It really took me a while to find this recipe for original German rolls, which turned out perfectly every single time.I made a lot of attempts to bake rolls but failed for a long time to get the real German taste. I searched for the right recipe in my books, on websites, and Pinterestย but finally found a video that showed how it’s done. And though I had expected it to be difficult, it turned out to be pretty easy if you know how and if you have the one crucial ingredient that adds that fantastic taste.
Malt
There are a lot of different rollsย (= Brรถtchen) in Germany and as many recipes to bake them. The most common roll in the north of Germanyย though is the Berliner Schrippe. It has an oval shape and a long creviceย on the top but most important, it has a very special taste that I couldn’t describe or name until now. The ingredient that gives that taste is MALT. There are different kinds of malt you can use and in the video I watched, the baker used “Caro Kaffee” which is a German coffee-like powder made from malted grains. I instead orderedย Barley Malt Powderย at Amazon which worked perfectly!
The malt has 3 functions:
- It adds a delicious taste.
- It adds some color (the more you use, the darker the rolls).
- It boosts the yeast.
So, if you don’t have malt I definitely recommend getting some before you try this recipe.
Timing
The thing that gave me the most headache about making rolls was when to start. Most of the recipes I read had long waiting times and since we mostly enjoy rolls for breakfast, it would have required to get up at 4 am to have theย rolls in the morning. No way!
Now, here is the solution for this recipe. First of all: From start to having the cooled rolls ready to eat, one needs roughly 2 hours (including the proofing and baking time). That is not too bad and if you want to have the rolls for dinner this is absolutely reasonable. However, if you want them in the morning, you simply prepare them to the point where they should rise one last time before they go into the oven. Instead of letting them rise in the kitchen at room temperature, you cover them with a damp towel and put them into your fridge overnight. In the morning you take them out and let them get to room temperature (about 45 – 60 minutes while you preheat the oven, take a shower, sip a coffee) and then bake them.
Confused? Here is a cheatย sheet that will help you:ย Timeline for baking German Rolls
This yeast dough is different
In the past I thought it is a given that you use warm water with the yeast and the order of the ingredients is first the flour, then the water, then the yeast … forget all that for this recipe! It really starts with the water and the yeast. It is important that the flour comes next, so the salt won’t touch the yeast mix at that point. Salt is the natural enemy of yeast so never let them get in direct contact.
Kneading the dough
I am very fortunate to have a KitchenAidย machine that does the kneading for me. But I am very well aware that not everybody has enough space or the budget for this. If you knead with a hand mixer, you should know that your mixing time might be significantly longer than with the machine (and you might have to switch to hand kneading after a while). Same if you knead completely by hand. I’ll show in the video how you will know when your dough is ready. For baking bread and rolls,ย a long kneading time is important to get the gluten to react.
Gluten forms whenย waterย is added to flour and is mixed. During mixing, a continuous network of protein forms, giving the dough its strength and elasticity. By holding gas produced during fermentation, the protein network allows bread to rise.
www.grainscanada.gc.ca
The Temperature, Oven and more
- You can use your regular oven for baking the rolls. Start with a high temperature of 475ยฐF when preheating the oven. Please preheat the oven for a long period of time, so the walls of the oven are really hot. I recommend getting an old baking pan from the thrift store, filling it with clean rocks (about fist size) and putting this on the lowest oven rack.
When the German rolls are just in the oven, you spray or pour about 50 ml (1/4 cup) of water onto the stones and quickly close the oven. Now, reduce the oven temperature to 425ยฐF. Don’t open the oven before the rolls are almost done. The humidity in the oven will keep your rolls moist for a longer time, meaning they will not dry out during the baking process. At about 2-3 minutes before the rolls are done, you open the oven door and let the steam escape. This gives the rolls a nice crisp outside – just as we like it in Germany.
Increasing the taste of the German rolls
In my video, you will learn how to make the rolls within like 1.5 hours and they will taste very good. However, if you want to increase that taste, it needs more time.
There are in general two ways of proofing a yeast dough: a) Letting it proof fast at warm temperature or b) letting it proof slowly at a low temperature.ย The long, cold proofing will always result in an increased taste since there is more time for the chemical reactions.
