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A favorite breakfast food – sourdough rolls
If you ask a Dane what their favorite breakfast food is, I guarantee a lot would say bread. Bread is such a staple in the Danish diet. There’s the classic Danish rye bread, which is full of seeds and fiber, and often enjoyed as open-faced sandwiches for lunch or dinner. And then there’s what Danes call “wienerbrød” or Vienna bread, also known as Danish pastries in the rest of the world. This isn’t necessarily bread in the way you might define it, but it’s made with yeast and eaten for breakfast, so close enough.
Finally, there’s “morgenbrød” or morning bread, and this is usually a mix of different seeded and unseeded rolls and pastries that you buy from your local baker. That’s where today’s recipe comes in – a delicious, light, and flavorful fermented bread dough baked into sourdough rolls. The crispy exterior and soft, fluffy interior are exactly what you want in a piece of Danish morgenbrød. And you can make these at home!
Perfect for a BMO – bolle med ost
The super crispy exterior on these rolls and soft inside make them perfect for the Danish breakfast of champions – a BMO. This stands for a “bolle med ost”, and is literally just a roll with cheese. It’s a great representation of Danish culture – if you do the simple things well, then that’s really all you need. Denmark is where you’ll find some of the best bread and cheese available, so it stands to reason that a Danish bolle med ost would be so utterly delicious that it has earned its own acronym. One of our personal favorite BMOs is with butter, jam, and cheese. Strawberry or raspberry both work, but the combination of sweet and salty is just perfection.
What makes sourdough rolls so delicious?
If you’re a fan of sourdough, then we already know that you’ll love these rolls. But if you aren’t super familiar with sourdough, especially homemade sourdough, then let me tell you why it tastes so good. Instead of being made with yeast, sourdough bread is made with a sourdough starter. This is basically a mixture of flour and water that ferments over time, creating its own wild yeast. It also creates bacteria, which gives the bread a sour or tangy flavor. Sourdough also needs a longer rising time than baker’s yeast, so it has more time to develop a deeper flavor.
We’ll give you a quick overview of how you can cultivate your own sourdough starter later in this post, if you’re interested. But in short – sourdough has a very unique flavor and fermentation process, which is why it bakes up into such delicious crusty loaves and rolls. You can also add it to pretty much anything you would typically use store-bought yeast for, including cinnamon buns and sandwich bread.
Making a sourdough starter
Baking with sourdough is a learning process. We’ve been doing it for a few years by now, on and off, and we still aren’t experts by any means. It’s a lot of trial and error, because there are so many factors that can impact your dough, including the water you use, the temperature of the water, the room, the dough, your altitude, the flour you use, and so on. You need to learn what your sourdough starter needs in order to thrive, so you’ll inevitably make a few mistakes along the way.
You can sometimes buy a sourdough starter online if you aren’t interested in making your own. If you know someone who bakes with sourdough, you can also ask them for a bit of their starter, and this will make your sourdough baking process a lot easier. But if you are interested in making your own starter, keep reading!
Step-by-step sourdough starter instructions
- Mix together about 50g of flour and 50g of warm water (between 25-29 C or 77-84 F) in a jar. We like to use a clear jar with vertical sides, so that we can clearly see how much the starter has risen. Mix well and leave this in a warm place for 12-24 hours.
- Feed the starter again by adding 100g of flour and 100g of warm water. We’ve increased this because you need to feed your starter in at least a 1:1:1 ratio, which means equal parts starter:flour:water. Once your starter is strong and ready to bake with, you can experiment with different ratios, but at this point, your starter isn’t fully alive yet. Mix well and leave this in a warm place for another 12-24 hours.
- You may or may not see small bubbles starting to form, and you also may notice a sour or alcoholic smell. Don’t worry if nothing is happening yet – it can take a week or so for the starter to come to life.
- Feed the starter again. This time, we would recommend discarding some of the starter, so you only have 100g left. Feed this at a 1:1:1 ratio again, so 100g starter:100g flour:100g warm water. But you can start with any amount of starter you like, as long as you’re feeding it at a 1:1:1 ratio. Discarding some starter just stops you from accumulating a lot of it and having to waste flour. Mix well and leave this in a warm place for another 12-24 hours.
- Repeat this process until your starter starts to double in size between feedings. At this point, your starter should be strong enough to bake with.
Getting your starter ready to bake
- Feed your starter. You need 100g of starter for this recipe, so you can take 40g of starter, and feed it at a 1:1:1 ratio to make 120g of sourdough starter, giving you 100 to bake with, and 20 to keep (remember to feed this so you can keep your starter going. Store it in the fridge if you don’t want to bake with it for a while, feeding it once every 2 weeks).
- Wait for your starter to “peak”. This is when your starter is strongest and ready to use. It will have doubled in size and should have a slightly domed top. This should take approximately 2-4 hours, but the time can depend on various factors, including the temperature and humidity of your home. The general rule is that the warmer it is, the quicker the starter will peak.
- Once the starter has peaked, it’s ready to use in the dough!
- Missed your peak? This is when your starter has already doubled in size and started to fall. You’ll know this because there will be a mark on the jar where it “peaked”, and the starter will look deflated. Don’t worry – you can either feed the starter again or bake with it anyway. If your starter has fallen a lot and doesn’t have many bubbles left, you can still use it, but add 1 tsp of baker’s yeast when mixing the dough to help it rise.
