Recipe: Cheesy animal bread rolls

It's great fun to make bread - it's a bit like playing with Play-Doh. You can form these into round buns or into delicious cheesy animal shapes.

Makes 6 bread rolls or animals.

Ingredients

● 250g strong plain flour (plus flour to dust)
● Generous pinch of salt
● 1 sachet (½ tbsp) fast-action dried yeast
● ½ tsp honey
● 1 tsp dried mustard powder
● Pinch of cayenne pepper
● Approx 200 ml of warm water
● 60g grated mature Cheddar cheese
● 2tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

To decorate
● 1 egg, beaten
● Currants, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, grated Cheddar cheese

Method

● Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir in the yeast, honey, cayenne pepper and mustard and just enough of the water to form a soft dough.
● Transfer to a floured surface and knead lightly for about 5-10 minutes to make a smooth, pliable dough. Gradually knead the grated cheese into the dough (this will produce a slightly streaky effect).
● Shape the dough into balls or animal shapes and transfer to a floured baking sheet.
● Cover them loosely with a tea-towel and leave to rise in a warm place for about
1 hour or until doubled in size.
● Brush with the egg. If making buns, sprinkle the tops with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or grated cheese. Add currants for eyes on the animal shapes.
● Transfer to an oven preheated to 200˚C and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. The underside should sound hollow when tapped.
● Cool on a wire rack.

More recipes on Annabel Karmel's iPhone app, available on iTunes