Put the oven on to gas mark 5.
To one cup of boiling water, add the sugar and
dissolve. Add the remaining water and then the
yeast. Cover and place on the top of the oven to
get started.
Weigh the flour and salt into a plastic mixing
bowl and microwave for a few seconds until the
flour is warm (doing this means that the yeast
reaction will not stop because of cold flour
lowering the temperature of the yeast suspension
- the yeast's temperature is thus maintained when
it is added and the reaction continues). Add the
oil and then the yeast suspension and knead to an
even consistency. Add extra flour if necessary to
make a dough. Put the dough into the mixing bowl,
cover and place back on the top of the oven to
rise for around 10 minutes.
Grease an oven tray with oil. Turn out the
dough onto a floured surface and knead. You now
need to divide the dough into 20 equally sized
pieces - there are difficult ways (pulling
off guessed amounts and hoping that they are the
correct size) and there are easy ways. They
need to be even so that they will cook evenly.
Make the dough into a circle and divide into four
by slicing north/south and east/west. Take one of
the quarters and roll it into a cylinder and cut
it into five (of the four slices that you are
going to make, start with the "second"
and then divide the smaller piece into two, then
the larger piece into three - practice makes
perfect). Cover the buns with a cloth and
let them rise for around ½ an hour.
Remove the cloth and place in the oven for 17
minutes (cooking at a low temperature allows
the inside to cook through without burning the
outside) and then turn up the temperature to
gas mark 7 and cook until brown (around 3
minutes) don't leave them on their own as they
will burn.
When cooked turn out onto a tray and let them
cool.