Doughballs!

That hubby of mine is a sneaky baker!  We had frozen supermarket pizza for dinner tonight (special offer, so cheap as chips) and to cheer the whole thing up, he went and made us some garlic & parsley doughballs.  :-)

DoughBalls!  Makes 18

For the dough :

    * 250g strong white flour
    * 1 teaspoons of dried yeast (or 1 sachet)
    * 1 teaspoons of salt
    * 1 tablespoons of olive oil
    * 1 teaspoons of honey
    * 150mls of warm water

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix roughly with your hand.   Put the yeast and honey in to a jug and pour in warm water to bring it to 150mls.  Leave until yeast froths (5-10mins).   Make a well in the flour and pour in the oil and the water.  Using your hand mix the dough until it forms a soft rough ball.

Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface and then knead the ball of dough for at least 10 minutes until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.  Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with oiled clingfilm and leave in a draught free place for a couple of hours to rise.

For the garlic butter

    * 2 cloves of fresh garlic
    * 60g soft unsalted butter
    * 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
    * pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 220ºC. Shape the dough in to small round balls – approximately the size of a large marble.  Place them in a lightly buttered tray, spaced evenly apart with enough room to rise.

Leave the dough to rest for approx. 15 minutes.

Using a pestle and mortar crush the garlic together with a pinch of salt to make a paste. Add in the butter and parsley and mix well.

Place the dough balls in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden.  Remove them from the oven and use a knife to plaster the garlic butter over the tops of the dough balls.  It is a good idea at this stage to use a baking tray or tin foil under the doughball tray to avoid garlic butter seeping on to the bottom of your oven as it melts. Place the tin back the oven and after 3 minutes remove the tray from the oven, seperate the dough balls from each other and roll them around in the garlic butter on the bottom of the tray.  Empty on to a warmed bowl or plate and allow to cool only slightly before eating.

Fattening as all heck - but delicious!