Making the dough for sourdough rolls
To make the dough, combine the peaked starter with warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add the bread flour and salt. Mix together until there are no more dry spots. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 6-7 hours total. However, you will have to do some stretch and folds to help it develop gluten. Do 3-4 of these every 30 minutes for the first couple of hours, then just let the dough rise for 4-5 hours uninterrupted.
At this point, the dough should have about doubled in size. It shouldn’t be too sticky on top when you touch it, and if you tilt the bowl, it should peel away from the sides of the bowl without sticking. At this point, you can take a few approaches to shaping the rolls, by either shaping the dough into a large loaf or shaping it into smaller rolls already.
This will need to rise again overnight in the fridge. If you’ve shaped it into a larger loaf, you’ll then need to cut it into smaller rolls and lightly shape them, without pushing out too much air. If they’re already shaped, simply pull the rolls out of the fridge and give them a little bit of time at room temperature to warm up. Finally, score and bake the rolls with a little bit of hot water in the oven to create steam. And there you go – lovely sourdough rolls for the perfect Danish-inspired breakfast!
Sourdough Rolls
This recipe yields the perfect sourdough rolls, enjoyed with butter and cheese as part of a classic Danish breakfast!
Ingredients
- 100 grams sourdough starter
- 300 grams warm water
- 500 grams bread flour
- 10 grams salt
Instructions
- Prepare your starter by feeding it in your preferred ratio and waiting until it peaks to use in the dough – if you don't have a starter or are unsure of how to prepare it for use in a recipe, please read the sections in the post above for more detail!
- Combine dough ingredients in a bowl: add your starter, then add warm water (if you're particular about temping the water, we suggest between 25-29 C or 77-84 F); mix together to dissolve the starter slightly. Then add your bread flour and salt.
- Mix/knead together until there are no dry spots and the dough is one cohesive ball (just about a minute of kneading or mixing).
- The next step is the bulk fermentation step, where the dough will rest in the bowl for a total of 6-7 hours. At the beginning of this stage, you will complete three "stretch and folds" to help the dough develop gluten.
- After the first 30 minutes of the dough resting, complete your first stretch and fold. With damp hands (run them under water briefly) you will pull up the sides of the dough in the bowl and fold them inwards, along four quadrants of the bowl. If you're confused, this blog post by The Clever Carrot is a great resource for this technique. Once you have completed this first stretch and fold, let the dough rise again for another 30 minutes.
- Repeat the above step for the second stretch and fold; rest for another 30 minutes.
- Complete the final stretch and fold. You can throw in one more (a fourth) stretch and fold if you feel like it. The dough will now rest for an additional 4.5-5.5 hours.
- At this point, the dough should have about doubled in size. It shouldn’t be too sticky on top when you touch it, and if you tilt the bowl, it should peel away from the sides of the bowl without sticking. At this point, you can take a few approaches to shaping the rolls, by either shaping the dough into a large loaf or shaping it into smaller rolls already.
- You can either shape the rolls to rise in the fridge overnight, or shape into a large loaf to rise in the fridge (and shape the rolls in the morning).
- To shape the rolls prior to resting in the fridge: Divide the dough into 8 even pieces. Take one portion of dough and pinch together into a ball shape – cup the ball in your hand with the top of the roll touching your palm. Place the ball on an unfloured surface and move your cupped hand in quick, tight circles to make the seam on the bottom of the dough come together and create tension on the surface of the dough.
- Place the roll on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper and dusted with a bit of flour.
- Repeat with the rest of the rolls. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap that's lightly oiled and place in the fridge to rest for at least 8 hours.
- If you'd prefer to shape the rolls the morning of baking, take your dough after rising and tip out onto a lightly floured surface. Press the dough flat into a rectangle, then roll it up tightly from one end. Roll it again in the opposite direction and you should have a ball of dough. Place seam side down on the table, and make sure the surface has little to no flour left on it. Pull the dough towards you, then rotate the dough at least once and repeat pulling the dough towards you, letting the surface grab the bottom of the dough to create surface tension and a round shape. For a helpful illustration, check out the diagram on The Fresh Loaf blog.
- Place your dough ball in a basket or bowl that's lined and lightly floured. For best results, place a piece of plastic wrap that's lightly oiled over the surface of the dough to prevent any tough skin from forming when you go to shape the rolls the next day.
- The next morning, take your shaped rolls out of the fridge, or take your dough ball out of the fridge and refer to the roll shaping step above to make 8 rolls that you then will place on a a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Place a deep baking ban/roasting pan on the bottom rack of the oven, and position a second rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 410F (210C).
- If you just shaped your rolls, let them rest for about 30 minutes to an hour before baking.
- Right before baking the rolls, boil some water (we use around 200-300ml) in a kettle – you'll need this when the rolls are ready to bake.
- To score the dough: Lightly dust the tops of the rolls with flour and with a sharp knife or bread lame cut an "x" shape into the top of each roll, about 1/2" or 1-2cm depth.
- Once the oven has preheated and you've scored the rolls, quickly place your rolls on the middle rack of then oven and very carefully pour the boiling water into your roasting pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Quickly close the oven door.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and hollow sounding when you tap them. Depending on your oven, they may need to bake for longer, so keep an eye on them!
- Once baked, let cool on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes. They're great warm and fresh out of the oven, but the structure will be a little bit better if you let them cool completely. Enjoy!
Make sure you have an active starter before attempting this recipe!
