Waterford Blaa is a soft white bread roll with a floury exterior. It is the quintessential morning roll that locals fill with sausages, eggs, crispy bacon, or whatever else suits their fancy. They’re perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.
Ingredients:
I used the following ingredients for this characteristic Irish Blaa: Water, sugar, salt, unsalted butter, bread flour, and yeast.
Making the Waterford Blaa:
I’m sure that a bread machine was not in the picture during the Blaas’ long history. However, I think that the bread machine is the only way to go for making yeasted bread since it does most of the work. I added all of the ingredients to the pan of my bread machine, ending with the yeast. Then, I selected the dough cycle, and walked away.
When the dough cycle finished, I partitioned the dough into 12 2.15-ounce (61 grams) pieces. I rolled each piece into a ball, and coated it in flour.
Then, I flattened the ball between my hands and placed it on a parchment lined baking sheet that I had sprinkled with flour. Once I had formed all of the rolls, I sprinkled additional flour on the top of the rolls. I placed them in my electric oven that I had heated for exactly 1 minute and 45 seconds. This is a trick that I learned from Julia Child! It produces the perfect environment for the rolls to rise. After 1 hour and 20 minutes, the rolls were ready to bake.
I popped the Waterford Blaa into a preheated 400° F oven for 25 minutes until they were golden brown. After I removed the rolls from the oven, I brushed of the excess flour. Then, I transferred the Waterford Blaa to a wire rack to cool completely.
I ended up with a dozen Waterford Blaas that had the characteristic floury exterior, and soft interior. Yum!
Waterford Blaa
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons (9.5 ounces, 269 ml) water
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ Tablespoon fine sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon (0.5 ounce, 14 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups (15 ounces, 425 grams) bread flour
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- Additional flour for dusting
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except for the extra flour for dusting in the bread machine pan in the order listed. Select the dough cycle; press start.
- Line a 13 x 18-inch half sheet pan with parchment paper. Sprinkle flour over surface; set aside.
- When dough cycle finishes, transfer dough to floured surface. Partition into 12 2.15-ounce pieces of dough. Roll into a ball. Roll the dough ball in the additional flour. Flatten between palms, and place on prepared baking pan. Repeat with remaining dough. You should end up with 4 rows of 3.
- Sprinkle with additional flour. Allow to rise for 60 to 80 minutes, or until all rolls are puffy and touching adjacent rolls.*
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Bake rolls in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush excess flour from rolls.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool completely
- Yield: 12 Waterford Blaas
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