So if you want to have the rolls in the evening, you might want to start the dough in the morning or if you want to eat them in the morning, make the dough in the evening and bake it in the morning.
Authentic German Rolls - Berliner Schrippen
Ingredients
Instructions
- Put about half of the water into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the yeast to the water.
- Use a whisker to whisk the yeast with the water until it is completely dissolved.
- Now first add the flour, next the salt, malt and sugar.
- Add a little more of the water (but not all) and start mixing.
- Check your dough: Is it too dry, add a little more water, is it just right, keep kneading. Make sure you add the water little by littel until the dough has the right consistency.
- Knead the dough in the machine for another 12 minutes, knead by handmixeer or by hand for about 20 minutes.
- I you used a machine: Give it one more knead by hand.
- Dust the dough with a little flour on the top and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Let it rest rest for 10 minutes.
- Weigh your dough, it will be about 830 g. Devide by 10 (like 83) and make 10 portions of dough with this weight.
- Take one portion and with a hollow hand, circle it on the counter until a round shape is created. Tepeat with all dough portions.
- Let rest under a flour dusted towel for 5 - 10 minutes.
- Take each roll and press it down with a flat hand to create a flat, round shape. Flip one half over to the other half (creating half a circle). Roll to slightly close the seam (but not completely) and to make a football kind of shape.
- With the seam down, put each roll on a flour dusted towel, dust slightly with flour and cover with another towel.
- Fill an old baking pan with stones and put it on the lowest rack in your oven.
- Preheat the oven to 475ยฐF, let the stones get really to that temperature while you work on the dough and rolls.
- Let the rolls rest a) If you want to bake them soon, let them rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes) b) If you want to bake them several hours later, let them rest in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Let them get to room temperature again before you continue.
- Put each roll with the seam upside on a baking sheet.
- Put in the oven on the middle rack. Pour or spray 1/4 cup of water onto the stones and immediately close the oven.
- Reduce the heat to 425ยฐF and keep the oven closed for about 18 minutes.
- When the rolls are almost done (about 18 minutes), open the oven and release the steam. Then close the oven door and bake for another 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the rolls from the oven and let them cool before you eat them.
Notes
What to do with leftover rolls
If you bake more German rolls than you can eat, there are some options to eat them later, despite the fact that they will dry out very fast. Option 1: Put them into a plastic bag. The next day you give the rolls a very short rinse - just enough to make them a little wet - and then put them either on top of the toaster (turn, don't burn!) or into the pre-heated oven to quickly bake them until crisp again. They won't taste like fresh but still be good. Option 2: Freeze them. When you want to eat them, put the frozen rolls into the oven, then heat the oven to 350ยฐF and when the temperature is reached, let the rolls bake for another 2 or 3 minutes. They should be almost like fresh rolls. Alternative: Make Dumplings from Rolls!
This was the third different Brotchen recipe I tried and it is wonderful!
I have not tried this recipe yet. I will give a5 star here for video and clarity of instructions. I tried a different brotchen recipe and was not happy without come. This video explained all the things I needed to do differently for success. I have not been able to find fresh yeast cake in the US, except on amazon and you have to buy a very large amount. Do you have a suggestion for where to find fresh yeast cake? Thank you
Hi Lori,
fresh yeast is unfortunately almost impossible to get here in the US. I had a source here in Houston but they don’t sell it to me anymore. You could try to go to a traditional bakery and ask if they have it and would sell it in smaller amounts to you. I, too, am not happy with the dry yeast. It tastes different and the outcome is often less fluffy than with fresh yeast.
Just made it today, taste very good but the bread In side was very heavy, and during the needeing process mine was on dry side. I did add a bit more water but wasn’t wanting to moist , but was still dry, thank you also made the german nurenberg brots very good
Hi Christie,
flours can be different and if you feel like the dough is to heavy and dry, add a little water, that’s ok.
So, can you put the dough in the fridge over night and bake them fresh in the morning! If so does the dough need to be room temperature before baking?? Amazing recipe!!!
I have tried that several times but was never happy with the result. It might be better to bake the rolls to about 2/3 and then freeze them. Later finish the baking right before serving. You might want to try that.
