Cheesy Dinner Rolls

Cheesy Dinner Rolls

I finally got back to baking. I love baking bread, love working with dough. So getting back to baking makes me happy. One can call bread baking my happy place.

Yesterday was a rainy day here in Northern California. I was planing to make soup, and needed to have a good healthy dinner roll to serve with the soup. Thats why I whipped up this cheesy dinner roll, filled with good seeds and fibers. I used blue cheese in mine because, I had it in my refrigerator, but feel free to use any semi-hard cheese in yours. 

Makes 12 rolls.

Ingredients:

• 375 ml lukewarm water
• 30 g live yeast (2¼ teaspoon dry yeast)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 350-375 g all-purpose flour
• 150 g whole wheat flour
• 100 g mixed seeds (I used rolled oats, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 40 ml olive oil
• 200 g blue cheese

Topping:

• egg wash
• mixed seeds

Directions:

In a large bowl (the one for the stand mixer) dissolve (live yeast) sprinkle (dry yeast) over the warm water. If using dry yeast, add the sugar, this will help to wake up the yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, and stir until just combined. Let the dough rest for about 10-15 minutes. This lets the flour absorb all the water completely, and helps activate the natural enzymes in the flour, and improves the gluten development in the dough.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the dough and knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes, until elastic, add more flour if the dough gets to sticky. 

Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes or until doubled in size. 

Pour the dough unto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough in 16-18 balls. Insert a piece of the cheese into each ball, and make sure to close the dough completely, to prevent any leakage.   Place the balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet a few inches apart. 

Let the rolls rise for another 30-40 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).  

Brush the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle with mixed seeds. Toss about a cup of water in the bottom of the oven when you have put the rolls in the oven, quickly closing the oven door. This will produce steam, and give a better rise to the rolls.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until deep golden brown.

Let the rolls cool on a wire rack. 

Serve the rolls with dinner.

Enjoy!

2 Kinds of Hveder - Wheat Rolls

Toasted rolls - ristede hvedeknopper

Even though I'm a expat, I do celebrate Danish Holidays. This gives me (almost) double-up on holidays, the more the merrier 😃

Store Bededag or Prayers Day is coming up on Friday. According to traditions everybody had the day off on Store Bededag even the bakers. You were actually meant to stop all work, play, travels and all games. To make up for not being able to get any fresh bread on Store Bededag, the bakers made an abundance of hvedeknopper (wheat rolls), to tie people over. And the tradition of eating the toasted hvedeknopper the night before Store Bededag was born. Ok people was meant to save the rolls to the next day, but who can resist a fresh-baked roll?

Hveder is one of my favorite rolls. The soft, sweet, fresh baked cardamom roll is so delicious served with some butter. Most people toast the rolls, but I prefer them not toasted. 

Here are my recipes for Hveder:

Traditional Hveder - hvedeknopper:

Hveder - sweet rolls

Grove hveder - 3-Grain sweet rolls:

Toasted 3-grain rolls - ristede grove hvedeknopper

Teboller - Buttermilk Buns

Teboller - Buttermilk Buns

These buttermilk bun is my take on the traditional teboller/buns you can buy a baker's shops in Denmark. They are sweet and soft, and pairs perfect with a cup of hot chocolate on a cold and windy fall afternoon. Normally you can buy them with or without raisins or chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

• 200 ml water, finger-warm

• 40 g live yeast (or 3 teaspoons dry yeast)

• 4 tablespoons sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 100 ml buttermilk

• 525 g all-purpose flour

• 50 g butter, room-temperature 

• 1 handful raisins or chocolate chips (optional)

 Topping:

• egg-wash, here a beaten egg

• nuts & raw sugar (optional)

Directions:

In the bowl of the stand mixer, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water. Add milk, flour, salt, egg and knead the dough for 5-8 minutes on medium, (8-10 minutes if kneaded by hand), until smooth and elastic. Add the butter a little at a time (and raisins or chocolate chips), and mix until fully incorporated. 

Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes until doubled in size.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 12-15 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let buns rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Brush the on top of buns, sprinkle with toppings. Bake the buns for 8-12 minutes until deep golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Rundstykker version II

Rundstykker

Rundstykker is a classic breakfast roll sold at all baker's shops in Denmark. In my family we had rundstykker on Saturday or Sunday morning. We would walk or bike to our local baker's shop down the street. Most weekends there would be a long line of people waiting in line for the breakfast rolls and newspaper. The last 10-12 years the baker's shops are more rare. Most grocery stores and gas stations sell cheap bake-off bread. (Bake-off bread: Half baked bread from big bread producers, finished off in the small stores.) People will still line up for good quality bread from the good baker's shops. 

I finally got the crumb right for these rundstykker. The crust is almost right, if you eat the bread not yet cooled completely, you'll have a nice crisp crust, like it should be. In my family we do like the warm rolls, and it is hard to resist the smell of freshly baked bread. 

Makes 8 rolls.

Ingredients:

• 3 g live yeast, or 1 g dry yeast

• 300 ml water, finger warm

• 25 ml milk

• 10 g salt

• 450 g all-purpose flour

• poppy seeds for sprinkling

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water in  a large plastic bowl. I used a dough-rising bucket. 

Mix the rest of the ingredients in. You just have to mix the dough until all the flour is wet. Let the dough ferment in the bucket, lid on, on the kitchen counter over night or 7-10 hours.

Gently pour the dough onto a well floured surface. Fold the somewhat wet dough into it self until the surface is firmed up, and the surface got a good tension. Divide the dough in 8 (about 100 g pr roll), roll the dough into a round ball, brush the dough with water and dip it in poppy seeds. Place the rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Let the rolls rise for 30-60 minutes, loosely covered with plastic wrap. I raised my rolls in my oven on the proof-setting.

Preheat the oven to 450℉ (230℃).

Place the rolls on the lower rack in the oven. Splash about ¼ cup of water in the bottom of the oven, and close the oven quickly. You need the steam to get the best oven spring and crust. Bake the rolls for about 22 minutes, until golden.

Let the rolls/rundstykker cool before serving.

Enjoy!

Smørbirkes - Poppy Seed Roll

Smørbirkes - Poppy Seed Roll

Smørbirkes or poppy seed rolls is a classic roll found at most bake shops in the eastern part of Denmark. In Jutland a smørbirkes is a completely different thing.

The rolls are much like a brioche, just without the eggs. It's sweet and soft and pairs perfect with butter, jam and cheese.

Makes 15-18

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 100 g butter, cold

• 500 g all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 50 g fresh compressed yeast (or 4 teaspoons dry yeast)

• 300 ml milk

Sprinkles:

• egg wash (1 egg +2 tablespoons milk)

• poppy seeds

Directions:

In a large bowl mix the cold butter with the flour, sugar and salt until the butter is fully incorporated. 

Heat the milk until finger warm and dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the warm milk to the flour and knead the dough for 5 minutes on the stand mixer, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let the dough rise covered for about 30 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 435℉ (225℃).

Gently ease the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in 15-18 balls, even in size. Roll the ball to a 9-inch (22 cm) log. Using a rolling pin, roll the log longer and flat. Fold dough piece in half, and place it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the balls. 

Let the smørbirkes rise covered for 10 minutes.

Brush the top part of the smørbirkes with egg wash and sprinkle with a nice layer of poppy seeds.

Bake the smørbirkes for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Let the smørbirkes cool on a wire rack and serve them freshly baked, or slightly reheated next day.

Enjoy!