Sage & Cheese Clover Rolls

This  recipe is ancient. I found it in a hand-written recipe notebook that dates back to 1968. This recipe is probably from about 1970. It’s pre-metrication anyway. I am giving it as written, with notes on what I did today.

Sage & Cheese Clover Rolls

Ingredients

• ½ oz dried yeast
• 1 dsp Brown Sugar
• ¾ pt warm water
• 1½ lbs wheatmeal flour
• 2 tsps salt
• ½ oz lard
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 6 oz Grated cheese
• Beaten egg to glaze

Notes on Ingredients

• I used approx 25gms of fresh yeast, dissolved in one quarter of the liquid, with a teaspoon of soft brown sugar.
• I had neither wheatmeal nor wholemeal and so used the last of my Wessex Mill onion flour, which seems to have a brown base of some kind, and made it up with stoneground bread flour.
• I cut the salt back  by 50%, as I thought the cheese was salty enough without adding so much salt directly.
• Sage measures in my household are always well-rounded, if not heaped.
• I had just the right amount of white Cheddar in the ‘fridge, so I used Cheddar. Any cheese would do. Presumably Derby would be very good.

My original notes on how to make the bread are sparse – they go straight from rubbing in the lard to forming the rolls! Fill in the gaps by adding a straightforward bread-making method.

“Make up the bread dough, adding the cheese and sage after rubbing in the lard.

…

Cut off 2 oz pieces, divide into 3 and bake in bun tins at 220°C  for ½ hour.

Serve with butter and cheese.”

Notes on method

• I dissolved my yeast in approximately one third of the liquid and added a spoon of sugar – this is not necessary and could be left out but I enjoy sweetness with my onions, whisking in the crumbled fresh yeast with a fork. I pre-warmed the flours, together with the salt and the lard, cut into pieces – leaving both the flour mix and the yeast mix for about ten minutes.
• After rubbing in the lard and stirring in my coarsely-grated cheese and the sage, I mixed the dough in the Kenwood,  using the hook, and adding sufficient warm water to get a soft dough.
• I covered the dough and let it rise until doubled, then knocked it back and formed the rolls.
• I made 12 clover rolls in a bun tray by forming 3 balls from each 2oz lump of dough and placing all three into one bun-tray hole,  and made the remaining dough into larger rolls, as little cottage loaves – leaving them to prove until they looked ready, about 20 minutes.
• The oven was pre-heated to 200 degrees Celsius (fan oven) and the clover rolls baked in just 15 minutes, the larger cottage loaf rolls took twenty minutes in total.

Notes on eating

I made these to accompany a Split Pea & Ham soup. Personally I think that, with 6 ounces of cheese in the mix, it is overkill to serve these rolls with cheese – though they are good spread with cream cheese and sandwiched with ham… Best of all warm from the oven, with butter, and a fresh tomato or vegetable soup – or simply as a dinner roll.

If I recall correctly, these rolls toast very well. I have however placed the cottage loaf rolls into the freezer, and will use them for our Christmas Day Hike sandwiches.