I lived in Germany, many years ago, as a preteen and teen. I remember delicious, “Brotchen”. This recipe makes the rolls exactly with the right texture and look that I remember. The smell is identical to what I remember. The video was a huge help, as I would never have understood the shaping process without it. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
I just complete my 3rd attempt to make what I find when visiting my daughter in Bavaria. The first two batches were OK, but denser than I remembered. I can do better. Travis made a comment (October 2020) about less gluten and more water. I thought he was a tad crazy at first, until I recalled some other breads I make that do rise amazingly and they are “wet” doughs. Travis was absolutely correct.
For this third batch I modified your dough preparation. #1, dump the KitchenAid, it is not needed (no pun intended). Two of my other breads do not use it and have little, if any, kneading. Instead mix the dough by hand using 440 instead of 500 grams flour (use AP). Mixup all the ingredients (I use 2 teaspoons malt powder) until all are combined and it starts to stick to the edge of the bowl. Cover and let it sit for 40 minutes. Turn onto a floured surface and with hands lightly floured, spread the dough to an 9″ square. Take one edge and fold it just to the middle. Rotate 90ยฐ and repeat. Repeats 2 more times and with the last fold, bring the new edge on top of the opposite side. Return to the bowl and allow to sit 15 minutes. Repeat the folding 2 more times. Five minutes after the last fold, partition out the dough, 76 gram pieces work well. The dough is VERY sticky on the fingers but that is correct. Set each piece onto a lightly floured surface until all are cut. I rolled each piece into a ball and set onto a parchment covered cooking sheet and let rise. I did not cover. When risen, score and set into the HOT (450+) oven, add the water ( I prefer 1/3 cup) and turn down to desired temp. I think 400ยฐf may be the best cooking temp for my oven, but I am working on this. Be sure to bake until golden brown, then open the door to let steam escape and close door for 2 minutes. They rose wonderfully. Puffed up would be a good description.
I had 2 pieces of dough that would not fit on the cookie sheet so they were baked after the first were done. While the first ones baked, I used your method of flattening the ball, folding, and rolling them up. I did not like how they were spreading a little so I folded them again, seam side down on the parchment, and just before baking I sliced the top for expansion. These last 2 Berliner Schrippen came out better than either of the first two attempts. My wife and I are used to round brำงchen (Semmel) so this was my shape of choice.
For dinner tonight we had the traditional meal we eat at my daughter’s house in Bavaria. Cheese and cold cuts on a brำงchen. I did not have any pretzels :-( nor meat spreads. The brำงchen was very good.
I have made these rolls several times, and the flavor is very good. However, I have a vented gas oven which does not hold the steam, so I don’t get the right texture. Any ideas?
Maybe add enough water in a bowl in the oven to make sure it is enough throughout the baking process? I hope it helps.
Hey Jane
Yes, far more effective for keeping steam in the oven with lava rocks is to use some sort of a cloche arrangement.
A big flat tray to put your dough (shaped as rolls onto. and then place an upturned roasting tin over the top works well. The better the seal the better it will work. so try to avoid gaps.
Commercial versions can be bought too. For regular bread baking the Challenger Pan is hard to beat, but its pricey.
A large flat bottomed casserole with a lid works well. make sure it’s heat proof lid. Cheap enamelled metal ones are great.
Good luck.
I find when I let the rolls rise slowly in the refrigerator they tend to dry out on top. Should I be covering them with plastic wrap before putting them in the refrigerator? Thank you for this great recipe, BTW! My husband and I have travelled a good bit in Germany and always miss the wonderful German bread when we come home to the U.S. Not any more!
Yes, Laurie, definitely cover them if you leave them in the fridge!
Dying to bake this! How many grams of instant dry yeast is required? Recipe states one package, not sure what this comes up to. I’m based in Germany, by the way! :)
Itโs 7 grams. Enjoy the baking!
How much malt do I use. I have the barley malt ?
I grew up in Germany Air Force dad. I have been wanting to make these for many years now but could never find a recipe. I would love to make them for my family. I canโt wait to try this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Just tried to this recipe – not enough yeast! Recipe in print calls for one packet (7g) of yeast, but the video calls for 15 grams. So if you are using packets, use 2 !! Rolls turned out ok, but did not rise properly due to only using one packet
Sorry about that, though I baked with this printed recipe several times lately and had no problems and didn’t notice. But I will adjust the recipe so there is no discrepancy between the video and recipe. Thanks for pointing it out.
