My friend Lisa rang me to say that she couldn’t stomach reading another post about lard. So these rolls are for her – and my Pete, who absolutely adored them.
They’re a riff on the lardy cake recipe, substituting a reduced amount of butter for the fat. The revised ingredients list is as follows:
- 500g bakers/bread flour
- 8g fine sea salt
- 200g active sourdough starter (at 80% hydration – see original post)
- 250g water
- 1¼ teaspoons dried yeast
- 100g – 120g unsalted butter, cold
- 125g – 150g caster sugar
- dried fruit – I used a mix of currants and golden raisins
- grating of nutmeg
- extra caster sugar for topping
Note: I’ve made this recipe twice now – once with 120g butter and 150g sugar, and a second time with 100g butter and 125g sugar. I didn’t notice a huge difference, so will probably bake the lower fat version in future. The photos here though are from the higher fat batch.
Follow the original instructions to make and shape the dough, substituting the cold unsalted butter for the lard. When the dough has been rolled into a log, simply cut it into ten equal slices and lay them out on a lined baking tray to prove for an hour, covered with a tea towel…
Sprinkle the tops of the proved rolls with extra caster sugar and a little grated nutmeg, then bake in a preheated 190C with fan oven for 15 minutes, followed by a further 20 – 25 minutes at 175C with fan. Watch them carefully, to make sure they don’t burn.
Allow to cool on a wire rack, inverted if the sugar syrup on the base of the roll is still runny…
The finished rolls have a rich, buttery crumb and a crunchy exterior reminiscent of European pastries and sweet rolls. I froze half the batch or Pete would have eaten them all!
. . . . .
At 9pm last Wednesday night, I found myself (as I often do) nursing a hot cup of peppermint tea at Nic and PeteV’s house around the corner. We were nibbling on incredibly moreish spiced peanuts, coated in jalapeño chilli and garlic powder.
As the following day was ANZAC Day, I had a little time to mess about with a recipe, and came up with this:
- 750g raw peanuts
- 3 teaspoons Maldon sea salt
- 25g dark brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 30ml cold-pressed peanut oil
Preheat the oven to 175C with fan. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, salt, sugar, garlic powder, chilli powder and paprika. Pour the peanuts into a large mixing bowl, add the oil-spice mix, then massage it in well with clean hands.
Tip the nuts onto one or two parchment-lined trays, then bake for 30 minutes, giving them a good stir at the 15 minute mark. Watch that they don’t burn! Allow the nuts to cool on the trays, during which time they’ll harden up and go crunchy. Season with extra salt if desired.
Nic and PeteV declared these to be better than the original nuts!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Two fabulous recipes in one post – what a treat Celia.
:-) Mandy xo
Thanks Mandy! xx
Full fat, reduced fat- I’ll eat those rolls any day! The peanuts look delicious too. My kind of flavors! Xx
Emilie, the buns have defrosted surprisingly well! They lasted much longer than the peanuts! :) x
I would love to start my day with one of the rolls and the finish it with a nibble of the nuts. :)
Karen, thank you – wish I could share with you!
They look great – that lardy cake certainly has some legs!
Nick, I personally prefer it with lard, but Pete definitely prefers the butter version! :)
I can’t wait to make these lardy cakes. They look like the perfect after school snack. And that crumb looks mouth watering.
Clare, hope you like them! :)
I wish I’d been at your residence when these lardy (butter) rolls came out of the oven. No wonder you had to freeze half of them I hide a lot of things in my freezer too. And those nuts would be good as an evening snack with a sundowner too xx
Charlie, I’m going to have a bit of a rest before I make the nuts again I think – I couldn’t stop eating them!! :)
Oh – very nice. You’d have to be quick getting those into the freezer in my house. Although the presence of dried fruit in them might just be enough to ensure that there were some left after the kids see them.
Amanda, the original Dan Lepard recipe that I based these on didn’t have dried fruit! :)
Oh yum! If I had one of those rolls with my coffee right now, love, I’m sure I’d be feeling better! (Do you deliver) ; )
Hehehe…sure love, within a 5k radius of our house though.. :) (Hope you ARE feeling better nonetheless!)
hi celia..i’ll be cranking up my starter to make your rolls..they look fantastic..
Oh, I hope you like them, Jane! :)
Love your spiced peanut recipe . . . am afraid ‘lard’ and ‘Eha’ are definitely incompatible also, but these rolls do look moreish! Hope you have a lovely relaxing Sunday . . .
Thanks Eha! It was a fabulous weekend, hope yours was too!
Celia, I only have instant yeast would I reduce the amount by a half?
Elaine, I think instant and dried yeast is the same – just use the 200g starter and 1.25tsp of instant yeast. Or did you mean you only had yeast an no sourdough starter?
Celia, I should have checked before asking you…….the Saf website says to reduce by 25% if the recipe is for regular dried yeast.
Elaine, I think over here in Aus at least, we only get fresh yeast and powdered yeast, and I’ve always thought we only get one sort of the latter. Even with less yeast the recipe should be fine, it might just take longer to rise. When I recipe specifies fresh yeast, I just use half the quantity (by volume) of powdered yeast.
these look amazing – I’ve never got into lard but find your lardy bread interesting and would love to hear if you make a vegan version but meanwhile I can see why someone might get tired of it – love the rolls and the spiced nut – just what I fancy for lunch
Johanna, I don’t have plans to try a vegan version any time soon now that the butter ones have worked so well, but I’d love to know how you go if you do…
Both recipes look really yummy! Great job Celia – thanks for sharing :-)
Thanks Sandy! :)
Your sweet butter rolls would be so nicely washed down with a cuppa in the morning and the nuts with an icey cold beer later in the evening. Delicious recipes Celia
Lisa, thank you – we did nibble quite a lot of the nuts late at night! :)
Both look and sound delicious :)
Tandy, thank you!
