Pour the water into the bread machine pan. Sprinkle over all other ingredients, making sure that the yeast and sugar don’t come in contact. Set the machine to the dough setting and press start. Grease a deep rectangular bread tin. When the machine beeps, remove dough.

Knead gently and divide dough into 25-30g pieces (for small dinner rolls). Shape each piece into a roll and place into the prepared tin.

Place the tin (uncovered) into a cold, switched off oven. Leave to rise slowly, until rolls are puffed and even. (Use a ‘‘defrost’’ setting on your oven if you wish). Once you decide the rolls have risen enough, switch the oven on to 160°C. Cook for 20 minutes. In this way the rolls will receive another rising while oven is warming, and will keep a beautifully, soft crust.

Remove from oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes in tin, then remove the rolls from the tin and transfer onto a cooling rack.