes to form a starter. If nothing happens in the bowl after ten or fifteen minutes, start again with new yeast.
• 2
  Mix the flour with salt, oil, the rest of the milk, and the foamed starter. Place in a kitchen mixer with a dough hook and let it process and knead for ten minutes. The result should be a smooth, almost non-sticky dough, soft and pliable like modeling clay. If it seems too dry during the process, add a tablespoon or two of milk, or add flour if it is so wet that it sticks to the bowl even after several minutes of kneading (it may stick at first, it should even stick). The exact ratio always depends a bit on the quality of the flour.
• 3
  Place the kneaded dough in a bowl lightly greased with oil, cover it with foil to prevent drying, and let it rise at room temperature for three-quarters of an hour until it doubles in volume.
• 4
  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and place them nearby so you don't run around the kitchen with rolled-out rolls in your hands. Turn the dough out of the bowl, don't be alarmed that you will expel almost all the air from it, shape it into a ball, and cut it into quarters. Roll each one into a circle about 25-30 cm in size, as far as the dough's elasticity will allow. Cut the circle into quarters again. Take one piece of dough at a time, place it with the outer curved side towards you, and stretch it a bit by the corners to the sides. Fold the ends you were holding back into the center, just about a half-centimeter flap. With flat hands, roll the dough into a roll away from you. Transfer to the baking sheet, keeping at least a five-centimeter gap. Brush the finished rolls with water and sprinkle with coarse salt or poppy seeds.
• 5
  Let the rolls rise on the baking sheet for twenty minutes. This is long enough to preheat the oven to 190 degrees, or just 170 if you can turn on the convection.
• 6
  Place both sheets in the oven at once and bake for 10 minutes. Mix a tablespoon of salt with 100 ml of water and after this time, brush the rolls with the salty water. At the same time, turn the sheets back to front and also swap their positions in the oven. Bake for another 7-10 minutes until light brown - or a bit more if you like your rolls really, really baked.
• 7
  Let the baked goods cool on a rack. Don't limit yourself, don't set rations, because everything leavened is best on the day it's baked.