Ciao from Sicily Italy! We are Americans, and having traveled many times before COVID to Germany as well Netherlands to see family I wanted to learn how to make brรถchen to make us less homesick. I found your website, watched your video several times to make sure I understood the process. Iโve made them 4 times, and each time it takes us back to Germany. I do you bread flour. I follow your advice on the water and each time Iโve had a bit left over. Grazie Mille on sharing your recipes!
Wonderful! If you cut the leftover into little squares and let them dry entirely, you can turn them into bread crumbs in a food processor. I use that for our Schnitzel :-)
Hi Barbara,
Just wanted to leave a message to say that I am so happy I found your blog! We live in London. I am Chinese and my husband is German. My husband often misses German bread (and of course German food too!) I’ve already tried the 100% Rye bread, Rye bread German bakery version and this Broetschen recipes. Both rye breads were very successful and my husband absolutely loved them. The Broetschen was not so good but that’s my fault because I left it too long before I put the dough into the oven as I had to deal with something else in the middle of baking! I will for sure try it again soon.
Please keep posting nice recipes and I look forward to them!
Warm regards from England,
Vivienne
Hi Vivienne,
well, I guess my next recipe will make your husband very happy since it is another German bread recipe :-) publishing is on Saturday. I hope you like the bread, too!
Greetings to London,
Barbara
Ich habe das Rezept noch nicht probiert, aber wรผrde gerne wissen welches Mehl du benutzt. 405? 550? 1050? Ist es ein Amerikanisches mehl? Danke!
Die Brรถtchen sehen sehr lecker aus! Genau wie beim Bรคcker aber natรผrlich ein bisschen kleiner.
Ich benutze amerikanisches all purpose flour, das kann mit 550 Mehl verglichen werden.
I just made these and while they are certainly not perfect they did taste good. I had a hard time rolling them right.
Not sure how to post a picture on here.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe and the video really helped.
My family canโt get enough of these brรถtchens. I make them everyday now. Truly an amazing recipe! I am so glad I found it. I couldnโt get any malt flour so substituted with malt syrup. Worked very well.
Do you perhaps know how many calories your recipe contains per serving?
Hi Ilana,
I’m afraid I don’t. I believe there are apps on the web where you type in the ingredients and quantities and it calculates it. Maybe try something like that and then divide it by the number of rolls you made?
Best,
Barbara
Vielen, vielen herzlichen Dank, Barbara!
Unsere deutsche Bรคckerei ist im Augenblick zu, und ich wรผrde so gerne Schrippen haben! Nur eine Frage โฆ Ich backe gern und oft, aber ich wรผrde Angst haben, mit kaltem Wasser (oder mit Wasser zur Zimmertemperatur) zu backen. Darf ich mit diesem Rezept das Wasser heizen, so wie normal??
Hallo David,
Dieser Teig wird mit kalter Fรผhrung hergestellt. Das ist u.a. Teil des Geheimnisses warum sie so gut schmecken. Aber es ist natรผrlich nicht verboten, angewรคrmtes Wasser zu verwenden. Probier es halt aus.
Viele Grรผรe und viel Spaร beim Backen!
Danke, Barbara!
Und die Hefe fonktionert im kaltem Wasser? Ich habe immer gehแฝ rt at Hefe fonktioniert nicht ohne warmes Wasser. (Europรคische Hefe gibtโs hier nicht mehr zu kaufen โฆ Ich habe bloร Zugang zur Trockenhefe). Danke!
Ja, es funktioniert mit Trockenhefe. Wasser mit Raumtemperatur ist ja nicht eiskalt und selbst im Kรผhlschrank geht Hefe noch auf … nur langsamer. Ich bekomme in Texas auch keine Frischhefe mehr. Die letzte Quelle ist versiegt aber Trockenhefe geht auch.
Viel Spaร beim Backen, ich hoffe es klappt alles perfekt!
Vielen, Vielen Dank!
Hallo Barbara!
Ich habe dem Rezept genau befolkt und habe die Schrippen zwei mal gebacken. Sie schmecken, aber meine spalteten an den Seiten und nicht oben. Sie sehen auch so aus wie โhot dog buns”, und nicht wie Schrippen. Haben Sie eine Ahnung, was ich falsches gemacht habe? Danke!
