I’ll cut to the chase here: TASTE – very good. LOOKS – what the?!
In my latest entry to the BBA, I baked Peter Reinhart’s kaiser rolls from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. My thoughts on the recipe are that it produces tasty rolls, especially if you sprinkle them with sesame seeds, but the texture is not as soft and fluffy as those that are commercially available. And the shaping instructions are uncharacteristically poor.
Like most of the recipes in the book, you make a preferment that you refrigerate overnight, then use the next day to make the rolls. No problem there. When it came to actually using the kaiser roll cutter, however, Reinhart’s instructions, such as they are, do not result in the characteristic kaiser roll pattern. Another failing: the picture in the book shows glossy , well-shaped rolls. Well, you can’t get that glossy look without using an egg wash (which I did), but that does not show up anywhere in the instructions that I could see.
So, while the recipe is very good, you are going to have to look elsewhere for better shaping and baking instructions. I have to say that this is my first big disappointment in the book; in other instances, poor visual results were the consequence of my learning a technique. In this case, the instructions for using the kaiser roll cutter just weren’t there.
And, as always, you can see what everyone is making this week at our Flickr group , on Twitter (#BBA), or check out the challenge page. To see what others have made in their kitchens this week, be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting!
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So sorry that they didn’t turn out as you like. I knotted mine – and I agree, you can’t get gloss or anything to stick on top without an eggwash.
I think yours look great but I totally agree with you on this one. When I made them, the voice in the back of my head was saying “egg wash” but I ignored it. Dumb. I bought the special cutter and was annoyed that it didn’t make them look special. I would hand knot these if I made them again, but I doubt these will be repeated.
[…] Kaiser Rolls […]
They look great to me!!
Who cares about looks if they taste good! You should never judge a roll by its wash anyway. Look delicious!
Sorry to hear that these were a disappointment for you. I loved the way mine turned out. I did the knotted shaping, and it worked great. And I was expecting, and got, hard rolls. (hard on the outside, that is) I don’t think of kaiser rolls as soft or fluffy.
Kaiser rolls are really really hard to shape. I made a bread a while back (Loretta Lynn’s white bread) that had the exact right texture and taste as kaiser rolls. Very light and very fluffy. Very . . .
Its hard to find a good roll recipe. I like the ones I made from a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. So far they were the lightest I have ever made.
Even if they don’t look the way you wanted…..from where I’m sitting they look fantastic. I would totally eat one! or maybe even two!
Knotting is the only way to go with these. And after about 3/4 of them it gets easier. Eggwash!! Yep, that is what they needed.
But they look delicious.