The heart of any good German breakfast...

I just got to spend a full 7 days with my family in Berlin. The time with them was sweet, and the week went by in a blink. Sometimes I wish I still lived close, so that saying Goodbye wouldn’t have to be painful and only mean that we would see each other again in a couple of weeks at the most, not several months.

We all had great fun, my mom turned 50 and got to share her special day with some close family and friends, dancing to 70's funk pop hits and eating Thai food.

And here I am, 2 days late with my post. Tired and jet lagged. I know it's no excuse, but in all honesty, nobody is perfect. And 2 days late is better than never, right? On the upside, I have yet to miss my weekly blog post this year - and that makes me pretty proud! 🙂

So German breakfast - I was fortunate enough to have it every single day during my stay. The stars of this iconic meal are crispy, little rolls, filled and garnished with seeds. Add a few pastries, breakfast eggs (boiled eggs in the shell with a runny yolk), a few sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and onions (yes, those onions are great on liverwurst!), and last but not least, a nice selection of sliced deli meats and cheeses, jams and Nutella, and there you got a perfect meal! Enjoy this recipe, which is a variation from Ken Forkish's recipe for a 60/40 overnight loaf, turning it into perfect little rolls using white wheat, buckwheat, rye and oat flours.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to my blog at the bottom of this post! ????❤️‍❤️‍

Ingredients for 10 rolls:

(I used Ken Forkish's recipe for "Overnight 40% Whole Wheat Bread and made a few alterations; start this recipe around noon the day before you want to have fresh baked bread in the morning)

• 300g or 2 ⅓ c of white flour
• 75g or ⅔ c of oat flour
• 75g or ⅔ c of rye flour
• 50g of ½ c of buckwheat flour
• 11g or 2 teaspoon of fine sea salt
• 2g or ½ teaspoon of instant dried yeast
• 2 tablespoon golden flax seeds
• 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
• ½ c pumpkin seeds
• ½ c sunflower seeds
• 1 egg white

Method:

1. Mix the flours and add 400ml of 90 to 95 degree water (or 13.5 oz), mix with fork just until incorporated. Cover and rest for 20 to 30 mins.
2. Sprinkle the salt and yeast evenly over the top of the dough. Mix by hand, wetting working hand as needed to not stick. Reach underneath the dough and grab about one-quarter of it, stretch it and fold it over the top of the other side of the dough. Repeat 3 more times until yeast and salt are fully incorporated.
3. Add the flax seed, sesame seed and a ¼ of each the pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and fold over a couple more times.
4. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise.
5. The dough needs to be "folded" 3 or 4 times in the first 2 hours. Here is a video that helps you understand this process.
6. Cover the dough completely with plastic foil and refrigerate overnight (between 12 to 14 hours). This is called proofing, or the final rising stage.
7. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees at least 1 hour before baking. Place baking stone on a rack in the middle and a baking pan filled with lava rocks on a rack on the bottom. Add the pan with the rolled up, soaked dishtowels 20 minutes before baking.
8. Cover a pizza peel with parchment paper.
9. Take the dough out of the fridge and transfer onto a floured surface.
10. Divide the dough into 10 equally sized pieces and carefully shape into little balls. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
11. Score each roll with a cross cut as shown in the pictures. This will allow the dough to rise and expand in those areas.
12. Whisk egg white with 1 tablespoon of water.
13. Place remaining pumpkin and sunflower seeds in 2 separate bowls. Brush some egg on the top side of each roll. Dip the top of each roll in the pumpkin seeds and the bottom in the sunflower seeds. Place onto the parchment paper (you may want to bake these in 2 rounds).
14. When ready to bake, pour one cup of water over the lava rocks (make sure they are in a metal dish, not glass!), move the rolls from the peel onto the baking stone (including the parchment paper), and spray the oven with water about 5 times.
15. Spray again once in the first 5 minutes, then finish baking for another 15 minutes.
16. Remove the rolls and transfer to a cooling rack. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before eating.
17. Guten Appetit!