Das klingt als wรผrde sich der Spalt in der Mitte nicht รถffnen. Vielleicht ist der Teig zu weich und klebt beim Gehen wieder zusammen? Statt der Methode im Video, schneide den schlitz einfach mit einem scharfen Messer in den Teig. Die Brรถtchen รถffnen sich dann oben beim Backen und erhalten die richtige Form. Alles eine Frage der รbung und mit jedem Mal werden sie besser weil man ein Gefรผhl fรผr die richtige Konsistenz bekommt.
Viele Grรผรe,
Barbara
Made the Berliner Schrippen for the second time this morning. Wow!
When I made them for the first time, my family thought that they were bought! They complimented me on them. So thank you!
I grew up in Berlin and during our last visit we had these every morning, freshly baked from the small bakery around the corner.
This brings me to explaining my rating. I would give 5 stars for improved consistency, less dense. They turn out less fluffy and only 2/3 of the size compared to the ones in Germany.
I did change this morning the raising time, let the 10 Brรถtchen raise for 40 min on bread proof setting.
But still no air holes
Accidentally I forgot to lower temp to 425
and used more water that I poured over rocks. But could this have had an influence on the size? Still they tasted so good!
The taste is great!
Any suggestions on getting them bigger with air holes?
The rolls in the recipe are smaller than at a German bakery, I agree, and I too have made them larger the last couple of times. The larger air holes in the rolls are probably not doable at home. Bakeries add some chemical ingredients to achieve that, I’ve been told. If I ever find a method to make the rolls less dense, I’ll let you know.
The only chemical you add to achieve that is more water and less gluten development.
Canโt wait to get my malt and try them!
I tried this recipe today. I found it a little confusing because it uses a combination of European measures (ml, g) and American measures (F, 1/4 c). I have a liquid measuring pitcher with both types, so I could measure 300 ml of water. But 500 g flour was not so easy. Siri converted it to 2.5 cups.
It would be great if the recipe was edited for American bakers who don’t have European measuring ability!
As I said, I used 2.5 cups of flour and added “about half” of the 300 ml water, plus yeast, salt, and sugar. (I have ordered the barley malt and will use it next time.) After it was mixed with a whisk, I put it into my KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough hook and ran it while I slowly added almost all of the rest of the water. It was very soupy! I let it run for 12 minutes, and it was still very liquid and sticky. I dumped it onto a floured board and added flour a little at a time, until about an extra cup of flour was used. The rolls could be handled and shaped, but I had to dust them with flour several times to reduce the stickiness.
What went wrong? (The rolls turned out fine, but not perfect. I’m aiming for perfection!) When I measure flour, I do as I was instructed long ago–spoon the flour into the measuring cup, heaping it up, then use a flat blade to smooth the top and remove the excess. I used 1-cup and a 1/2-cup measuring cups and was careful to be accurate. It seems as if the recipe calls for too little flour, about 1-to-2 cups less than needed.
Your advice, please?
Hi Christine,
I am sorry that the recipe didn’t have the result you were aiming for. Let me go through your comment and see how I can help.
With the quantities, I am trying to address visitors all over the world. Some of them using metric, others US customary measurements. Some even use something else … but I have my limits when it comes to conversion.
In this recipe, I see the metric quantities like this:
300 ml (=g) water
1 package dry yeast
500 g flour
8 g salt
4 g malt (I used a little more, like 1.5 teespoon)
1 pinch sugar
and when I switch with the link below the ingredients, I get the US customary measurements like this:
1ยผ cups water
1 package dry yeast
4 cups flour
0.28 oz salt
0.14 oz malt (I used a little more, like 1.5 teespoon)
1 pinch sugar
I am assuming that you accidentally switched between the two systems since you refer to different systems? Or do I misunderstand this?
Then, as you can see, the 500g of flour translate into 4 cups. Maybe Siri had a bad day but I just asked Siri myself and got 4.17 cups as an answer. I really have no explanation why it told you it’s 2.5 cups. Very weird and as you unfortunately learned the hard way, that would be way too less flour. You added about one more cup, going with your gut and that was the right call but not enough for this recipe. So, I think this was the one thing that went wrong and kept you from a perfect results. It can also be that your flour is taking in more or less liquid, so always just add as much water to the dough as seems to be right for a good consistency. The measurements are not absolute and natural products like flour vary in their behavior due to different growing locations, weather, climate or even seasons.
