Flower flour - marigold and sunflower rolls

I was daydreaming about underground restaurants and found myself looking at MsMarmiteLover's blog and coveting her cookbook...  I found this page and loved the idea so much - I even have marigolds growing, nearing the end of their season and begging to be used.  My idea with planting them was that they would be pretty and edible - they grew well and were bright and fun all season, and now I've at last got around to eating some.

For eight:
7g dried yeast
160 ml lukewarm water
1/2 tsp honey
250 g strong white flour
10 g (~2 tbsp) semolina
1 tsp salt
25 ml olive oil
45 g sunflower seeds
1/2 handful marigold petals
1/2 tbsp olive oil for brushing

To make the dough; into your mixer add the flour, semolina, olive oil, sunflower seeds, marigold petals, honey and yeast. Then pour in the lukewarm water.

Let this mix on a low setting for at least 10 minutes, adding the salt at this point. If you don't have a mixer you can knead the dough by hand.  When well kneaded, cover the bowl and leave to rise for an hour or so in a warm place where it should double in size.

Tip the dough carefully onto a floured work surface and gently divide into balls of 40 - 50g in weight, using a digital scale to measure this quite accurately (if possible). Roll each ball in the palm of your hand and pull the sides down tucking the seam underneath.

Use a pair of scissors or a credit card to cut the balls of dough across the top. Make three crosses / six segments.  Pull each segment out from the middle to form a rough petal. Once finished, each ball should look like a little flower. Alternatively, you can leave as round rolls.

Put the dough flowers (or rolls) spaced apart on an oiled baking tray. Cover and leave for 30-40 minutes in a warm place. Preheat the oven to 220C (425F).

Bake the marigold bread rolls in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. Finish by brushing with olive oil and sprinkling on more marigold petals. The rolls are nice served warm or, once cooled, can be frozen until needed.


These are so much fun!  I wasn't able to weigh the ingredients very accurately (the original was for double), so wasn't sure if they would work.  But they look good to me!  And S said they were exciting....  Brilliant idea with the freezing, why didn't I think of that before?  The remainder are going in right now.  Also the bread machine seemed to work - I haven't used it like that before, but seemed to be a decent labour saver.