Homemade Cheese and Tomato Rolls Recipe

Take out your eggs & chop your butter so that it softens and your eggs are room temp

Add your flour, yeast, sugar, salt, 1 egg and water into your mixing bowl with your hook attachment, Start to mix your dough on a low-medium speed until the dough starts to come together, scrape your bowl down if needed to make sure all the flour etc gets captured. If you don’t have a mixer you can simply add ingredients into a bowl, mix well and add butter the same as the next step

As it is starting to mix together add in your butter piece by piece

Mix your dough on a medium speed for a good 8-10 minutes on a medium speed (or knead by hand). It will turn into a formed dough that is nice and smooth. You may need to scrape the mixer as it goes but usually it will just mix and knead itself & come together. You can usually tell when your dough is ready as it isn’t as sticky and it’s not sticking to the sides . If you don’t have a mixer take your dough out and pop onto a floured bench and start kneading by hand do so until it is smooth and formed into a dough.

Once your dough is mixed leave it in a bowl (i leave mine in my mixing bowl) and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave for about 1 hour or until it has at least doubled and it light and airy. If it is a bit cooler you may need to leave it a little bit longer. Leave it somewhere warm but not in the direct sunlight if it is hot. (The damp tea towel helps prevent the top of your dough drying out)

While its waiting mix your tomato paste & herbs together and leave to the side

Just before it is ready get 2 x baking sheets and line with baking paper (you may need 2 for this as we flatten the rolls out and they need a little room)

After its risen, deflate the dough by pushing it down in the bowl and then start to roll into your 10 balls. I like to use a scale to be exact so my rolls are the same size. I weigh the whole dough and divide it by 9. It is usually around 71g of dough per roll. To roll get your dough and pinch all the sides at the bottom of the roll and then roll the dough ball so it becomes smooth. Place the seam side down on your baking dish & flatten out, you can use your palm and also your fingers help and they should be about 1cm thick. Leave a few cm’s in-between as they will rise and spread when baking

Cover with your towel and leave again for about 50-60 minutes until they puff up and rise again. About 20-30 mins prior pre-heat your oven to 190°C (375°F)

While you are waiting you can grate your cheese if it isn’t already grated

Once they are ready spread about 1 tbsp of tomato paste on top of each one, don’t push too hard though and I find using the back of a spoon is good. Spread evenly over the top then add your cheese over each one. About 20g per roll, it will stick with the tomato paste and spread it evenly over the top of the roll

Bake away in the oven on a lower shelves in the oven for about 18-20 minutes or until cheese is melted and it is golden brown and evenly cooked, if your oven cooks a bit uneven you can flip the tray around part way through cooking. If your cheese is going super brown way too early you can over with foil or a tray but don’t let the foil touch the cheese it will stick.

Remove from the oven and let them cool slightly before eating

You can store these in an airtight container for up to 2 days on the bench, you can store it in the fridge for up to 5 days or simply freeze them for up to 3 months in a sealed airtight container or bag. Leave them to thaw and reheat in the microwave.

To reheat these in the microwave from frozen or fresh so they stay nice and soft and don’t go hard in the microwave. Pop a piece of damp (not soaking just damp) paper towel over the top of the roll, and either heat in 30 second bursts till it’s the temperature you like or do the same from frozen and defrost before heating keeping the paper towel on top it works perfectly. I did a reel explaining it here