Home Made Dough Balls

There are some foods in this world that are misconceived as being hard to make. I foolishly used to place bread in this category.

Oh how wrong I was. My mother has since convinced me that nothing can beat freshly baked bread.

A few friends were coming over for dinner and after promising a three course dinner I racked my brain for the perfect starter! When dining out I am definitely more of a dessert girl! The only place I ever happily forgo dessert for a starter is Pizza Express, where the lure of the dough balls is too much to handle! - Particularly when the three other people you go with order them and you have to sit there trying to keep it cool, while inadvertently drooling on the table.

Now I imagine there are dough ball specific recipes out there, but I just decided to go for an easy recipe I already frequently use and make it into balls.

Nigella is the lady who helps me out on this one, and I use her Flatbread recipe which can be found online here.

Ingredients you'll need:

500g Strong white bread flour

7g sachet of fast action dried yeast (or alternative)

2 tsps salt

2 tsps plain yoghurt

2 tbsps olive oil

300ml warm water

for the glaze:

1 egg

1 tsp water

1 tsp plain yoghurt

1 tbsp poppy seeds (or whatever floats yer boat)

Mix the dry ingredients- flour, salt, yeast- together in a roomy bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients - yoghurt, olive oil, water - in a measuring jug and pour into your dry ingredients.

Mix with a wooden spoon until combined

Remove from the bowl and lay on a well floured surface, and knead for approximately 5 minutes.

I just want someone to knead me...

oooohhh smooth operator, that's more like it

Smother in a little olive oil, before covering with cling film and leaving to rise in a warm place for at least an hour or until it is noticeably increased in size!

below - after being left to rise

Although it feels counter-productive - now flatten down your dough with your fist and leave for another 10 minutes.

Then place the dough back on a floured surface, and roll/mould into the shapes you want.

I've halved mine into dough balls and flatbreads for a bit of variety. Preheat your oven to 220C and leave for 20 minutes for one final rise.

and then glaze, glaze, glaze (egg, yoghurt, water mixture)

sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle

You can omit this stage if you don't fancy poppy seeds or substitute with anything that takes your fancy.

Now put your dough in the oven for around 8 minutes - although keep an eye on your balls as they will definitely take less time to cook than the flatbreads.

and voila