Bolillos

Bolillos are a Mexican bread shaped like footballs. We usually use them for sandwiches. I prefer them over french bread because they are individual. This recipe turned out well. The only downside was that they were time consuming because I had a difficult time shaping them! I think that in the future, I will just purchase them from the store because here in the southwest, they are abundantly available.

Source: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup of canola oil

Cornmeal Method:

Mix together one cup of flour, yeast and warm water. Add one more cup of flour, sugar, salt and oil and stir until ingredients are combined but dough is still wet and shaggy. Let dough rest for 15 minutes.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of flour on a clean surface and knead dough until it shapes into a ball, about 10 minutes.Place into a greased bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size, about an hour.
After dough has risen, divide dough into 8 equal pieces. Take each piece and flatten it into a circle. Take one side, and fold it in half into the center. Take the opposite side and do the same. Roll folded dough with your hands until it’s spindle shaped, wider in the middle and tapered at the ends.
Place shaped rolls on a greased or parchment-paper lined cookie sheet that’s sprinkled with a bit of cornmeal, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.Twenty minutes before baking, heat oven to 425 degrees. Five minutes before baking, place an oven-safe pan filled with water on the bottom of the oven.
Mix 1/2 cup of warm water with 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and brush on each roll. Then, with a sharp knife, razor or lame, make a slash lengthwise through each roll.Place rolls on bottom rack of oven (be careful when opening oven as steam might come out) and cook for 15 minutes or until the bolillos are light brown in color and make a hollow sound when you thump them.These keep for a couple of days, though they if they get too soft. just reheat in the oven to firm them up. They also freeze well.