So, in general you came to the right conclusion at the end of your comment: You used about 2 cups too less flour due to Siris wrong conversion. In general, however, I would really recommend to invest $10 into a kitchen scale if you are aiming for perfection. It is simply more accurate than a cup. I never use cups after I experimented with measuring with cups and then weighing the content – I never had identical results and the differences were quite large.
I hope you have more success with your next rolls.
Best,
Barbara
When dealing with this light of a recipe the difference you can get in density of flour measuring by volume will keep you away from the consistent realm of perfection. Get yourself a nice scale and always measure by weight at a 1g resolution. Convert all volume recipes to weight using some internet action will make this quick and easy. The next step to making this easy to adjust to achieve your own personal perfection would be to take your new recipe scaled in mass, would be to convert it to bakers percent. Then you can make slight adjustments to any ingredient and have the desired amount of dough come out consistent every time. Perfection means eliminated as many random variables as possible so you can get scientific! Keep it up and you rock!
โค Thank you Travis!
I really want to make this recipe as soon as possible. Nobody in town seems to carry Malt powder. Whole Foods has barley malt syrup. Would that work as a substitute?
I canโt tell for sure but I think it might work. Donโt know how much of it would be needed though. Let me know how it turns out, please.
If you can’t get the malt powder from Amazon, try barley malt syrup from a brew shop.
I spent 4 yrs in Germany while I was in the military in the 80s I loved the brouchen this is the best ive had after leaving Germany thank you i cant even buy them in my area in the states again thank you
I am happy that I could bring back some good memories with my recipe!
Please add me to your mailing list. I finally found Berliner Schrippen, have been looking a long time.
Thank you.
Hallo!
Thank you so much for this recipe – I’ve often craved brรถtchen with butter and jam. As a young housewife 35 years ago we would often have the cheap Aldi Scheiblettenkรคse on brรถtchen for tea – no money, no nutrition, but good times:) Thank you for letting me reminisce!
I did not do a good job with this bake – and I hope you can advise. Everything looked great, but they were hard/dense. I knead by hand – do you think I might have done it too long? The other thing ist that I used malt powder, not malt flour. I have no other ideas, perhaps you can think of something else I did to cause this?
Thank you so much for this site – I love it!
Hi Robin,
it is hard to tell what went wrong but my first guess would be that you baked them for too long. Maybe your oven isn’t really true to temperature settings. Did you bake the rolls with steam as I describe it? I’ve never had this problem and anybody else reported it. As for the kneading time, when you knead it, make sure the dough gets to the right consistency, I show and explain that in my latest bread recipe here: https://mygerman.recipeswhite-bread-easy/
I hope this will help.
Best, Barbara
Hello Barbara,
Thank you so much! I have checked my oven and it was 15ยฐ off!
I have resolved this issue and Will make the rolls again this weekend.
Cheers!
Robin
Huh, good you could figure that out. How did it turn out this time?
Wow! I have been trying every recipe/technique for over 20 years and FINALLY I hit a gold pot! Perfect is all I can say! This is going to save me a lot of money flying back to Germany to get my Brรถtchen fix. I made the Mischbrot as well and also perfect! Thank you!!!!
I love this recipe, but……I am not sure what I did wrong here. My rolls seemed not done enough (definitely not light and fluffy on the inside) and they were too done on the outside. They also did not pop open so they just looked like unopened footballs. The taste is delicious. I live in Denver, Colorado and our elevation is about 5500 feet. Are there things I need to do differently for the elevation? I am frustrated as I have tried a lot of different methods and just can’t get it right……
Hi Janice,
I have never lived at 5000 ft so I don’t know if you need to do something different. But it seems that you have a problem with the slit in the rolls. If the method, shown in the video doesn’t work for you, just take a sharp knife and cut the slit instead of shaping it the way it’s shown there. This will let the steam be released during baking and they should be more fluffy and also baked through. Also, keep in mind that ovens are different and maybe you need to adjust the temperature a little.
I hope this will help.
Barbara
I just happened to find your website – beautiful photography!
