Kaiser rolls – Császárzsemle

by | Jul 6, 2016 | Breads, buns & biscuits

Kaiser roll is a crusty round bread roll, originally from Austria, but due to those 51 years our country spent in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this bakery product often appears on the Hungarian dining tables as well. Kaiser rolls are thought to have been named to honor Emperor (Kaiser) Franz Joseph I of Austria, but according to other interpretations the word kaiser comes from the name of a baker called Kayser, who was the supposed contriver of these embellished buns.

Kaiser roll’s typical feature is that the top of the bread rolls is divided in a symmetric pattern of five segments, separated by curved superficial cuts radiating from the centre outwards. The easiest way to make this decoration is to use a special kaiser roll stamp, however, if you don’t have that utensil (and seriously, who has it?), there’s a fancy shaping technique that you have to use to get that little nub on top of the roll.

Kaiser rolls are made from all-purpose flour, which has lower gluten content and tend to make drier, more crumbly bread rolls; in order to improve the quality of the flour I also add gluten to the flour. Gluten absorbs moisture and adds elasticity making the finished product light and fluffy.

Kaiser rolls
Kaiser rolls – photo: zserbo.com
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1 Comment

Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Wish list

If you are looking for a Hungarian recipe that hasn't been published on this website yet, let me know, and I'll do my best to post it.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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