This is an authentic wartime recipe for Baking Powder Milk Rolls which I found in “Health for All – Wartime Recipes” by Margaret Y. Brady.
I had run out of bread and wanted bread quickly without going to the shops OR spending hours making, proving and baking a loaf! This recipe took about 10 minutes to make then about 20 or so minutes to cook so 30 minutes from beginning to end! Oh and the rolls worked out as costing 4p each for the ingredients BUT more in energy! I did use the hot oven to bake potatoes too so don’t feel quite so guilty!
Ingredients:
- 8 oz self-raising flour ( or 8 oz of plain flour and 1.5 tsp baking powder )
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 pint of milk (I used oat milk)
Method:
Mix ingredients together, gently knead on a floured board, divide into 4, and make 4 rolls, place in moderate oven at 180C – 200C for 20-30 minutes. Set aside to cool before serving.
This made 4 rolls.
C xxxx
As with any type of soda bread the rise will be improved if a little acid is added to activate the rising agent – basic chemistry really. Either use sour milk, buttermilk or plain yogurt as the liquid or alternatively add a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar to this recipe. The kneading should be kept to a minimum or the finish may be tough. This mixture is also good for flat breads.
I will try and little vinegar next time (likely tomorrow evening!) to see if that boosts the rise, thanks so much for that tip! C xxxxx
Wow this looks so easy and delicious!
TWO buttery thumbs up!
They were more like savoury scones but tasty though!! C xxxx
On rising agents in recipes. There is a recipe for vinegar cake in ‘We’ll Eat Again’, which is used as a booster to the rising agent as there is no egg used in the recipe, this does change the finished texture though.
On potato starch in recipes. Traditionally sour milk or buttermilk (along with mashed spudz) are used in Irish fadge, a kind of soda bread which uses less flour. Similarly the Scottish tattie scone (a savoury pancake) needs little flour as opposed to a standard pancake.
Lovely, I do like the nice simple recipes.
I like easier the better too! C xxx
Interesting and simple little recipe.
Indeed, using the oven for as many things as possible at the same time was the advice given to housewives during war-time.
Mind you, flour, although not on the ration, was apparently quite difficult to get hold of. Hence, the advice to substitute mashed potato in recipes.
Here’s an interesting little article about the bakery industry of the day – https://bakeryinfo.co.uk/other-opinion-articles/ve-day-the-role-of-bakery-in-britain-during-wartime/627313.article
Yes, most of our white flour in the UK was imported from Canada, and of course, due to the risk and precariousness of importing goods by sea, the government decided to create a national wheatmeal flour (and the national loaf) which took 85 percent of its flour from wheat milled in this country. As you say there were still limited resources so potato and milled oats were often used in recipes to make pastry go further!
I believe that by 1942/1943 bakers were banned from using white flour and could only make the national loaf, made from the new regulation flour.
C xxxx
Ah yes, the infamous ‘National Loaf’.
Not all that popular at the time I believe… LOL!! 😀
So many interesting little tidbits about wartime cookery!