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Many people have been writing to ask for German-style hard rolls. The most common are Brotchen (little breads). They’re made from egg white-enriched white dough, and brushed with more egg white before baking at high temperature with steam. In the book, Zoe and I concentrated on French-style crust techniques, which tend not to use egg white for high-temperature crisp crusts on lean breads. Turns out that the egg white creates an incredible crust and crumb. First off mix up a batch of our plain white-flour Master Recipe but make one variation: Put three egg whites into the bottom of the measuring cup before you measure out your three cups of water– so it’s three cups of liquid, including the three egg whites. Everything else is the same.
On baking day, preheat the oven with a baking stone near the middle of the oven to 450 degrees F for at least 20 to 30 minutes (place a broiler tray in the oven on any other shelf that won’t interfere with rising bread). Cut off 3 ounce balls of dough (like a small peach) and briefly shape them (as in our videos), finishing by squeezing to form an oval. Refrigerate the rest for up to five days before freezing in one-pound packages (there’s raw egg in here). You can also form a perfect little oval by using the letter-fold method, though I didn’t do it here (too lazy!).
Allow to rest/rise for at least 20 minutes or as long as 60 minutes. Then use a pastry brush to cover with egg white. If you want seeds or salt, now’s your chance:
Now slash with a single cut the long way, using a serrated bread knife. Slide quickly so the knife doesn’t catch:
I spaced my brotchen on a silicone mat, but you could also do them on a greased cookie sheet, or a piece of parchment paper. It’s best not to do these on a cornmeal covered pizza peel; that’s just not the effect you’re going for.
Put the cookie sheet, silicone mat, or parchment paper on the preheated baking stone and pour a cup of hot water into the broiler tray just before closing the oven door. Bake for about 25 minutes. The result is incredibly crisp, shiny, and richly browned. I’m guessing that home bakers with problem ovens will find this method to be a miracle charm for getting a great crust on small breads.
I haven’t tested it on large loaves but I’m guessing that there might be trouble with over-browning if a loaf need more than about 35 minutes. More on that later.
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Made brotchen for my German friends who have been missing it terribly since moving here to the states. The first thing out of the 17yr old boy was “oooohhhhh this is soooo good – you did good Cheryl don’t change a thing!!! I sooooooooo miss this!”
It does a girl’s heart good. Guess there will always be a bucket of brotchen either in the fridge or some frozed for use with German style Frustuck.
Thank You So very much Zoe and Jeff
Cheryl: Glad this is brightening up your Frustuck! At least ein bisschen. Jeff
We used to live on Long Island where the bread was just fantastic. My husband always had his sandwich on a regular deli hard roll which he loved so much. Now we live in North Carolina and there is no good bread down here. I love your recipes . That basic dough makes the greatest bread so fast and now I can tolerate living in NC but I was wondering if you could tell me how to make that deli hard sandwich roll.
Hi Dee,
How do they differ from the Brotchen that are in this post? I would have referred you to these, but you seem to be looking for something different.
Thanks, Zoë
Made these for Thanksgiving dinner today. Followed instructions exactly. Perfection! One full recipe yielded 17 3-ounce rolls.
I just tried making brotchen and the rolls after 25 minutes were not dark brown? Any suggestions? Also, I have them on a silpat but didn’t know how to get the silpat onto the baking stone? It is hard to move off of the cookie sheet that I had it sitting on. It seemed to flimsy to pick up and move without anything under it.
Amanda– you can’t slide things off a Silpat– too much friction. Even though the Silpat seems flimsy, you can just pick it up and drop it on the stone. Those are meant to leave the items right on the pad and bake them that way, at least until they set when you can pull the Brotchen off and sit them right on the stone, or a bare baking shelf. That can help with browning. If you’re nervous about moving a fully-loaded Silpat, put a cookie sheet under it and move the whole thing.
Most likely, your oven temp is too cool– check with something like http://bit.ly/czmco2 That explains why they’re gummy and under-browned. Till you get that worked out, you can always just bake longer.
Also, bread and rolls made with wet dough need to be allowed to completely cool before breaking in to them– or they’ll be gummy.
Just broke one of the rolls open and it is not light and airy…kind of dense and gummy. Not under cooked kind of gummy, though. I baked them for 25 minutes and they weren’t dark brown so left them in for about another 5 minutes but it didn’t make them more brown.
I would like to try your Brotchen, but I am wondering if it is still OK to leave on the counter for 2 hours because of the eggs. And then is it still good for up to 14 days? Thank you, Always a Fan
Hi P,
The Brotchen in this post is made with the master recipe and has no eggs in the dough, so I am not sure I understand the question? The egg wash is brushed on just before baking, is that what you are referring to?
Thanks, Zoë
“First off mix up a batch of our plain white-flour Master Recipe but make one variation: Put three egg whites into the bottom of the measuring cup before you measure out your three cups of water– so it’s three cups of liquid, including the three egg whites. “
Hi P,
My apologies, with the addition of eggs in the dough we generally say to save the dough for about 5 days and then freeze the remainder.
Thank you! Zoë
Thank you for the clarification. Please tell me how to make the egg wash with water or milk, whites only, etc. I came across a website for different kinds of egg wash that yield different results. It was too many choices.
http://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t–34280/egg-wash.asp
Thanks again.
Also if I do add water or milk please tell me the proportions. Thank you!
i just made this and here’s the result:
made the 32oz flour recipe and then about 17-18 three oz breads – have a scale and measured everything.
batch 1 – forgot to slice the tops. put them in 450 convection broil and they were ready in 12 mins. i stuck a Thermapen in them and it showed 210 degrees. the tops were darker than this picture, almost too dark for my taste. almost burned them. luckily i took them out before the tops burned.
batch 2 – sliced the tops, put them in 400 convection (so the temp shows 375F), with water bath. kept them for 23 mins to get to 211F. look perfect.
batch 3 – same as batch 2. but it took only 20mins and 30 secs to get to 211F. still looked like batch 2
all 3 were were sticking to the parchment paper after they were baked. i have a stainless steel pizza peel and have hard time sliding anything off of it. but this time the rolls even stuck to the parchment paper. i will try to oil the paper next time around.
George: Check your oven temp with something like http://bit.ly/czmco2 Sounds like your oven might be too hot.
hi jeff,
my oven is new and it gets calibrated each year i dont think that was the problem. they turned out great at 400F convection. My wife thought they were not salty enough and she is not a salt lover.
Hi George,
What brand of parchment are you using? If oiling the paper creates smoke in the oven, you may just want to dust it with a little cornmeal under the bun.
You can add more salt to the next batch to suit your tastes.
Thanks, Zoë
I’m thrilled that you have posted this recipe! I have made one batch and loved the results. However I was wondering instead of using the whites from 3 fresh eggs, can I use egg whites only that come in a carton? I hate wasting the yolks
Thank you!!
Anna: Wasn’t aware of an egg whites-only product, but it sounds fine…
Thanks for your quick response Jeff. I am referring to Egg Beaters 100% Whites and other similar brands. I will give it a try and let you know how it works.