Yum to all of this Celia. Those rolls look seriously buttery and good :)
Jane, I reckon your tribe would love these! :)
I liked the lardy rolls but I’m a butter fiend. These would be for me and I don’t think I could leave those nuts alone.
Maureen, I’ve had to declare a moratorium on the nuts for a while – I couldn’t leave them alone either! :)
I love your bread posts. I always feel inspired to head into the kitchen after reading them.
That’s very kind of you Tania, thank you! :)
These rolls are really impressive Celia – so much better than anything I’ve seen in stores recently!
Kari, wow, thank you! They do make that hubby of mine very happy! :)
Ooh, those butter rolls look amazing – beautifully browned and soft inside. The thought of lard is offputting but I know that it’s a very traditional ingredient in lots of baking recipes, so I ought to just get over my squeamishness. But in the meantime I can make these instead!
Caroline, these were great fun to make – hope you get a chance to give them a go! :)
I can only imagine how great your kitchen smelt with these rolls cooling on a countertop. Wonderful! I am definitely going to give these peanuts a try, Celia. They would make a perfect party snack. Thanks for sharing.
John, I tried making a large quantity of them in the hope they’d last for a while – but they didn’t, they were eaten at a rate of knots! :) PS. I sent you an email – did you get it?
Oo my word, Celia!! These are looking amazing!!
Thanks Zirkie! :) x
I love the word “moreish” The peanuts look really tasty.
Thanks Maz! A little too moreish, actually! :)
All looks beautiful Celia. Yum.
Praise from the teacher, thanks Craig!! :)
The only issue with your nuts Celia – very moreish while they lasted and very lessish a short time later…
Nicx
Nic, thanks for the inspiration! :)
Those buns – I want one (with or without lard!)
Sally, gee I wish you lived closer! We could share a couple over a nice cup of tea..
I remember reading this piece http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/feb/15/consider-lard and the comments which followed which discuss why lard has fallen out of fashion. It’s an interesting piece and certainly made me question my assumptions.
It is certainly (going by this article) healthier than hydrogenated vegetable fat. I believe that it is the aesthetic of the thing, that lard looks less appetising to an eye brought up to eat butter or synthetically coloured magarine.
It reminds me of the way that our eyes got used to equating sun tanned skin with health and then it went the other way once we realised the damage that an excess of sun can cause to the skin. People should be aware of how much they are influenced by what they see and hear and do their own research and think critically. They should think about the food lobbies and how big food production, politics, media and advertising all interact to persuade us of what is ‘good’ to eat and what is bad. One shouldn’t rely on these quasi scientifc sites, but look for peer reviewed evidence based material if one is going to really look hard at nutrition and health. It is very difficult to find good evidence based material on the internet unless you know how to search for it.
Everything in moderation and vary what you eat is my way of looking at it. Eat less and exercise more and that is about it. Reduce your sugar intake as I think sugar is more pernicious than fat in the long run. I don’t cook with lard very often because I don’t like the way it coats the roof of your mouth not because of any health concern.
Jo, it’s an interesting point – I was surprised too when I read that lard had less saturated fat than butter. I actually prefer the rolls with lard, but Pete doesn’t like the taste (or the thought) of it. Which is a shame, because I want to make lard-filled tamales next.. :)
I feel a bit of a fraud coming into the ‘tub of lard’ side of the conversation since both Peter and I are on a ‘fast’ day – which is the the no-food movement and not the opposite of the slow-food movement. However, I think if we are meat eaters and content to eat the animal’s leg or rump it’s disingenuous to wrinkle our noses at the animals fat. I agree with Joanna – basically have a common sense food lifestyle. Lard – at least for my grandmothers’ generation, was something they saved and used judiciously as an enrichment – it wasn’t easy to come by a good amount and it was a valued addition to the kitchen. These days our lives are far more sedentary so that fat intake has become a big, fat issue and, too, we have largely lost the taste for lard, suet, dripping etc. I used always to shred my own suet for our Christmas pudding, but like you Celia, I found the mouth feel was no longer to my liking and began using butter. But, right now, I feel like barking “gimme the bun and no one gets hurt”!
Jan, not like me actually – I like the lard version of these buns better. But only if I make my own lard, which is quite a chore! I’m going to have to look into suet – it came up in discussion recently, and I have to investigate..
Celia I’m sure it wouldn’t be such a chore if it was shared – you could start a Lardy dah ladies movement:). – not necessarily ladies now I think about it, even more fun.
Jan, it’s not the actual lard making that’s a pain, it’s the cleaning up afterwards! The entire kitchen gets coated in a fine sheen of grease.. :)
Celia, I wrote to you about coconut butter for a vegan option; after getting up close and personal with a jar yesterday, I dont think it will work because its just mashed coconut flesh. I am hoping to source sustainable red palm fruit oil shortening to try your recipe.
I saw so many lard recipes online……..most of them used equal amounts of lard and butter……….would that be the best of both worlds; Pete would be happy with the butter half and you could indulge your lard passion with the other half.
Elaine, thanks for this advice, I’m yet to open my jar. I’ll have a good look, but Pete’s completely happy with the butter version, so we might stick to that! :)
[…] these spicy peanuts. If these don’t kill off the bugs nothing will. Inspired by Celia over at Fig, Lime and Cordial I thought I’d make some nuts for Friday night beers on the balcony. I went into the spice […]