In the different regions of Germany plain rolls have different names: In the north they are called “Rundstücke”, in the South “Semmeln” or “Wecken” and in the East they are called “Schrippen” or “Doppelte”, and in the West, were I live, we call them “Brötchen”. But as a friend who has to travel a lot told me some days ago, as long as you asked for “Normal” you will get what you want in every bakery.
I still try to create rolls with a fluffy and soft crumb. I will not give up this aim, someday I will get the ingredients in the perfect ratio like it work for the sandwich bread, too.
My newest attempt include some egg white, a little bit of milk and butter. I used some Pâte fermentée and knead until the gluten is fully developed. The crumb is already much better then before, it is evenly regulary and softer then before, but not as soft as I whished for. The rolls proofed nicely and had a good oven spring. Pulling them out of the oven they started directly to “sing” when the crust cracked because of the soft crumb which shrink when the bread cool down.
My colleagues and me used the sunny warm Friday last week to light a fire in our barbecue in our lunchbreak – probably for the last time this year. We grill all the left overs we had frozen the last times and spend a nice hour in our garden, relaxing after a long week. As a side dish we prepared potatoes which we roasted in the fire. We finished nearly everything, at the end there were only five potatoes left. I do not like to throw away good food so I take this potatoes home and put them into a bread.
We were invited to a Brunch on Saturday. And because I don’t like to go to an invitation without offering to contribute something to eat I asked the hostess if she need something. She told me that something sweet would be nice and so I decided to bake Raspberry Scones.
Last Sunday morning I wake up and heard the rolling thunder outside. Taking a look out of the window I decided that I would not leave the house to get some rolls from the bakery. The thunderstorm that was brewing outside turned the beginning day into night again. So I decided to spend the time in the kitchen preparing a dough for a plum cake instead.
When I have some old sweet rolls I love to use them in the swabian variation of bread pudding. It is called “Ofenschlupfer” and consists traditional of sliced rolls and apples, soaked with eggs and milk, sprinkled with sugar and baked until golden. It is one of my favourite dishes of my childhood.
I have the feeling that autumn is already knocking timidly on my door. I knew that it is still august, in theory it is still midsummer, but after all the rainy days in the past weeks and with the fact that the days already started to get shorter I feel a little bit like autumn. Don’t understand me wrong, I cherish the change of season. It is like George de Santayana says: “To be interested in the changing seasons is . . . a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” And I love the change from summer to autumn – maybe because I was born in this special atmosphere between theses seasons in September 29 years ago.
The bakery in the small village in which we spend our vacation in East Frisia offered little braids made of a slightly sweet dough. They taste great with jam or honey or as a sandwich with cheese.
. And I tried to recreate the recipe for the little braids to take a little bit of our holiday memories back home.