Baps (Scottish Breakfast Rolls)

A bap, if you are wondering, is a Scottish breakfast roll. The recipe below comes from Elizabeth David’s English Bread And Yeast Cookery, published in 1977. David, never one to mince words, rails against the state of English bread. If your copy has American notes by culinary historian Karen Hess, prepare for a double dose of acid commentary: American bread wasn’t much better at the time.

Unfortunately, neither writer lived to see the artisanal bread revolution. Anyone wanting excellent bread now has access to it, arguably eradicating the need to bake at home. That hasn’t stopped devoted bakers. For every tossed pandemic starter, there’s a flourishing jar of floury goop in somebody’s refrigerator, awaiting its next bake.

Baps are insanely easy to make and though I didn’t plan this, they would be ideal alongside, say, a turkey.

The recipe given here is comprised of flour, milk, water, salt, and yeast. David notes she often halved the recipe, and as I am baking for two, so did I.

Baps depart from other roll recipes in their final preparation: they are painted with milk, then lightly floured just before going into the oven; once baked, they are lightly floured a second time. The resulting roll has a pleasantly firm crust, and like all home-baked breads, amazes in being far more than the sum of its modest ingredients.

I had hoped to present more historical information about baps, but my efforts failed. None of my older English cookbooks gives a recipe for baps; as for Marian McNeill’s The Scots Kitchen, I know exactly where to find it on the Berkeley Library shelves. Alas, the library is closed. Books can be taken out, but the process takes days. So I give you baps, knowing there is a great deal I don’t know. Then again, nothing new there.