I have been searching for a recipe for german hard rolls. I am from milwaukee, wi. While i was growing up our neighborhood had several german bakeries and we ate german hard rolls and hot ham just about every sunday after mass. Gradually the german bakeries were replaced with italian bakeries, still good, but not the same.
Thank you sharing your heritage and recipes with all of us. It is very generous of you.
I look forward to trying your recipes, bee sting cake, pretzel rolls, but first – hard rolls!
Is it dry active yeast or instant yeast? I don’t have fresh yeast…
Either will work.
your recipes are great ich bin in luebeck geborn und mutti kochte nur berliner kueche, still cook her rouladen, schweinebraten. danke schoen chris
I love Lรผbeck! Beautiful town with lots of history.
I can’t find the malt flour you show in your video. Do you have a link?
The link is in the blog post (subtitle “Malt”) but just in case you can’t find it: https://amzn.to/3adVeHW
Barbara, thank you for the video and cheat sheet (Vielen dank fur alles). Mein brotchen schmeckt gut gemacht.
James Snyder (Schneider)
Sehr gern geschehn! Glad you like it!!
The best Brotchen recipe ever.Simple and delicious.I cocur not to omit the malted barley flour.it enhances flavor and taste.Thanks a lot for the recipe.i have baked it twice and friends and husband loves it.5 star!
Thank you, Merilyn!
this was by far the best tasting recipe i found for brotchen..
i did have a little hard time with the rolls rising as yours did in the video. plus, i did not know what type or rocks to use, s o i had to improvise and use a pizza stone.. what type of rocks did you use??
and do you find the linen proofing cloth really makes a difference??
The rocks I am using are from my garden landscaping :-). They once came in a bag from Homedepot but any kind of Rocks will do. They should have about the size of your palm or a little smaller than that. Craft stores tend to sell rocks, too, if you are living in the city and can’t collect them in nature. I tried the pizza stone, too, but it didn’t end well: It broke into two pieces! So, better get some rocks since a pizza stone is much more expensive.
I used a pizza stone underneath but I also used a small loaf pan with water I it to steam up the oven. I also brushed a coat of water onto each bun top before baking. Came out nicely
Sounds really good!
My rolls taste great but they always get soft after i take them out of the oven and they cool,
How can i keep them crispy and how to i get a shine on them? Thank you for the recipe.
You should keep them in the oven a little longer if they become soft soon after baking. For a shine, you could brush some water on them before baking.
For the Rolls โ Berliner Schrippen, what type of flour do you use? All purpose or bread flour?
Both work. I used all purpose though.
Aloha, Barbara, thank you very much for this recipe! I miss brรถchen a lot. I made your recipe yesterday and we’ve already just finished the last two rolls. The malt powder came in from Amazon. I appreciate your including the link for the powder and for making all of your video tutorials. The only mistake I made was after I rolled them into little football shapes and set them on a cookie sheet, about 15 minutes later I realized I laid them fold side down. I turned them over and let rise a few minutes, but the split tops did not open pretty like your bread. I will remember next time. I’m so happy. Do you have a place for us to share our pictures of your recipe? If not, that is ok. I will send it to our grown kids for sure, along with a link to your video on YouTube. Take good care! Next I hope to make the pretzel recipe and another batch of the brรถchen ? sitkakonarose on YouTube ?
Wonderful! I sometimes too have the problem the the cut is not opening. Just get a knife before baking and give it an extra cut. If you want, you can send pictures to mail@mygerman.recipes and I will publish them on facebook. Keep up the good baking! :-)
Where do you buy fresh yeast?
So far I only found one place here in Houston to buy fresh yeast. At Central Market I walk right to the bakery and ask nicely for some fresh yeast. They are so kind to cut me some from their yeast block, wrap it, put a price tag on it and make me very happy. I hope this will work for you, too.
Thank you
Can you use dry yeast ? Same amount of gramms ?
No, for dry yeast you use 1 package of 7g instead of the 15g fresh yeast.
I am also having a hard time finding fresh yeast – will using the dry yeast taste the same?
The taste should be the same. It’s just that in my experience, the fresh yeast is more active, lets doughs rise faster and better und just in general works a little better. But you will be absolutely fine if you are using dry yeast instead.