The Quest for the Danish Morning Rolls

Morning Rolls

I love the Danish morning rolls, aka rundstykker. But event though it's a really simple roll, it's very hard to get just right. They need to have a thin hard crust with a really light crumb, with no chewiness. Apparently this s very hard to obtain for normal people in a normal oven, without steam. 

There are many ways to try to get steam in your oven. Here is a few methods.

• Put a baking pan on the bottom rack and fill it with pebbles or a large stainless steel chain, and preheat the oven with this in the oven. When you put your bread or rolls into the oven, splash ½ cup hot water on the rocks/chain and close the door quickly. This will build up enough steam to help with the oven-spring/the rise of the dough, before the crust hardens in the heat. 
• Place 2-3 soaking wet kitchen towels on a baking pan on the bottom rack, while preheating the oven, and for the first 5-8 minutes of the baking time, and then remove the pan with the towels. Be careful opening the oven the steam will burn you, so stay clear of the oven-opening.
• The simplest way is to spray some hot water into the oven, but this might not be enough to  give a perfect oven-spring.

This is my first version of Danish Morning Rolls. I did get the crumb, that I wanted, but I would still like it to be lighter. The crust was almost right, but it needs to stay crisp and be a bit thicker.

Even though these rolls didn't hit the mark as real Danish morning rolls, they are actually very good.

Makes 10-12 rolls

Ingredients:

• 4 g dry yeast
• 250 ml water, finger warm
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 100 ml  plain yoghurt 
• 300 g bread flour
• 225 g all-purpose flour

Egg wash:

• 1 egg white
• *½ cup cold water

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water, add the sugar, and let the yeast wake up, and start to foam, takes about 5 minutes. Mix in the yoghurt and both flours. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes in a stand mixer. You want a strong gluten structure. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise in the refrigerator overnight. 

Pour the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in 10-12 and roll them into balls. Place 6 dough-balls on each parchment paper lined baking sheet. Let the rolls rise for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450℉ (250℃).

Whisk the egg white with the cold water to make a foam. Use the foam to brush onto the rolls. If you like sprinkles on your rolls, do that now. Cut a fairly deep slit in the roll. (I forgot that, but it will give the roll room for the oven spring.)

Place 2-3 soaking clean wet kitchen towels on a baking pan on the bottom rack, while preheating the oven, this will make the steam. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until deep golden brown. Remove the baking pan with the towels after the first 5-8 minutes.

Let the rolls cool completely.

Serve the rolls with butter, cheese or jam.

Enjoy!

Accidental Morning Rolls

Accidental Morning Rolls

Not everything turns out the way I expect in my kitchen. The other night I had planned to make pizza, so I mixed the dough in the afternoon, and left it to rise in a bowl on the kitchen counter. By the time I had to  shape the pizzas, the dough had not fermented at all. The dough felt soft, so there would be no homemade pizza that night. 

I didn't want to throw out the dough, so I covered the bowl, and placed it in the refrigerator. I actually forgot all about it until 36 hours later. The dough had fermented for sure. It had 2 big bubbles, the size of golf balls, on the top of the dough. 

I shaped some rustic rolls and baked them, and they turned out great!

I'm definitely going to make the same mistake again. I really liked the flavor and texture of my accidental morning rolls.

Ingredients:

• 625 g all-purpose flour
• 2 cups (4½ dl) water 
• ⅕ cup (½ dl) olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 g live yeast or ½ teaspoon dry yeast

Directions: 

Dissolve the yeast in the water. If using dry yeast, sprinkle a few pinches sugar in the water too. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead the dough for about 5 minutes in a stand mixer. (Knead a little longer if kneading by hand). The dough should now be somewhat sticky and elastic. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about 36 hours.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit for at least 1 hour. 

Preheat you oven and Pizza stone to 500℉ (260℃). 

Pour some rice flour and rolled spelt on the kitchen counter and gently scrape the dough out onto it. Cut the dough in 8-9 pieces and put them on a plate sprinkled with some cornflour, so the rolls don't stick.

Place the rolls on the pizza stone and let them bake for 15-20 minutes.

Let rolls cool before serving.

Enjoy!

The Danish version:

Hjemmelavede boller ved et uheld

Nogle gange går det bare ikke som præsten prædiker. Jeg ville lave en pizzadej, men den hævede slet ikke som den plejede. Dejen blev sendt til time-out i køleskabet. 36 timer senere var dejen klar til at blive "Italienske" rundstykker.

Ingredienser:

• 625 g hvedemel
• 4½ dl vand
• ½ dl oliven olie
• 2 tsk salt
• 6 g almindelig gær eller ½ tsk tørgær 

Fremgangsmåde: 

Opløs gæren i vand. Hvis du bruger tørgær, tilsæt lidt sukker. Kom resten af ingredienserne i og ælt dejen i røremaskinen i ca. 5 minutter. Hvis du ælter dejen i hånden, skal du ælte i længere tid. Dejen skal ende med at være blød, elastisk og lettere klisteret. 

Dæk skålen til og lad dejen hæve i ca. 36 timer i køleskabet. 

Tag dejen ud af køleskabet og lad den stå ved stuetemperatur i mindst 1 time.

Forvarm ovn og bagesten til 260℃.

Vend dejen ud på et bord drysset med rismel og speltflager. Skær dejen i 8-9 stykker, og sæt dem på en tallerken drysset med majsmel, så de ikke sætter sig fast. Placer bollerne på bagestenen, og bag dem i 15-20 minutter.

Velbekomme!

This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site.