Sigteboller (Sifted Rye Bread Rolls)

Bring on the Bread Rolls!

We love bread rolls. Possibly more than regular loaves of bread, and that’s a significant statement for us. They’re just the perfect little package of bread, with lots of crust on the outside and a fluffy interior. You can grab one on the way out the door and eat it plain, or cut it in half and smother in butter, jam, Nutella, or whatever your heart desires. Either way, it will be delicious. Rolls are also easy to freeze and reheat, either in the oven or microwave. Basically, they’re better than loaves of bread in almost every possible way. Oh, and they’re also super fun and easy to bake!

Introducing Today’s Recipe

In case you couldn’t guess by now, today’s recipe is for a type of bread roll! These are called sigteboller, and they are made with our recipe for sigtebrød dough, which you can find here. What makes this bread unique is that it is made with rye flour and retains the taste of the rye, but is simultaneously really fluffy and soft. Rye breads are usually known for having a very dense texture, but we’ve balanced the rye out with some regular bread flour, as well as honey, buttermilk, and butter, to make the dough much softer.

Using a Poolish

Now, this recipe uses a pre-ferment called a poolish. This is one of my favorite ways to make bread, as it very clearly improves the final texture of the bread and makes the flavor more pronounced. A poolish also helps the bread keep better, and I find this helpful since I can’t (usually) finish an entire loaf of bread in a day or two. Personally, I learned about it from the phenomenal book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice* (this is an affiliate link) by Peter Reinhart, and I’ve pretty much used it for all of my bread recipes ever since. So, the night before you plan to bake your bread, you’ll want to mix your poolish. You have to let this ferment until it gets bubbly (2-3 hours), then put it into the fridge overnight. Take it out 1 hour before you plan to mix your dough.

Then, you mix the poolish with the rest of the dough ingredients and knead for 10-12 mins. Let this rise until it doubles in size and passes the poke test. Shape your bread rolls, making sure to smooth out creases or gaps in the dough. Let the rolls rise again, brush with milk, then bake! And then enjoy, with any toppings you like. Let us know below if you try this recipe, and please leave us a rating as well!

*Links marked with a * are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sigteboller (Sifted Rye Bread Rolls)

4 from 1 vote

These sifted rye rolls are amazingly soft and fluffy, with a great rye flavor! Eat them plain with tandsmør (a thick layer of butter) or use them for sandwiches or burgers!

Servings 12 servings

Prep Time 13 hours hrs

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 13 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

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IMPORTANT NOTE:

We always bake using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and milliliters). We can’t promise that our cup measurements will be as accurate! Additionally, we bake and develop our recipes in a convection (fan) oven.

Ingredients

  

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POOLISH

• 23 grams (1/8 cup) rye flour
• 52 grams (1/4 cup) bread or all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp instant yeast (1/4 tsp active dry yeast, 2g fresh yeast)
• 75 ml (1/3 cup) water

DOUGH

• All the poolish (about 150g)
• 1.5 tsp instant yeast (2 tsp active dry yeast, 14g fresh yeast)
• 100 ml (a little under 1/2 cup) buttermilk
• 100 ml (a little under 1/2 cup) water
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp melted butter, unsalted
• 320 grams (2 cups) sifted rye flour (you can make this by combining 120g (3/4 cup) rye flour and 200g (1 1/4 cups) bread or all-purpose flour)
• Milk (for brushing on the top)

Instructions

 

• Mix together the poolish ingredients until the mixture looks like thick pancake batter. Leave this to ferment for 2-3 hours at room temperature or in a warm place (in the oven with the light on or on the proof setting should work). Once the mixture gets pretty bubbly, put it in the fridge immediately and leave to ferment overnight. If you are making the poolish on the same day as the rolls, leave it to ferment at room temperature for a bit longer (3-4 hours total), then mix the dough. (But leaving it in the fridge overnight will give the final bread a better flavor, so we would recommend that!)
• The next day, take the poolish out of the fridge 1 hour before mixing the dough. Let it come to room temperature (it should get even more bubbly as it warms up).
• After waiting 1 hour, mix together the poolish and the rest of the dough ingredients (quick tip: use a wet spatula/dough scraper/hand to handle the sticky poolish). Add more bread/all-purpose flour if the dough is too sticky – you want to make sure it doesn’t stick to your hands or the sides of the bowl if using a stand mixer. Knead for 10-12 minutes or until it passes the 
  
• Cover and let the dough proof for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size and passes the  (should NOT spring back immediately when poked, should spring back slightly but leave an indentation).
• Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
• To shape the rolls, turn out the dough onto a clean surface.
  
• Using a bench scraper or a knife, divide into 12 equal portions (we like to divide in half, then equally divide each half again, then split into thirds from there).
  
• Using the surface of the table to create tension, roll the dough pieces on the surface until they have formed a smooth ball with no creases on the bottom.
  
• Place the rolls on the parchment lined baking sheet, cover and let rise for about 30-45 minutes until about doubled in size or passes the poke test. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C).
  
• Brush the tops of the rolls with milk. Put in the oven and bake.
  
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the rolls sound hollow when you tap them.
• Let cool for at least 15 minutes; Cut in half and enjoy!

Course: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Snack

Cuisine: Danish

Keyword: butter, buttermilk, fluffy, honey, morning, rye flour, soft

Difficulty: Advanced