September 13, 2020 - 3:42am
South-Tyrol (Alto-Adige in Italian) The Keiser roll
Hello, friends.In the past few weeks, I have made some very good progress with the tricky baguette shape. While there is still work to do, I am going to pause. I am sure part of my frustration and limitation, is the old leaky domestic gas oven. That being said, I will still be around, posting my progress on Keiser roll shaping! Thanks for all the positive feedback, it really is a morale booster!
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Maybe this fine young lad can school his Pop-Pop, on the finer points of the Karate chop!
Nice rolls Will, I like the knotted shaping you did, the baguettes opened up nicely at the scores too.
For many years I put off trying Norm's recipe for Kaiser Rolls. I've longed for the taste of the rolls of my childhood in Brooklyn but have been disappointed by any I've tried over the last 30 years, including the last 5 since I've become a Brooklyn resident again. I was inspired to finally try after seeing your post. After all, how many sourdough loaves can one person eat during Covid-19 isolation? I followed the recipe from Norm Berg & Stan Ginsberg's book, "Inside The Jewish Bakery" along with some advice that David Snyder posted 6/1/20. I used bread flour and accidentally didn't use Norm's suggestion of Light Enriched Vienna Dough, instead using Medium Enriched Vienna Dough. I watched several YouTube videos showing how to fold the dough and tried several different ones with my batch. Most look like they need plastic surgery but still made a yummy sandwich when I put the camera down!!
The flavor is right on but the crumb & crust need some tweaking. Next time I'll use AP as David recommends and the Light Enriched Vienna Dough as Norm recommends, which should result in a more cottony interior and thiner shattering crust. Of course it will take a lot more practice to get the folding of the dough into the pinwheel shape on top but even so they were delicious!! My late father was a pharmacist and had a luncheonette as part of his drugstore. Every day for decades he made the same sandwich for lunch: a schmear of sweet butter and a slab of halvah on a Kaiser Roll. I know, don't ask! Biting into that Kaiser today with a schmear of soft butter brought back beautiful memories. I highly recommend making them if you haven't before and experience a taste of old New York.
Norm's Kaiser Roll (1).jpg
Norm's Kaiser Rolls1 (1).jpg
Great minds think alike! I am using Norms recipe too! Thanks for the tips. What part of Brooklyn do you hail from? I am a Canarsie boy, through, and through! My first try at rolls I used the fermentation trick to make 6 soft dinner rolls and six kaiser rolls. It worked! I have also made the onion roll a few times. (The onion roll formula is the one norm shared on the open forum,not from the book)
When you meet someone, somewhere, and they say "hey I'm from Brooklyn too" the next question is always the same, "What high school did you go to?" That instantly clarifies which section of Bklyn you came from. I've had this experience in both North Carolina and Florida where I've lived. I'm 76 and back then we had far fewer exciting names for areas of Brooklyn. I grew up in Midwood then moved to Bensonhurst where I went to New Utrecht High School.
I owned/baked at a boutique bakery/cafe that I created in The Village of the Arts in Bradenton, FL from 1999-2012. Then I operated a "cottage law bakery" out of my house (newly built behind my former 1910 bakery/cafe) until moving back to Brooklyn in late 2015, When "Inside The Jewish Bakery" was published in 2011 we gleefully baked our way through most of the book, offering clients a chance to taste & rate the recipes. It was great fun for those of us from NYC and others who were interested in tasting & learning about ethnic history.
Norm's recipe for Onion Pockets (available at Jewish Dairy Restaurants) was always a big hit, especially when he shared how to rehydrate onions so they wouldn't burn in the oven. You can still find them here in Greenpoint, Bklyn known as Miami Beach Rolls. I've been around TFL for years and can't express enough how generous people have been about sharing recipes, support, experiences and joy. To me baking (and giving it away often) is loving.
I went to William E Grady, off the belt Pkway in Brighten Beach! Fond memories of playing handball with the old dudes at the beach, The beach itself, and the girls from the local H.S. Fights with the guys from the local H.S. in the coffee shop! (Grady was an all-boys trade school) However, I went to Bildersie J.H.S. Smile...