Kaiser Rolls a la Peter Reinhart
Catching up on other non-sad things, I had been wanting to make Peter Reinhart’s Kaiser Rolls for a very long time. His recipe is considered the definitive authentic recipe this side of the pond. As an extra bonus, all ingredients are listed by weight, and not volume. Hallelujah. You will be hard-pressed to find a version of his recipe on the internet, so I borrowed this book from the library and set out on my quest for real German Kaiser Rolls.
The process begins on the “previous day”, so to say, preparing a pate fermentee (pre-ferment). I opted to use it the same day and save a batch for next time. The preferred method is to ferment overnight in the fridge.
Using the pre-ferment, you make your dough, and allow it to rise for two hours. The end result looks nice and spongy.
Once you give it a good beating, you form your rolls. I did not use the traditional folding method since it seemed overly tedious, but opted for the “knot and tuck” method to get the 5-petal look that a kaiser roll must have. Then I set these babies aside to rise.
Some knots looked better than the others. Maybe some boy scout training would have helped 😉
After the rolls sat out for another rising, I brushed them lightly with warm water, and sprinkled poppy seeds on half the batch. In hindsight, I should have done an egg wash. But they tasted great!
German style breakfast.
The changes I would make next time are: (a) egg wash (b) bowl of water in oven for a nicer crust (c) start with 2/3 the water in the recipe for the dough – I had to keep adding flour, and nobody wants to be stuck doing that. It was a lot of work (about 7 hours start to finish), and I’m not sure I care enough to do this again, but the husband did say it was delicious and authentic.