When I lived in Germany last year, I shared an apartment with three other girls, two from Sweden, and one from China.
They were three of the best roommates I’ve ever had. We would make Chinese Hot Pot one night, have delicacy cheese and crackers another night, and study German together whenever we felt like it.
Lovely sourdough rolls filled with oat bran, oat flour and rolled oats.
Thanks to us three Swedes, our Chinese roommate probably still believes that every Swede has oatmeal for breakfast. Because that’s what we had. Every single day. We didn’t have the same kind of oatmeal of course, but we all had oatmeal. I had mine with chopped cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts and cinnamon. My other roommate had hers with milk and bananas. Our third Swede sometimes made hers with quinoa.
Flavored with anise seeds, caraway seeds and fennel seeds. Whoever came up with that combination is a genius.
We tried to assure our Chinese friend that not all Swedes have oatmeal for breakfast. If I could make a guess, I would say most Swedes don’t (but I’m also not a big fan of making general assumptions, so take that with a pinch of salt).
I have absolutely no idea why I’m so into oatmeal. Most kids hate oatmeal growing up. I guess I didn’t loathe it growing up, but I for sure wasn’t crazy about it. Maybe it’s because I like cross country skiing. In my mind, they just seem to belong together. If you’re going cross country skiing – you need to have oatmeal for breakfast, that’s just the way it is. Where else would you get all the energy for all the exercising you’re about to do? It all makes sense, right?
Just break off one piece at a time…
I guess one of these rolls is as close as you can get to an oatmeal substitute. I put in everything in my cupboard that had the word “oat” in it – oat bran, oat flour AND rolled oats. You can see why an oatmeal fan would be into these rolls. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And did I mention that they have fennel, caraway and anise seeds in them? Sourdough rolls at its best, that is.
Oat bread dinner rolls
Total time: 20 hours to let the pre-dough get active. Then another 5-6 hours to let the dough rise and bake the bread. Makes 12 oat bread dinner rolls.
Ingredients
Day 1
- 110 g (3.9 oz) rye starter
- 442 g (15.6 oz, not fluid!) filtered water
- 271 g (9.6 oz) bread flour
Day 2
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp honey
- ½ tbsp anise seeds
- ½ tbsp fennel seeds
- ½ tbsp caraway seeds
- 68 g (2.4 oz) oat bran
- 114 g (4 oz) oat flour
- 85 g (3 oz) rolled oats
- 275 g (9.7 oz) bread flour
Toppings
wheat germ
rolled oats
…or break off all of them at once.
Instructions
Mix rye starter, water and bread flour in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in room temperature for 20 hours, until the pre-dough is active and full of bubbles.
Mix in sea salt, honey, caraway seeds, fennel seeds, anise seeds, oat bran, oat flour, rolled oats and bread flour. Knead to a firm dough and let rise in a bowl covered with a kitchen towel for ca. 2.5 hours.
The wheat germs gets toasted on top.
Take out the dough on a floured surface and divide it into 12 pieces. Roll each piece to a round ball and roll them in wheat germ. Grease a spring form pan and sprinkle some rolled oats in it. Place the balls in the spring form pan, cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until double its size, about 2 hours.
Making bread in a spring form pan is one of my favorite ways to make bread – so easy and convenient.
Preheat the oven to 460°F. Spray some water on the bottom of the oven and bake the rolls for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 390°F and bake further for 30-35 minutes, until the rolls are golden brown and thoroughly cooked (should have an inner temperature of 97°C or 206.6°F). Take the loaf out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
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This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting.